(In which a WA native learns that prairies are not flat)
By Kathleen Snyder
Our youngest Black Hills Audubon board member, Dalton Spencer, just finished his first year at Montana State University in Bozeman (the last portion from home via on-line classes). Dalton is an accomplished birder and was hired by the Intermountain Bird Observatory out of Boise State University to conduct bird surveys from May 18th to July 17th. His data supported the World Wildlife Federation’s Sustainable Ranching Initiative – more on that later.
To accomplish this, Dalton surveyed privately owned ranches with native sagebrush and prairie habitat in Nebraska, Montana, and South Dakota. He ran surveys for approximately 2 ½ hours 5 mornings a week with the remaining hours available for his own birding adventures. He submitted 44 survey lists, found 194 species, and added 32 birds to his life list. He drove his own SUV and camped most nights on ranches. He splurged a few times by getting a motel room or using a private camping club (showers!). State park restrooms were closed due to the pandemic but some ranches offered Dalton their showering facilities.
The Northern Great Plains is one of only four remaining intact temperate grasslands in the world. This area encompasses 180 million acres stretching over five states and two provinces. Sustainable grazing practices maintain the health of the grasslands, improve soil quality, and preserve habitat for grassland birds which are in steep decline. The World Wildlife Fund has been working with the ranching community since 2011 to provide incentives for good conservation practices and plans to continue into the future. Find more about this initiative at https://www.worldwildlife.org/projects/sustainable-ranching-initiative.
Six species of grassland birds were of primary importance to the study – Sprague’s Pipit, Chestnut-collared Longspur, McCown’s Longspur, Baird’s Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, and Sharp-tailed Grouse. McCown’s Longspur was the rarest for Dalton – he saw 7 – but he wasn’t in prime territory for the bird. The most abundant of these six was Grasshopper Sparrow with over 5,000 counted. Western Meadowlarks were just as numerous. Dalton also saw his first lek when he found Greater Prairie-chickens doing their displays.
It wasn’t all fun and birds. Weather changes on the plains could be sudden and violent. In June, while relaxing at a campsite near Spearfish, South Dakota, a thunderstorm came up with sheets of rain and horrific winds that had trees falling around his car. Realizing he needed to move, he threw his gear into the car and headed down the hill to come across hailstones the size of grapefruit. Fortunately, that didn’t affect him and he got to town safely.
When it was fun and birds though, he especially enjoyed a visit to Fox Lake Wildlife Management Area in northeast Montana. This area has diked saline ponds and when Dalton stumbled upon it, there were thousands and thousands of ducks, geese, and shorebirds. Seeing a Canvasback hen with her ducklings was the cherry on top.
Dalton plans to return to Intermountain next summer but will change projects to one that stays in Montana. It will be a study of breeding land birds throughout the state using standardized point count and vegetation surveys. We at BHAS wish him all the best as he continues on his path to a wildlife management career.
