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Scoping the Missouri

By Cora Van Olson

Members of the South Dakota Ornithologists Union look for birds at Union Grove State Park between Beresford and Elk Point.

Roger Dietrich was scoping along the shore of Lake Yankton when a Rapid City woman approached him with a question about the tiny Ross’s gull, which had been sighted in the area.

“I’ve gone to Alaska twice and I didn’t see the bird there,” she said.”Is it still around?”

Dietrich pointed to a gull, sitting on ice in the middle of the lake.

The Missouri River is a bird-watching paradise. Hundreds of species of ducks, geese, gulls, loons and other birds congregate in parks, woodlands and farm fields that border its 443-mile corridor. But it still helps to know for what you’re looking.

Every habitat attracts different birds, says David Swanson, professor of biology at the University of South Dakota and author of Birder’s Guide to South Dakota, and habitats vary dramatically along the Missouri as it winds from Nebraska to North Dakota.

Following is a guide, from south to north, of habitat patches and the surprises that await birdwatchers, both the serious birders looking for the rarest”lifer” bird and those who are happy spotting sparrows and swallows.

The Adams Nature Preserve attracts wading birds such as blue herons.

Adams Nature Preserve

Southeastern South Dakota

The Adams Homestead and Nature Preserve near North Sioux City includes many trails.”It has a variety of habitats,” Swanson says.”It has an extensive cottonwood forest that borders the river, and there’s also a little lake called Mud Lake that’s attractive to waterfowl. The ring of trees surrounding Mud Lake can be good for woodland birds, too.”

Mud Lake is approximately a quarter mile from the Adams Homestead parking lot, so a brief hike is required to access it. Wooden observation blinds lie along the trail with a view of the lake.

“The other habitat at the park is a restored open prairie,” he says.”It’s one of the few sites in the southeastern part of the state where you can find Eastern meadowlarks. The common meadowlark in South Dakota is the Western meadowlark, but the Eastern meadowlark is expanding its range in the southeastern part of the state and Adams Homestead is one of the places where you can find those.”

Since first being sighted in 2017 by Swanson and his ornithology students, the Eastern meadowlark has made regular appearances in the open-prairie habitat, often with multiple birds singing among the scattered trees.

“I wasn’t aware at the time that Eastern meadowlarks had started to expand their range, and I heard these Eastern meadowlarks calling,” Swanson says.”I go, ‘That is very unusual.’ We kept walking and saw them and everybody in the ornithology class got to see me geek out over it.”

Though birdwatching at the Adams Homestead is enjoyable year-round, it’s best in spring, summer and fall.”Mostly, it’s hiking the trails during migration and seeing a variety of birds at that time,” Swanson says.”It’s lots of warblers and sparrows, so the migration periods are late April to mid-May. Then in the fall, from mid-to-late August into about mid-September is probably the peak for warblers and vireos, some of which migrate all the way down to Central and South America.”

Sparrows that migrate to the southern U.S. and Mexico slightly later in the year can typically be seen at the Adams Homestead from mid-September to mid-October. Along the river and at the lake, birdwatchers encounter ducks and geese, as well as wading birds like herons and egrets.

“In the cottonwood forest, there are Eastern whippoorwills,” Swanson says.”Those are birds that don’t really get too much out of the southeastern part of the state. Of course, they’re nocturnal, so they don’t start calling until it starts to get dark.”

Least terns can be found on sandbars below Gavins Point Dam.

Gavins Point Dam

West of Yankton

Gavins Point Dam, the southernmost project on the Missouri’s system of six dams, is surrounded by unique bird habitats.

During the summer, hundreds of American white pelicans can sometimes be seen near the dam, while on the river itself, there are piping plovers, still considered a threatened species in most of the U.S., and the least tern, North America’s tiniest tern, often seen flying low over the river and hovering before plunging for prey.

“One of the reasons I like birding is the idea that it would be so cool to fly, and least terns are just the best flyers,” says Roger Dietrich, a local authority on ornithology.”They’ll fly and they’ll see a minnow, and then they dive straight down in the water — and splash!”

