We had planned to travel the 50 miles to the Boyer Chutes NWR even though we were told at DeSoto that it had been damaged by the floods on the Missouri River in 2011. The infrastructure was destroyed so there was no more visitor center or information booth at all.
The morning was very foggy so we delayed a little while to allow the air to heat some before starting out on the highway with all the trucks. I-80 is still a mainline out here. We packed a lunch so if we did see some things of interest and the weather held, we would be ready. In the National Wildlife Reserves (NWR) there are no fast food places, let alone any kind of food distribution or sales at all. Thank God for that! But then you might have known that. We always take a lunch unless we plan ahead not to need one. It is carried in a small but reliable, red, hard sided cooler that holds one ice pack nicely and enough room for an adequate lunch. Ruth likes a lot of fruit and I love a sandwich and fruit with drinks that works well for the cooler. Hey, last night we had DQ, as the Dairy Queeen is just at the end of the campground! But, I digress!
is the channel across the peninsula.
The fog, by the time we drove down off the Loess Hills* (see later note), had pretty much stretched out to 2 miles or so. When we crossed the Missouri River (Boyer Chutes is in Nebraska) there was no fog at all. The route to the Reserve was in a circle if you will, as we went west, south, west, north, east and finally south again to get there. The closer we got to the Reserve the more we could see that there was a lot of residual water and mud, and at the entry was a big sign that said "No entry on this road". We knew that as the ranger at DeSoto had told us about it and gave us a revised map.
So, we took the only road to follow which went due south to the Missouri River. It was very quiet, and with the steady rain (not that hard) few birds were out. We did find two deer in different places on the side of the road and watched them scamper along in front of us. Five turkeys crossed the road like they owned it. Eventually Ruth spotted a "big bird" in a dead tree spar. She thought it was a Bald eagle, but it was very dark and against the rainy and cloudy sky it looked even darker up there in the top branches of the bare tree. But, after some looking with the binoculars, we determined that indeed it was a Bald Eagle. We considered that that was worth the morning all by itself, but it wasn't over yet.
Notice how dark this young Bald Eagle is even
without the poorly lighted sky
We drove to the end of the road where there was a turnaround and headed back to the entrance. Of course we watched that same tree for the Eagle on the way out. Ruth again spotted another "large bird" but smaller than the Eagle. The sky made it very difficult to see color on the birds, but we stopped and I carfully opened the driver's door (no cars in the park) and got my binoculars on it. A distinct white patch along side the eyes and it's shape and size eliminated some species. After some searching and comparing we determined (and agreed) that it was a Prairie Falcon. Upon watching it fly the shape and design of the wings confirmed that choice. This was an entrely new species for us as we had not seen it before .
So even though the day was wet, cloudy and devoid of the smaller birds we latched onto some excellent species. Along with them, we did see some Kestrals, and two large flocks that we believe were migrating birds. The one was in the campground and were 15 Killdeer that used the habitat in the campground for feed. They have been there two days now. The other flock was in the Reserve where we saw the largest flock of Northern Flickers we had ever seen. About 25-30 of them feeding along side of the road in the Reserve. What a treat! Hard to see even one of those back home.
A Little Blue Heron, a Great Egret, some Barn Swallows and a Blue Jay added to the total for the day. Only 14 birds, but some quality sightings for us.
We returned to the trailer where we spent that afternoon and caught up on mail, picture entries and sorting the picures. The total of pictures taken today was about 125. A wonderful supper of red skin potatoes and fried onions with sauerkraut and turkey ended the day. Can't beat that when on the road.
The rain is gone and the north wind doth blow! Catch you tomorrow when we will return to DeSoto NWR and I will enter a full report about that Reserve.
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