Following our stay in the experimental forest we toured three more Wildlife Refuges in North Dakota. It was still a bit warm during the daytime and we were not visiting during a high migration period so sightings were somewhat limited. However, as usual, we enjoyed the drives as they get us off of the main road, allow stops and permit us to view and take it all in at our own pace.
First up was J Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge.
We hadn't even left the visitor center parking lot when these two crawled up.
Ambystoma mavortium - the Western Tiger Salamander
Not sure we expected to see such a thing in North Dakota. We were both a bit surprised to have such a neat sighting.
As we approached the auto tour route we spotted a couple of young Red-tailed Hawks.
J. Clark has two auto tour drives. One that is twenty two miles long and another that is five. We opted for the 22 mile long drive.
Right away we started seeing ponds loaded with birds - meaning, we knew they were birds but identifying them at this distance was difficult for us.
Best we could tell we had lots of Coots, Pied-billed and Eared Grebe and various Ducks.
Some of the water was dried up but we spotted a few Killdeer running around feeding in the mud.
Birds. Birds. Birds!
We managed a slightly closer sighting of a White-faced Ibis
and enjoyed lots of open prairie views.
We had spotted several Red Admiral Butterflies over the last few weeks but until now they eluded our camera.
The Vanessa atalanta is a beautiful butterfly.
We spotted this little dog who also spotted us.
As we continued to drive we came up on a small body of water that seemed to have a lot of movement in it.
**NOTE of Correction: We should point out that a couple of posts back we stated that we had seen Beaver at the Audubon NWR. As one reader pointed out however this was a prairie region and very few trees are in that area. Therefore, the critters we saw were more likely to be Nutria than Beaver. **
We saw this cute pair (a mama and baby Nutria) and several others swimming
and enjoying some snacks pond-side.
There were so many dark figures with long tails running around and swimming in this area
that it wasn't until we got these on the computer that we realized this little one was not a Nutria.
It is a tough ID without better photos but in looking at all of the ones we snapped we are going with American Mink for this little fella.
On the last leg of our drive through J. Clark Salyer NWR we also spotted some Fritillary Butterflies.
It appears that we have a female Aphrodite Fritillary Butterfly here.
This one too is an Aphrodite Fritillary - Speyeria aphrodite. The differences within the same species can sure make things confusing.
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Next up, a drive through Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge.
We are not sure what possessed us to add a drive to and through Des Lacs NWR to the already long day at J. Clark Salyer but we did.
It is also possible that we were very tired by this point and we may or may not have driven the entire nineteen mile route. We really do not know. Either way, from what we did see, it was a nice drive and the first one that we have done in the early evening. So, the temperature was quite pleasant.
Solitary Sandpiper - living up to its name...
It was nice to see the beautiful Cedar Waxwing Bird again and to get a pretty decent photo.
Some of this drive was down more at water level and some of it was quite high above. So, spotting birds and other critters was not always easy.
A Western Grebe - LIFER! We spotted him from way up high and for only seconds before he went underwater and did not surface in our view again.
As we said, we are not sure we did the whole drive at Des Lacs. Later we thought that somehow we might have entered at the wrong point. So, not too many sightings but an enjoyable evening in a beautiful area none-the-less.
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Last up on our wildlife refuge triple play is Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge.
A nice scenic start.
Before we even reached the visitor center we spotted a male Northern Harrier. We have seen a lot of females before but this is our first male sighting. Some have nicknamed them the 'gray ghost'.
The beautiful trend of wide open prairie grasslands and potholes full of water continues!
We were being watched.
Spotted a good sized nest with 'guardian' just above and then headed out of the refuge.
Although we did not see a lot of new things at these three refuges we did enjoy our drives through them. Time to move on down the road. Until next time...