Date: 11/8/24 5:53 pm From: Vic Fondy via groups.io <treasurecreek...> Subject: [sd-birds] WW to Harding County and Return
We took advantage of the very nice weather today and birded from Whitewood on the valley Rd to St. Onge-Crooked Oaks Rd-East BF Reservoir-Old85/Harding Rd-Collins Rd to Camp Crook Rd and return via Camp Crook Rd-upper MDU-US 85 and to WW. Raptors were the bird of the day with a total of 54 raptors including 1 Golden Eagle, 2 Prairie Falcon, 2 American Kestrel, 2 Northern Harrier, 1 Red-tailed Hawk, 33 Rough-legged, 7 Ferruginous, and 6 unidentified large hawks. The vast majority of the hawks were on old 85 for about the first 15 miles. Other sightings included 2 Great-horned Owls at the upper MDU walk-in, one flock of Canada Geese. a few Western Meadowlarks, 1 Lewis's Woodpecker, and numerous small flocks of Horned Larks. All small ponds were frozen over and we had no duck or waterbird sightings. There were also 150+ Antelope feeding in the fields north of Arpan.
We have had a few new sightings passing thru at our feeders 1.5 mile south of Whitewood. Sightings include a flock of 10 American Goldfinch and 10 Pine Siskins passing thru, and 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk. The Black-headed Grosbeak was still here as of 11/7 and Magpies/Crows are still feeding on the road-killed deer carcass across the creek, but no mountain lion sightings.
