South Dakota Sparrow Weekend, part deux

I have just a few more pictures I want to share from my sparrow workshop weekend in South Dakota. The weekend was structured so that we would spend time out in the field looking at sparrows for a few hours, then go back for classroom time, hearing about habitat, field marks, songs and migration. This was repeated through-out the whole weekend and I found it to be a very effective way for me to learn. Fortunately the group dynamics were very positive and supportive as we were all coming from different levels of experience. The beautiful LeConte's Sparrow was my first lifer sparrow. The second was a Vesper Sparrow (sorry, no pictures). Another lifer for the weekend were these Western Meadowlarks. There were Western Meadowlarks on nearly every hay bale we saw.
The views of the prairie were stunning. I found myself on more than one occasion needing to hurry along to keep up with the group.
Trying to memorize the colors, the feel of the wind on my face and the sounds of the whispering grasses...
This ranch has the largest remaining tract of native tallgrass prairie left in North America. The views were spectacular and made me feel quite small.

We're off again- this time driving across the fields.
A fence full of Savannah Sparrows, all facing into the wind.


A closer view of a Savannah Sparrow. Yellow lores and streaking over a white breast.
Another stop brought us to the Blue Cloud Abbey. Blue Cloud Abbey is a Benedictine male monastery located on a hill overlooking the vast prairie a few miles from Milbank. We were there to spend some time checking out the Chipping Sparrows that hang out in the tall pines along the entrance road. Being early October it was a good opportunity to see and compare immature Chipping Sparrows and winter adult Chipping Sparrows. After breeding season, Chippies lose their characteristic rusty cap for a streaky cap. Immature Chippies have a very streaky breast. I didn't give the Chipping Sparrows my full attention. I was thinking of another Minnesota birder/blogger, Ivars from Ivars' Birds. Ivars has been such a tremendous help to me along my path of trying to improve my photography skills. Blue Cloud Abbey is an important place to Ivars and I wanted to take in some of what he sees. I hope to go back and visit Blue Cloud Abbey again.
This sparrow workshop was a terrific learning experience for me. I've always love the little brown birds and now I feel a new confidence in identifying them in the field. I enjoyed the company of the group. Don't we look like a happy bunch of sparrow stalkers? The class leaders are in front: Bob Janssen and Doug Buri, and I'm behind the camera.

It was a big weekend for lifers:

Northern Shoveler

Gray Partridge

Sharp-tailed Grouse

Greater Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Pectoral Sandpiper

Orange-crowned Warbler

Vesper Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

LeConte's Sparrow

Western Meadowlark

We counted a total of sixty-two species of birds over the weekend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My materials for Cape May Autumn Weekend came over the weekend. I leave in ELEVEN days!

Kathi- did you see there's a sparrow class there?

Tomorrow I'll finally finish re-writing my sparrow notes, then it's time to get out the raptor books. I don't want to look like a total raptor knuckle-head.

It's time for some serious packing...