In winter, the 2-mile-long earthen dam creates an unusual condition for birds and birders.”Some years, when it doesn’t freeze, like lately, there’s been lots of open water above the dam,” Dietrich says.”Some years, we get lucky and even the Lewis and Clark Marina doesn’t freeze over real early. So, that’s a popular spot where some grebes and loons will stop.”

Black scoters, surf scoters, white-winged scoters and long-tail ducks, which are mainly ocean birds, are known to visit the lake and river in winter.

“I tell people from other places that we have those birds here and they’re just not believing it, because they don’t think of the center of the United States as a place where these birds would show up,” Dietrich says.”And when I say they show up every year, usually, for a fairly long period of time, they just can’t believe that we’re so lucky.”

The common loon migrates through the area, as well as a number of gulls — including Sabine’s gulls, kittiwakes, black-legged kittiwakes and even the Ross’s gull, which is associated with the remote arctic. Crest Road, which passes over the dam, is a good place to observe such birds. It requires no special pass or permit.

“Scan for the birds with binoculars or a spotting scope and chances are, you’ll find something different,” Dietrich says.”Sometimes there are huge flocks, and you can spend hours just scoping the birds there,” he says.”So, if you see somebody there with their scope out or binoculars, stop and ask them what they’re seeing. I’d say 99 percent of the people will be glad to point things out to you, and maybe even let you look through their scope to see what they’re seeing.”

Several snowy owls hung out along the dam road a few years ago.”They were feeding on the flocks of coots that were there.” Wintertime also brings large flocks of lesser scaup, which birdwatchers will scan for specimens of greater scaup, a polar bird that tends to prefer saltwater and is rarely seen inland, Dietrich says.

“It’s the same with the big flocks of common goldeneye,” he says.”People try to scope out the Barrow’s goldeneye, which is another species. It’s more of a West Coast bird, but once in a while, we’ll get one here — always a highlight.”

Bald eagles frequent Gavins Point Dam and some now nest year-round in the tall cottonwoods that border the Missouri.”They’re used to a lot of people around and some of the trees they perch in are right along the local roads,” Dietrich says.”You can see them in action, swooping down and picking up fish. I’ve seen eight or nine at a time on the ice up above the dam, eating the dead snow geese they’ve picked off.”

A pair of Barrow’s Goldeneyes at Fort Randall.

Fort Randall

Pickstown

Fort Randall Dam also hosts a large congregation of bald eagles. Below the dam is the Karl E. Mundt National Wildlife Refuge, which provides habitat for the eagles.

Kelly Preheim, a kindergarten teacher in Armour and a well-known local birding enthusiast, especially likes the wooded area around the Fort Randall Dam.”We’re mostly on agricultural grassland in southeastern South Dakota,” she says.”But the dams have a lot of woodland, forested areas, and I enjoy walking on the trails.”

She found 71 bird species on a recent camping trip to Pickstown.”In the morning, oh my goodness, the singing,” she recalls.”My husband’s like, ‘I can’t get any sleep. It’s so loud here!'”

A hike to the tailrace, the channel below the dam that carries water away, will often be rewarded.”Fish that go through the dam come out somewhat stunned in the tailrace,” Preheim says.”Then, all these birds, like gulls and eagles and certain ducks, eat those fish.”

Like nearby Gavins Point, Fort Randall Dam is also home to many types of waterfowl in autumn and winter.”There are a lot of different ducks on the scene, hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of different ducks there at a time,” Preheim says.”I saw a brown pelican one time. That’s actually an ocean bird.”

Other surprise visitors at Fort Randall include a yellow-billed loon, typically associated with Alaska and America’s western coast, and a great black-backed gull, which is an Atlantic coastal bird, Preheim says.

Scarlet tanagers are often found in South Dakota but summer tanagers, a rare visitor, might also be seen around Fort Randall.

Pelicans near Big Bend.

Big Bend Dam

Fort Thompson

The best birdwatching at South Dakota’s northernmost dams — Big Bend and Oahe — occurs from April through May and from September to November, according to lifelong birdwatcher Ricky Olson, who lives at Fort Pierre.

Big Bend has fewer access roads and trail amenities than Oahe and the other dams, but it has its own charms. Ospreys nest below the dam and brown pelicans have been spotted.

“Once in a while, in the wintertime, you get a Brant goose at Big Bend,” a seacoast bird.”I run down to Big Bend at least every two weeks in the winter to see what’s there,” Olson says.

