Date: 2/5/26 7:29 pm From: Michael M. Melius via groups.io <pingothenbingo...> Subject: Re: [sd-birds] beginning of migration??
I had a similar experience on the 3rd, here in the SW corner of the state,
seeing a couple small flocks flying north. Horned Larks are usually scarce
in the winter until February, then suddenly, here they come! I think I also
saw two along Lower Spring Creek Road that already were on breeding
grounds. A good year to search for the earliest-ever nest record, perhaps.
Elsewhere along that creek, nests in a small heron rookery blew away,
completely, in the mid-December wind storm. There were six or so, used just
a couple years--a marginal place for herons. High in a rather spindly
cottonwood. Anyway, I'd observed a Golden Eagle perched in that tree twice
last fall, so was really looking forward to watching it build a nest there.
It's over a quarter mile from the road. It can find a better site, I
suppose.
A large rookery along French Creek near Hwy. 79 was apparently reduced by
the windstorm, as well.
Michael Melius
Folsom
On Wed, Feb 4, 2026 at 8:44 PM N Drilling via groups.io <dril0008=
<gmail.com...> wrote:
> The past three days, I have been seeing a lot of small flocks of Horned
> Larks in Day County. Some winters, the larks never leave, but this winter,
> they disappeared in late December. It seems they may be coming back. And as
> a result of more small birds out there, I am suddenly seeing the small
> raptors that eat them - Sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks and Merlins -
> cruising low over the corn stubble and plowed bean fields.
>
> Nancy Drilling
> Rapid City/Aberdeen
>
>
>
