Day 40--Sand Lake National Wildlife Reserve...Excellent birding!

Ruth finally had to admit  that there WERE Pheasants in South Dakota and that this WAS the Capital for Pheasants in the world. She started counting them to make sure we saw a few, but eventually stopped counting them as we saw so many of them.

This one walked right across the road in front of the truck.

The one that was strange was this one which lay down on the road and didn't move for a while.

Sand Lake  is a National Wildlife Refuge  that is mostly mud flats and a huge lake in the middle. These are shallow lakes so they have to be kept at water levels that allow the birds to feed and use the habitat. This day they were adding water from the Jmes River which it is in the middle  of.  We drove around the perimeter, which is norally 15.5 miles , but because of a road that had washed out it ended up being 37 miles, including a large add on on the northern end. Birding was supurb with many Bald Eagles and hawks beig seen along with huge flock of White Pelicans and some 200 or so Snow Geese that still were there.

Our total for the day was 54 species which is the second highest daily total on the trip.  On the Refuge alone we netted 37 species.  It is a dynamic place and we were the only ones there today. 

White Pelicans were in two large groups. 

The Snow Geese are behind the 100,000 that have already left the area for the north.

A remarkable group of birds are these Yellow Headed Blackbirds, a more westerly bird. They, too were getting ready to head north in a large flock. We saw them three times today.

Many of the farmers were out in their fields readying the fields for the growing season. Wheat and corn was being planted, and corn stalks were being cut and stored for silage.  The equipment today is unbelievable and enormous in size.  Here are a few of the machines we saw.

A machine that wraps the silage  after the roll is placed on it. 

Some are inserted in a continuous roll and wrapped as they are added to the roll.

                                                                        A tiller and  shallow plow that prepares the 

                                                                           soil for planting. It is about 30 feet wide.

This is an amazing, air driven seed planter, that opens the soil,
plants the seed and covers it up afterwards all in one operation.

                                        A corn cutter that turns a stalk of corn (totally)
                                         into silage for cattle to use. It puts it into a wagon "bin".

Yep. Learned a lot today about birds and farming. See ya tomorrow.