Big Bend also attracts smaller goose species, including snow geese and white-fronted geese, both of which are common to the area.”In the fall, it’s neater to go to Big Bend,” Olson says.”Also, the shad and minnow species will be in the shallows then, and you’ll get all kinds of cormorants and pelicans and hundreds of gulls in these frenzies where they’re all feeding, and the gulls are trying to steal from everybody.”

Canada geese along the Missouri River.

Oahe Dam

Central South Dakota

Ring-billed gulls, herring gulls and California gulls may be sighted at Oahe, as well as the arctic tern, a mega-find for birders.

A spectacle occurs during flooding when Oahe Dam’s hydraulic turbines are running.”It’s a feeding frenzy. You get thousands of gulls, maybe 20,000, below the tailrace in a half-mile stretch,” Olson says.”It’s like a snowstorm. Thousands of people come to watch the ‘gull snowfall.'”

Oahe also has cliff-dwellers.”In the sand layers in the cliffs, in the holes, there are barn owls nesting,” Olson says.”They dig their own holes, and often, they’re near where colonies of bank swallows have dug holes.”

In autumn, Sabine’s gull may be spotted.”It’s very pretty. It’s black and white with half a diamond on the wing,” Olson says.”We also get Bonapartes and Little gulls, which is a little gull, and we get some of the big ones. Once in a great while we get the great black-back, which is the biggest gull.”

Gulls breed on a few islands along Oahe, Olson says.”There are only a few places in South Dakota where that happens.”

Another rare visitor to Oahe, among the sea ducks like the scoters and the long tail duck, is the occasional coastal harlequin duck in the tailrace.

“We get loons,” Olson says.”Sometimes we get the Pacific or the yellow-billed or red-throated loon, which are rare for our state.”

Further north on Oahe, retired biology teacher Stan Mack says opportunities are available even in Mobridge’s city limits.”There’s a walking trail along the south side of town. Just follow Main Street to the river and walk west and you’ll see the ducks and geese and gulls that sit on the water.”

Mack says Indian Creek (east of Mobridge) and Indian Memorial (across the river to the west) offer trails and habitat.

Mack doesn’t walk well enough to explore like he once did, but the birds will come to him.”I’m doing a feeder watch for Cornell University. Right now, I’m looking at a collared dove — we never saw them before — and I see about 16 more picking up seeds on the ground.”

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the March/April 2025 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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We Winter With Eagles

By Bernie Hunhoff

Eagles were a rare sight in South Dakota just decades ago. The pesticide DDT got in their food (fish) chain and decreased the birds’ fertility. Then, 522,000 acres of their favorite habitat along the Missouri River was flooded by the Corps of Engineers’ six big dams. Eagle sightings became rare.

I was working for the Madison Daily Leader in 1975 when a bald eagle showed up on a sunny morning and perched in a tall tree near Lake Madison, just east of town. Word spread, and by midday there was a steady parade of cars to the tree, where the big baldy patiently sat tall like a kindly king on a wooden throne.

That was just a few years after DDT was banned. As the eagles repopulated they discovered that the tailwaters of those big Missouri River dams were excellent places to winter because the constant discharges kept the water open even on the coldest days of January and February.

While eagles might be seen in any of our 66 counties, as winter deepens and most rivers and lakes freeze they now concentrate along those downstream waters. They roost in the tallest cottonwood trees, sunning themselves on brisk mornings and enjoying the surroundings.

As the sun warms the air, they will leave their perches to”float” on the thermals that develop. While it may appear that they are just at play in the sunshine, it’s likely they are also keeping watch for fish doing the very same thing in the river below.

Watch as they drop into a slow and deliberate glide to the river’s surface, talons outstretched like the wheels of an airplane. Usually they grab the fish in a graceful swoop, but no species is perfect; sometimes they take on too big of a fish and the ascent is less graceful. A few years ago, some Yanktonians were confused to find a large carp lying on a sidewalk a few blocks from the river. Apparently, one of the local eagles tackled a fish bigger than he could carry and dropped it on the sidewalk.

