Day 97, Sunday July 8, 2018 . Took the back roads to see "little tiny" NWR's.

AS A REMINDER TO VIEWERS; IF YOU CLICK ON THE PHOTO IT WILL ENLARGE AND YOU CAN SCROLL WITH YOUR ARROWS.

In the history of the National Wildlife Refuges, many of them have huge dimensions and contain 35,000 to 60,000 acres or more. Today we visited two of them that in truth are "postage stamp"in size especially when compared to those larger ones. In North Dakota (which has MORE NWR's than any other state), the three we saw previously were all more than 30,000 acres.

These two are located only about 10 miles apart and certainly are on the "back roads" of North Dakota  some 50 miles south and east of Minot, and accessible only if you "go " there.  That is ,you must go  "off" the main roads. The two are;  Cottonwood Lake NWR and Wintering River NWR.  The former is one that the Fish and Wildlife Service are "delisting" as the environment and habitat can no longer survive the changes in the structure that has taken place .It is mainly now a fishing lake with some hunting in the fall.

Cottonwood Lake NWR is mostly a lake. We found little bird activity there.

On the other hand, Wintering River NWR is difficult to  access  and is two miles down a "two track" road  with no signage telling anyone where it is. (My research was on the internet so it pinpointed the spot and road.) We were surprised to see that 36th Avenue was a two track road leading up to it. It is a beautiful, (albeit) small, marsh and lake hidden from the two track by a large hill (see photos)

From the two track this hill is what you see of the Wintering River NWR.

At the top of the hill is this view of the lake and the marsh.

The marsh is huge and one of the largest , continuous marshes that we saw.

This is the two mile long "two track" that leads to the Wintering R. NWR

Ruth took time, as did I , to take a few "fun "photos along the way. The entire day saw us drive 106 miles total. Most of the time on gravel roads (about 30 miles)  but then the speed is greatly reduced on them as the bird watching is usually good there.

Here are some "fun"photos". The drives are not all about birds, as we see many other things along the way.

Female Eastern Bluebird feeding her young in the box.

A decorative sunflower. Many cultivated fields are now filled with sunflowers about 3 feet high. (No flowers yet)

Sunflowers beginning to get over 3 feet tall. We were stumped by these at first. What was growing there?

Ruth's eye picks these out! (Note where the foundation is!)

Ruth taking the barn below.

The old barn with rape seed (canola oil)  in the background.

91 F and these guys wanted to keep cool.

They call this "10th Avenue". It led to the "two track" It was 12 miles long.

My favorite is "Mr Smiley" (Use your imagination)

As in many parts of the country the side ditches and roadside are valuable hay fields. Here he is using a windrow cutter to mow  a stretch of roadside near his home. Yep, that's a double wide.

Tomorrow we head east further, to Devils Lake, ND.  We hope to see Buffalo in the reserve there. Minot has been a pleasant stop and the birding has been excellent. Love those "Pothole lakes"