Saturday 6 August 2011

Heading North

Just arrived in Minot, North Dakota. Really impressed with the Black Hills region of South Dakota, and had a great time at Mount Rushmore.




We unwittingly found ourselves in the middle of the annual Harley Davidson pilgrimage to Sturgis. Amazing sight of thousands of bikes cruising the highways...COOL!



Managed, eventually, to get decent views of Chesnut-collared and McCown's Longspurs on the Prairie. Out looking for Baird's Sparrow and Gray Partridge today...

1 comment:

Mo said...

Hello Alan,

Hmmmm, you're coming from Minot, any specific reason you are taking 94 across Montana? You could stay north and travel what is called the Highline. Won't run into but a few towns, but what you find will give you an idea of rural Montana which is the major geographical representation of Big Sky Country. Unless of course you want to visit Miles City, Billings, Bozeman, perhaps a stop in Yellowstone then on to Missoula? Anyway, as to your question about Longspur sightings. I have not confirmed this with a good pair of binocs but I believe at one of my research sites near Sidney, MT I believe that I have been seeing a female Chestnut-collared Longpur. My id is based on tail pattern seen at a close distance with the naked eye. I visit that site tomorrow and could bring my good binos to see if I can relocate her. It's an agricultural research site and has been disturbed a lot in the past month. When do you leave Minot? You could drive southwest, end up in Sidney and out of Sidney either take the High Line west or or drop south and catch 94.

Mo O'Mara