The noble birds are adapting to living near humans. Particularly in Yankton and Pierre, they roost in cottonwoods or other large trees in parks along the river, watching parka-clad pedestrians on the paths below. Still, it’s best to keep your distance. They may be napping or fishing, and it’s not nice to interrupt in either case.

Here are tips on eagle watching along South Dakota’s four dams, from south to north.

Gavins Point at Yankton — Eagles now nest here year-around, but 100 or so”snowbirds” arrive every December. As other waters freeze, they concentrate along the river from the dam and into the city of Yankton where they can be seen on treetops in Riverside Park. Grab lunch or a hot chocolate at several diners near Levee Street and then walk along the river or across the Meridian Bridge. If the birds aren’t in town, head west on Highway 52 and take any of the roads south to the river. Sisters Grove, a nature area just below Chalkstone Hill, is a good place to see deer. The forested areas just east of the dam are particularly good spots to look.

Fort Randall Dam by Pickstown — A top spot is the campground and recreation area on the west side of the dam. A 780-acre eagle refuge, created decades ago when the birds were on the endangered species list, is closed to the public. A few years ago, a strange carp kill caused a smorgasbord of carp for the eagles (see the unique photo by Michael Zimny). Generally, the”baldies” have to work harder for their lunch. Check out the remains of the old chalkstone chapel and the historic fort cemetery, all within a mile or so of the river.

Big Bend at Fort Thompson — Visit an area locals call”the Teardrop,” a recreation and campground complex on the west side of the dam. But like other tailwaters, the birds might be found anywhere. You might also find the Crow Creek tribe’s buffalo herd grazing a few miles north of Fort Thompson on Highway 47.

Oahe Dam above Pierre — Oahe Downstream, the campground area just below our biggest dam, is an excellent spot. However, the big birds also like to visit our state capitol in winter. Take a walk in Steamboat Park, which borders the Missouri, stroll forested LaFramboise Island or cross the river to old Fort Pierre and look for the birds in Fischer’s Lily Park, at the mouth of the Bad River. The park marks the spot where explorers Lewis & Clark had their first encounter with the Lakota people.

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Eating Wild Cactus

Wild plants like the prickly pear cactus have served many purposes

By Ruth Steil

Prickly pear cactus thrive in dry conditions on slopes and hills, like these yellow flowered cacti found along Highway 1804 near Fort Pierre. Photo by Chad Coppess/S.D. Tourism.

As a young boy Joe Delvaux spent school years with his mother in Yankton and summers with his father in Pickstown, a government town built in the 1950s to house the families of construction workers at Fort Randall Dam. But by the 1970s, Pickstown had dwindled from a high of 5,000 people to less than 100. It could be a solitary setting for a kid who was a”big city” implant.

Delvaux spent hot South Dakota summer afternoons roaming the sun-baked hills surrounding the Missouri River with two older brothers who pointed out plants and insects.”It became natural for me to notice vegetation and to look under rocks,” he says.”It was what we were about and who we were.”

Plants held less interest for Delvaux when he entered high school and later college. But in the summer of 2001, when the National Parks Service opened an office in Yankton, he took a position as a Seasonal Park Ranger.”We were given the freedom to connect an interest to the public and plants were my interest,” Delvaux says.”I got a small library of books to read and took them into the field with me to collect specimens.” He drove back roads and hiked meadows looking for buffaloberry, sumac, sage and chokecherry.

Photo by Stephen Gassman.

His research evolved into a park program called Cultural, Medicinal and Edible Plants along the Missouri River. Delvaux often tells his classes about how Meriwether Lewis was introduced to the benefits of chokecherry. During the 1804 expedition, Lewis became very ill with fever and diarrhea. He’d tried the medical treatments of his time, including bleeding, with no alleviation of the symptoms. But then he made some tea from the bark of the chokecherry. He felt so much better that he hiked several miles the next morning.

Prickly pear is among the edible plants that Delvaux brings for the class to sample. It can be found throughout South Dakota and most Western states. He harvests the cactus pads from plants in ditches by Pickstown, near places he wandered as a youth.

Kay Young says in her book Wild Seasons: Gathering and Cooking Wild Plants of the Great Plains that prickly pear cactus pads and ripe fruits are not poisonous — it’s the spines and glochids (barbed hairs) that pose a danger. She recommends handling the pads with tongs or pliers when washing and preparing them. She singes older pads over a flame to remove spines and glochids before cooking, but cooks young pads just as they are, removing the stickers once the pads have cooled.

