Tag: bird

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Watch for Eagles

By Rebecca Johnson

Some extremely knowledgeable members of the Sioux Falls Bird Club guided me through the prairie pothole regions near Sioux Falls last year. They were more than welcoming towards this newbie who couldn’t tell a sparrow from a starling. I assured my new friends I would practice. Oh, I had great intentions. But the adult bald eagle is still the only bird I can identify with certainty.

That’s why I love January. Sure, a little post-party depression sets in after the holiday hoopla. And the cold days drag on as you wait to turn the calendar to February. But get excited! It’s National Bald Eagle Watch Month!

The bald eagle diet is mostly fish, so the best watching places are below the big dams like Oahe, Big Bend, and Gavins Point, says K.C. Jensen, associate professor in South Dakota State University’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences.”The water is always open there and there are usually fish to be had,” Jensen says.

It’s been reported that last summer’s flooding caused an explosion in Yankton’s fish population and I suspect the bald eagles are benefiting. South Dakota Game Fish and Parks recently completed mid-winter waterfowl surveys along the length of the Missouri. They also record eagle numbers and counted 281 between Sioux City and Big Bend Dam.”The great majority of [the eagles] were sighted immediately below Gavins Point Dam at Yankton,” says Jensen.

Bald eagles like to eat in the morning and there were at least 40 breakfasting at Paddlewheel Point downstream from Riverside Park a few days ago. I was able to sneak out to see them, since it’s just a few blocks from the magazine, and was amazed to see so many converged in one place. The majority were seated on a piece of ice jutting out from the bank while a few majestically roosted in the trees. I checked again this morning. The snow kept a few away, but there were still several feeding. If you’re lucky enough to live along the river like me, bundle up, grab your binoculars and celebrate Bald Eagle Watch Month this weekend.

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Snow Birds

By John Andrews

It’s the last week of December and South Dakotans have just celebrated their first brown Christmas in years. It looks as if a brown New Year’s is on tap. In fact the only white we may see for the next few weeks are the snowy owls that are flying further south than many people can remember.

Jim Lewandowski, the office assistant at Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge northeast of Aberdeen, says they have seen an abundant number of snowy owls there so far this winter. Terry Jordre, a Brown County birder, told the Aberdeen American News that he’s seen plenty of the owls dotting the back roads of northern South Dakota.

Snowy owls breed on the Arctic tundra and come south during the winter in search of food. The nearly pure white birds can often be found as far south as Nebraska in winter, but this year they are flying into Kansas. Three were seen last week at a lake in Kansas City.

Experts seem to agree that the owls are venturing outside their normal range because of a food shortage. They prefer lemmings, whose populations fluctuate every three to five years. When lemmings are in short supply, owls seek out dietary supplements of rodents, rabbits, birds and fish, all of which are plentiful in South Dakota and other Great Plains states.

Unfortunately the owls have a difficult time adapting to their southern surroundings. They are used to life on the tundra, so their interactions with humans are limited. The owls aren’t used to avoiding cars, and many have been hit. Some owls are curious.”They’ll let you get close enough that they might even swoop down at your vehicle,” Lewandowski says.”They’ve done that up here.”

So if you have travel plans over the New Year’s weekend, keep your eyes peeled. You might spot a snowy owl perched on a fencepost or high in a tree near a lake or slough. The white owls will surely stand out against the browns of our snowless winter.

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Backyard Wildlife

By Chad Coppess

This time of year my thoughts go not only to holidays and family, but to photographing the wildlife in my own backyard.

I live in town, not out in the wilderness where you might expect a lot of critters roaming, but I’ve found with a few bird and squirrel feeders it’s easy to attract animals right to your camera.

With a little research you can learn what kind of feeders and food will bring what kinds of birds and animals. Squirrels tend to like corn, nuts and sunflower seeds. Different varieties of birds like various seeds.

Photographing the wildlife can be done through the windows where it’s easier to hide and not scare them away. Wearing dark colors and keeping the lights off inside the house will help as well. If you’ve got a window that opens toward the feeders your images will be clearer and sharper, but even shooting through the window glass can provide decent photos.

I realize everyone isn’t going to spend the money on the equipment to do it, but I’ve had fairly good luck setting up a remote-controlled camera on a tripod outdoors and then sitting inside to watch and fire the camera with the push of a button.

One of the tricky things is that these smaller animals tend to move quickly and not sit in one spot for too long. This makes photographing them good practice for shooting other action activities like kids’ sports or rodeo. Choosing higher shutter speeds to freeze motion and working on your reaction to interesting poses helps capture fun moments.

Birds in flight almost always make great photos, but tracking them, keeping them in focus and catching just the right position of the wings can be tricky. Practice, practice, practice! Digital photography makes it easy to shoot many photos and simply delete the bad ones. So don’t be afraid to keep trying until it all comes together in that one spectacular shot.

Another fun tip is to make sure your bird feeder is next to a bush or tree with handy branches for perching on. After you’ve watched a while you can begin to guess where the birds tend to land before approaching the feeder. Pre-focusing on that spot will give you a head start on getting a good photo. I have a small branch attached to one of my feeders for that purpose.

Have a great holiday season and if you aren’t traveling far from home for photo opportunities, take a look in the backyard!

Chad Coppess is the senior photographer at the South Dakota Department of Tourism. He lives in Pierre with his wife, Lisa. To view more of his work, visit www.dakotagraph.com.

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Rapid City Peregrine Release: Now on Live Feed

By Katie Hunhoff

Raptor biologist Janie Fink released osprey near Yankton a few years ago. Now she’s in Rapid City releasing peregrine falcons. It has been almost 100 years since peregrine falcons lived West River. The species almost died out in the early 1970s due to pesticides like DDT. Populations have slowly recovered and the government removed them from its endangered species list in 1999. But the birds are still considered endangered in South Dakota.

Fink released 15 falcons last spring from atop the Assurant Building in Rapid City. This year they are releasing 15 more. Fink believes the birds will return to nest at the location they learned to fly.

A live feed has been set up to watch the young birds on top of the Assurant Building. Peregrine falcons are impressive hunters. They can reach speeds of 200 mph while diving for a catch. That makes them the fastest creature on the planet.

“It’s an impressive bird of prey,” says Eileen Dowd Stukel, wildlife diversity coordinator for the state Game, Fish and Parks Department. “We would love to have it here again for people to see and perhaps to benefit falconers, but that’s a long way off. Right now we’re just trying to do our responsibility of recovering something that used to be here.”


Live TV : Ustream

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Peregrine Reintroduction in Rapid City

Many will remember Mar/Apr 2009’s feature on Jane Fink Cantwell. Cantwell is the director of Birds of Prey Northwest, an Idaho organization devoted to helping raptors. She brought 20 young ospreys to Lake Yankton in the summer of 2008 and kept a watchful eye over them until the reintroduction program ended in 2010.

Cantwell is now getting ready for the reintroduction of 15 young peregrines in Rapid City. The first set of 35-day-old birds will be arriving the last week of May. The birds will be released from the top of the Assurant building and will be observed from the nearby Radisson roof top. Cantwell and other volunteers will track the fledglings and do their best to keep them out of harm’s way until they reach some level of independence in July.

Contact Cantwell on the Birds of Prey Northwest website if you are interested in volunteering with the project.