Our next North Dakota stop somewhere in the middle of the hill and pothole strewn prairie was
the Audubon National Wildlife Refuge.
The refuge was originally named Snake Creek NWR but was renamed Audubon NWR in 1967 to honor John James Audubon, one of the great naturalists and wildlife painters of the 19th century. Audubon spent the summer of 1843 near this refuge's area collecting bird specimens and painting pictures of northern plains wildlife.
Upon beginning the auto tour route we were struck not only with the expanse of the prairies but also the amount of water.
Like others, this refuge allows cattle grazing and on this warm day this group was very thankful to share this watering hole with a bunch of birds.
One of the first things we spotted was this gorgeous butterfly - Nymphalis milberti -
the Milbert's Tortoiseshell.
In this little section of water we spotted
five or six beaver swimming and splashing about.
We enjoyed watching them for a while
before moving on down the road.
Just down the way we got a pretty decent shot of the now very familiar American White Pelican.
This Mayfly found its way into the van but when Nicole tried to release it the thing just hung on and kept making googlie eyes at her.
The scenery was quite pretty with hills and some sections of the land carved out by the water.
This mama Orchard Oriole
was kept busy feeding a nest of little ones.
We stopped along the road with a view of the water to eat some lunch and to see what turned up.
This little booger was the first. We believe he is a Weasel though Mink is still on the table as a possibility. Either way, he sure was cute to watch!
Next up, this Sharp-tailed Grouse came out to run around.
It was a warm day so Darlene had put a sun shade up on the side window while we ate. Suddenly she heard a snorting sound and took the shade down to find
a deer that was not too happy seeing a big blue and silver 'animal' in her territory. Just look at those flared nostrils!
One of the neatest things at this refuge is all of the islands. Not something we had even considered we'd see in the middle of North Dakota.
The islands that you see are actually the top of hilltops on land that was once grazed by livestock or farmed. When the refuge took the land over in the 50's they let the water level raise to create a breeding and migration area for waterfowl.
North Dakota ROCKS!
Ah.... Mourning Doves.
This island has become the hotspot for nesting Cormorants.
We've not seen such high numbers of them before.
You can also see the heavy smoke from western wildfires that we had started to encounter upon entering North Dakota.
This gull nearly flew out of the frame before we could snap it.
We are getting 'up there' in terms of north but still it is strange to start seeing the colors of fall.
Back at the visitor center we walked around and looked at their flower garden.
There we saw this beautiful Gray Hairstreak Butterfly - Strymon melinus.
He was fresh and new as indicated by his very long and unbroken tails and he gave us a brief glimpse of his darker gray top-wing coloring.
We also spotted this Crambus albellus - Small White Grass-Veneer Moth,
this Tachinid Fly
and this tiny Hover Fly.
It was soon time to move on down the road to our boondocking spot for the next few days. When we arrived to the spot by the water though we were disappointed to learn that, despite multiple web checks by both of us that did not indicate any closures, this particular spot was now closed to camping on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. And, it was Wednesday. We understand though as rules such as this do reduce impact somewhat, prevent overuse and extended misuse.
Before we ventured off to find another spot to spend the evening Nicole spotted some butterflies flittering about on the side of the road.
The Melissa Blue and the Northern Blue are nearly identical and difficult to distinguish with one strong exception; their ranges do not cross. Therefore, Nicole was very excited to discover that this would be a Melissa Blue (Lycaeides melissa). She would be even more excited if she could confirm that it was the subspecies Karner (which is on the Federal Endangered Species list) but again that is extremely difficult to tell. So, for now, we'll settle with and happily end this post with the LIFER of Melissa Blue.
