Date: 10/17/26 10:09 am From: Vic Fondy via groups.io <treasurecreek...> Subject: [sd-birds] Trip to Belle Fourche Reservoir and Whitewood sightings
We birded backroads Friday 10/16 to Bear Butte Lake then to Nisland, Belle Fourche Reservoir and Crooked Oaks and backroads back to Whitewood. Good weather but poor birding and only 24 species. Bear Butte Lake is about 70 percent land and 30 percent water and the South gate is closed. The Belle Fourche Reservoir is 17 feet below full with the water area quite distant from the shore. Irrigation has ceased and the canals are dry. There was waterfowl out in the water area but too far out to safely identify. Our birds of the day were migrating hawks. We counted 10 Red-tailed Hawks, one large flock of Swainson's Hawks near Bear Butte Lake, one Northern Harrier, and one American Kestrel. Other sightings of interest included American White Pelicans, DC Cormorants, one late Belted Kingfisher, Wood Ducks, and clouds of European Starlings in the hundreds or thousands. Sparrows were limited to Chipping and White-crowned.
At our feeders 1.5 south of Whitewood, some of the species may have migrated south. Last sighting of Spotted Towhee was 10/9, American Goldfinch 10/5, and Mourning Dove 10/15. We still have lots of the winter resident birds but no new species.
