Oh my … I may take the other highway / birding road in life, but apparently I forget to include a key image in that story (now updated in the original post). For my loyal subscribers, here’s Gettysburg, South Dakota … via the “other highway“).

Do you bird, or take the other highway in life? Sometimes it’s better to not be in a rush and take the “other road/option”. Once again I find myself at South Dakota’s National Grasslands, but how did I get here? Like most folks these days I loaded my origin and destination into Google Maps, and my route was fixed. But wait!!!  There are always options. While Google tends to push the shortest route in terms of time on the road, this option almost always puts you on our national interstate highway system. Boring!

I created a route which specifically avoided I-90. It is very easy to do within Google Maps. The user need only add an intermediate stop which forces Google to avoid the interstate highways. I do this all the time to try out routes that I want to investigate. I never really stop at the “Google intermediate locations”

Having written all of this … my birding route in South Dakota started near Watertown where I had overnighted. This allowed me to begin my morning drive as the sun popped over the horizon, and the sun was directly behind me as I drove west. ALL the photographs accompanying this post were taken along my route … a secondary South Dakota highway most of the way. The birds were not at eBird hotspots or known birding spots … just located directly along my path.

My route also took my through “the other Gettysburg”. I love small towns!

Swainson’s Hawk

White Pelican Sunrise Reflections

American Avocets in a Farm Field

Yellow-Headed Blackbirds (roadside wetlands … final pic is a juvenile)

All good thinks must come to an end, including my 3 day trip to the Fort Pierre National Grasslands, but I will return!!! This post has 3 “bird lifers”, amazing bird song, and even antelope! After all … the range … where the deer & antelope play! Listen to Roy Rodgers sing Home on the Range via Youtube!

Normally I do not repost a video, but my sunrise drive to a Prairie Dog Town with Meadow Larks singing every inch of the way needs to be combined with my Western Meadowlarks photos and video. Enjoy.

Sunrise Drive with Meadowlark Song (video link for email subscribers)

Western Meadowlark Singing its Heart Out (video link for email subscribers)

Western Meadowlark & Prairie Dog Images (same bird as in video)

Remember … find a Prairie Dog Town and you will likely also find Burrowing Owls. While a few owls may be perched outside their burrows throughout the day, in the evening all the Burrowing Owls will appear as the day creeps towards sunset.

Given my featuring Roy Rodgers and the song, Home on the Range, here are the Antelope … at sunrise and sunset.

And now some birding lifers for me! The most dramatic was the Lark Bunting (Cornell link) I saw the bunting my first evening while birding in the Grasslands, and thought it was both beautiful and dramatic, but I could not get in place for a photograph. Later that evening I googled the phrases “black grosbeak” and “black bunting”, and I struck gold with “black bunting”. Eventually I learned the Lark Buntings were most likely to come out of the grasses and sing by the roadside during the early evening. I was waiting!

Lark Bunting

Prairie Chicken (a kind of grouse)

Western Cowbird (I had just never before chosen to photograph a Cowbird. This bird has a well known trait of always laying its eggs in the nest of other species and relying upon that bird to raise its young.)

I’ll end this post with two birds … the Marbled Godwit and Dickcissels singing out at sunset. I had considered myself very lucky when two Marbled Godwits flew over from a distant wetlands and landed on the road right in front of me. Through research later I learned that Godwits nest in grasses distant from the wetlands where they feed, and apparently I had inadvertently started birding near their hidden nest. The godwits were most definitely not pleased with me. I exited the scene. Sorry.

And many Dickcissels were singing out at the side of the last dirt road as I finished my evening birding Wednesday. This was a great way to end a fantastic trip.