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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edward" data-source="post: 1284149" data-attributes="member: 822">Tuesday 3 JuneUp again before dawn and we drove west towards the Montana border, passing through Rhame and turning north just before Marmarth. Our target in this area was Greater Sage-grouse and a well known lek in the area. We found the area of the lek but no sign of the birds at all, perhaps a little late in the year for them? The area, a mixture of prairie, sage brush and badland held a Swainson's Hawk, a Red-tailed Hawk, Lark Bunting, Western Meadowlark, Horned Lark, a Field Sparrow and three Upland Sandpipers. We then headed back through Marmarth, a town with real character but which, judging by the grand, derelict buildings on the Main Street, has certainly seen better days, and turned south, crossing the Little Missouri and stopping for the trip's sole Belted Kingfisher on wires above the river. A few miles south we tried again for the sage-grouse but saw or heard nothing, but the sage brush did produce at least one Brewer's Sparrow and many Vesper Sparrows and good views of Pronghorns. We also came across only the second group of birders we encountered on the trip, Ric and Betty Zarwell from Iowa and their friend Ximin Wang from China. They too had failed to find any sage-grouse. Our main reason for heading down to this corner of the state was to try to see McCown's Longspur. A couple of months before my departure I sent a mail to Corey Ellingsen via the North Dakota Birding Association website asking if it were possible to see this species in the state. Corey very kindly sent me a photocopy of a map and detailed instructions by mail of where to look for this species. He warned me that approaching the site from the west (Marmarth) could be difficult as it required a causeway crossing of the Little Missouri, impassable after rain. As it was the water was very low and we thought we could take a shortcut to the longspur site, but about a mile from our destination roadworks closed the road, necessitating a 30 mile detour back through Marmarth and Rhame – frustrating (if we had known the area we could have in fact taken another, shorter route, but we didn't)! Still it meant that we got to see a bit more of the Rhame Prairie and not far from our destination we stopped sharply for another raptor; I was out of the car almost before it had stopped (and I was driving!) as I knew what it was – a magnificent Ferruginous Hawk at last. We watched this most majestic buteo circle above us until it disappeared high into the sun, magic. A combination of Corey's map, his instructions and the GPS got us to our goal, a small grassy hill in the middle of a small valley, a site well known to North Dakotan birders as one of the most easterly spots in the US for McCown's Longspur. Directions to this site are given in Martin & Svingen but if I were going again I’d drive south from Marmarth along Crook Camp Road and after about eighteen miles, or about half of a mile after passing a sign to the right (west) for Big Gumbo Management Area Road, turn left (east) where the road soon passes over a causeway over the Little Missouri (impassable if river is high). Keep driving east for three miles until you reach a T-junction, with a farm north of the road. The small hill for the McCown's Longspurs is immediately south-east of here. After getting permission from the friendly farmer to go on his land we walked across the grasslands towards the hill, noting that Horned Lark was very common. Around the base of the hill Chestnut-collared Longspur was also common and performing its display flight above us. It really is a stunner. And further up the hill another bird with a black and white tail was hanging in the air and pouring out its song above the grasslands, McCown's Longspur, my most wanted bird of the trip. There were several singing males in the area, and seeing two species of longspur, Horned Larks and Lark Buntings displaying side by side on this beautiful prairie was perhaps the highlight of the whole trip for me, just fantastically atmospheric. About half a mile from the hill was an eroded gully and we thought we'd have a look in it, finding a Chestnut-collared Longspur's nest with three eggs en route. No sooner had reached the bottom of the gully than we saw the bird we'd scrambled down for, a pair of Rock Wrens and a single Say's Phoebe. Back at the base of the hill we met Ric, Betty and Ximin again. They had just found a McCown's Longspur nest with four young but had yet to see a Ferruginous Hawk. Two minutes later panic ensued in the prairie dog town as a Ferruginous Hawk stooped and then landed 150 metres away and sat nonchalantly for a few minutes before lifting off and disappearing out of sight. Ric then mentioned that they'd seen a Long-billed Curlew not too far way so we followed them for about five miles and saw two Long-billed Curlews and two chicks in a roadside field a few miles south of Rhame. We were rather reluctant to leave this remote yet beautiful corner of North Dakota but time was again running out and we had a long way to go before nightfall. Slightly east of Bismarck we made a short stop at Long Lake, obviously a great site if you have more time. In fading daylight we saw lots of Western Grebes (couldn't find Clark's) and Eared Grebes, our first Forster's Terns, several Common Terns, abundant Black Terns, Franklin's Gull, American White Pelican and a selection of waders including Semipalmated Sandpiper, Dunlin, Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, Western Willet, Spotted Sandpiper and Wilson's Phalarope. This area must be a goldmine in spring or late summer but as it was we weren't at a great time for shorebird passage. The trees held a male Tennessee Warbler and a Brown Thrasher, we found only our second Purple Martin colony and a Short-eared Owl drifted over the marshes before we headed back on to the Interstate for a very dull evening drive to West Fargo where we stopped for the night.1. Ferruginous Hawk on the Rhame Prairie2. Western Meadowlark, incredibly common in North Dakota3. Pronghorns on the Rhame Prairie4. Northern Harrier, the most common raptor on our trip5. Rock Wren, one of a pair on the Rhame Prairie</blockquote>

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