Tucked away in a tidy, modern hotel room with blazingly fast WiFi, sipping a cold IPA, I could be in any number of urban environments. Instead, I'm in Steele, North Dakota, population 715 give or take, about 50 miles east of Bismarck.
This hotel is conveniently located near the plains and glacial lakes where we are birding, and across the street from a truck stop with a Caribou Coffee store. CC is the North's answer to Starbucks, and I've decided that it is, without doubt, the best chain coffee store in America. Hey, CC, if you need a spokesperson, give me a ring!
After 24 hours here, I find that I like ND better than I thought I would, for one key reason. It's not the hotel or CC, but I'll reveal it shortly.
When last we spoke, the Wife and I were about to go night birding. We were successful in hearing an Eastern Whip-poor-will, although the mosquitoes were vicious and drove us back to the car almost immediately after it called!
The next day, we spent four hours (!) walking paths near streams with adjacent dense brush, in hopes of finally landing a Mourning Warbler. Having only about 30 minutes before we needed to leave for the airport, we finally heard a "chip", and a little coaxing from a recording on our phone (I know, we are bad, bad birders!) caused the warbler to pop up briefly out of his bushes. And with that, we now have seen every warbler that regularly visits North America!
We arrived at the hotel at dusk, greeted at our hotel by this amazing sculpture, which we honestly had no idea was there:
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| It's the World's Tallest Sandhill Crane! As the late, great Huell Howser would say, That's Amazing! |
And, somewhat surprising to me, there might be a future visit, because ND has a key attribute (at least in the part we visited) that makes it superior to many other states.
Is it the scenery? The gently rolling plains are beautiful, and the quality of the light here is great for photography, but that's not it.
Is it the hospitality and dining? I'm sure there are fine establishments somewhere in the state, but not near us.
Is it the birding? Well, we did find some great birds that we've only seen a few times before, like Sprague's Pipit and Black Tern, but that's not it either.
The reason? Because there aren't any of those annoying Michigan flies, and I haven't had to use DEET the whole time! As I always say, an absence of bugs makes the heart grow fonder.
That said, we did miss the birds we came to ND to find. Looks like Baird's Sparrow and Nelson's Sparrow have already hit the road, and so we'll have to find them elsewhere this year. Sigh.
But, next stop is a boat! After a couple days at home, we head over to Half Moon Bay for another pelagic trip, hopefully with less fog and smaller swells than our last trip!
Later!
Me
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