Delvaux prepares the prickly cactus for his class by filleting the outer skin off the pads, rinsing away the gelatinous juice, patting the pads dry and then cutting them into bite-size pieces.”I’ve cooked it a couple of times — battered it and fried it, but I really prefer it raw and chilled,” Delvaux says.”Fried it tastes a little like fried green tomatoes.”

Cactus Salad

6 cups prickly pear cactus pads, cut into 1/2 inch squares
3 bunches green onion
7 tablespoons salt
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
2 medium plum tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup white onion, finely chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
Juice of two Key limes
1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano

In a medium stockpot, cover the pads with at least three inches of water. Add a bunch of green onions and two tablespoons salt and bring to a rolling boil. Let boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and pour into colander. Discard onions and rinse pads in cold water until cool. Repeat the boiling twice using the remaining green onions and four tablespoons salt. This will remove the slimy stuff from the cactus pads. You will now have half the amount you started with.

Mix diced pads, jalapeno, white onion, tomatoes, cilantro, lime juice, oregano and remaining teaspoon salt. Let stand 45 minutes for flavors to blend.

— Recipe From I.M. Cowgirl Magazine

EDITOR’S NOTE — This story is revised from the July/Aug 2010 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order this back issue or to subscribe, call 800-456-5117.

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Eagle Season

By Katie Hunhoff

A bald eagle built a nest near the old Meridian Bridge in Yankton two years ago, and then perched on a nearby cottonwood branch and posed for pedestrians, who were at eye level to the big bird when they were on the bridge’s upper deck.

The eagle eventually abandoned that nest. Maybe it was a tad too close to civilization for her comfort. But more eagles than ever are wintering on the open water of the Missouri River in Yankton, and they often glide slowly over the walking bridge that extends into the city’s old downtown.

Eagles were following the Dodo bird to extinction a scant 50 years ago. Illegal hunting, habitat destruction and a poison known as DDT were killing the species. In 1963, only 487 nesting pairs could be found in the United States.

But the Endangered Species Act banned DDT in 1972, and the eagles gradually adapted to a changing prairie landscape. Today, the state Game, Fish & Parks Department estimates that there may be as many as 300 nesting pairs just in South Dakota.

Most South Dakota eagles can be found wintering below the Missouri River dams, where massive old cottonwood trees provide a barky foundation for their large, heavy nests. Open water below the river’s dams provides easy fishing. Eagles also nest in the Black Hills near the Deerfield Reservoir, and it’s not surprising to find them in any part of the state.

Eagles build their nests by mid-February and begin laying eggs in late February. The birds mate for life, and use the same nests from year to year, adding twigs each year. Their nests are among the largest of any North American bird. One big nest measured 13 feet deep by 8 feet wide.

The majestic bald eagle was chosen as our national emblem in 1787, partly because it was native to North America. The fierce appearance of its curved beak, regal white head and piercing eyes were also factors. In the emblem, drawn in 1782, a bald eagle is displayed with an olive branch in one claw and 12 arrows clutched in the other, representing both peace and war.

Benjamin Franklin famously opposed putting the bald eagle on the nation’s emblem. He favored the wild turkey, which he claimed was, “A much more respectable bird and a true native of America.” He said the turkey was a bird of courage that “would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.”

It seems Franklin was also put off with the bald eagle’s habit of eating carrion. They often steal food from smaller birds by intimidating them into dropping their prey. They also feed on dead fish and crippled birds. “He is a bird of bad moral character,” wrote Franklin. “He does not get his living honestly. You may have seen him perched in some dead tree where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the fishing hawk and, when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish and is bearing it to his nest for his young ones, the bald eagle pursues him and takes the fish.”

It seems unpatriotic to dredge up Franklin’s comments. After all, the eagle is just doing what comes naturally. Go eagle watching this spring and you will instantly be reminded of why our founding fathers chose this regal bird to represent our nation. Your best chance to see some soaring is to visit the Missouri below the dams at Yankton, Pickstown, Fort Thompson and Pierre. In Yankton, a few eagles can often be found in the big trees that lie south of Riverside ballpark.