Listing Through Life

About halfway along our drive through the Badlands, we happened upon three Bighorn Sheep grazing right along the road. I pulled off and took a Red Chair photo, then walked back along the road to get some other shots. I spotted several others in a gully and a few scrambling about on the face of the cliffs.

The main reason we drove along the dirt Sage Creek Road in the Badlands was to see this prairie dog town. We didn’t know there was another town along the paved road in the other direction.

There are at least three identifiable prairie dogs in the above photo. One is crouching on its mound just above the chair seat about even with the top of the chair. The other two are in the extreme upper right. You can also identify several piles made by buffalo. The town was huge, extending for about half a mile along the road and out into the field at least to the ridge in the middle distance.

The prairie dog in these photos was about six feet off the road. He was a bit nervous when we stopped the car nearby and took pictures out the window, but he didn’t disappear — until I got out and pulled out the chair.

buteo (hawk) regalis (regal, king)

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Badlands National Park, South Dakota — Sage Creek Road

My wife and I were driving the roads through the park, seeing what there was to see. I knew the Ferruginous Hawk was a possibility on this trip, so I had half an eye open for it. We stopped at Roberts prairie dog town (named, I think, for a family that used to ranch in the area) and I walked out into the field to see if I could get a photo of the Red Chair with prairie dogs.

A large hawk suddenly appeared off to the west, flying low. It was about 100 yards off, but I could see it well enough to get excited. I didn’t have my binoculars — they were in their case in my briefcase in the closed trunk of my car 30 feet behind me. I zoomed my camera all the way and took picture after picture as it quartered over the prairie dog town. Ferruginous Hawks eat prairie dogs, so I’m sure it was hunting.

The hawk wasn’t as close to the prairie dog as this photo makes it look. If you click on the two photos after this one, you can compare the size of the bird to the size of the prairie dogs nearby.

Even from a distance through the viewfinder of my camera, I could tell it was a very pretty bird. Too bad it got saddled with a clunky name. “Ferruginous” means “reddish brown, rust-colored.”

OK, I know this next shot isn’t impressive on any level. But it’s the first time I’ve ever gotten the Red Chair into a photograph with a lifer (however distant and unidentifiable).

After I took that shot, I ran for the car to get my binoculars, but I couldn’t find the hawk again.

After we entered Badlands National Park, we headed west on Sage Creek Road. We hadn’t gone far before we spotted this bison right along the road.

It seemed inclined to stick around, so I got out of the car. It paid no attention. I walked around to the back of the car. It paid no attention. I pulled the Red Chair out of the trunk and it immediately began walking away. This started a trend I noticed all week — animals didn’t mind the car, didn’t even mind me outside the car, but when I pulled out the chair, they took off. Still, I got a pretty good shot.

This photo wasn’t as dangerous as it looks. My car was two feet to my left.

The only genetically-pure American Bison herd on government lands is the one at Yellowstone National Park. That herd is also the only one in the United States that has always run wild. The herd at the Badlands (which is fenced in and culled regularly) has some cattle blood mixed in. So this is really just a mostly-bison.