10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Lewis’s Woodpecker ( Melanerpes lewis ) In Flight, photos by Larry Jordan Driving home from work last week I finally saw my first Lewis’s Woodpecker ( Melanerpes lewis ) of the fall. Lucky for me, these beautiful and unusual woodpeckers can be found nearly year round in the oak savannah along the road I travel daily.

Woodpeckers 207

Woodpeckers South Dakota Jordan United States 207

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 15, 2014

As I got out of my car, about fifty feet from Manzanita Lake, I heard the loud drumming of a woodpecker. I didn’t know what species of woodpecker it was, but I knew it was just in the clearing on the other side of the road. Range map courtesy of South Dakota Birds and Birding. Siegel and, D. Craig, editors.

Woodpeckers 172

Woodpeckers California South Dakota Chad 172

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 2, 2013

Severe fires create snags, they germinate seeds and sprout fungus, and most of all they create food and habitat for insects that in turn feed birds like Black-backed Woodpecker and Olive-sided Flycatcher , and encourage even some generalists like other woodpeckers and wrens.

Endangered Species 161

Endangered Species South Dakota Woodpeckers Sheep 161

10,000 Birds

MAY 11, 2012

The species was extinct, a vanished part of the vanishing prairie — and not for the first time. In the 1950s the species was unofficially regarded as extinct by most biologists, a small part lost in the general tumble and disarray of the entire ecosystem they’d inhabited. You couldn’t see it. But the ferrets kept dying.

Ferrets 188

Ferrets South Dakota Wyoming Captive Animal 188

10,000 Birds

MARCH 17, 2011

Turkeys, 3 or 4 species of woodpeckers, all kinds of song birds grace our view constantly. All conditions are perfect here in central South Dakota for the waterfowl travelers. We feed them year around here and are “blessed&# to have a wild variety and abundance of birds. As I said, we are blessed.

2011 150

2011 Deer Birds South Dakota 150