Chasing Meadowlarks

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Once again, the question arose; “Do I want to go hills or plains?” this time though, the sky made the decision for me. Usually when I’m facing this decision I am trying to figure out which way to head out of town, but yesterday I was trying to decide which way to drive home from Spearfish. I looked towards the Black Hills and they were covered with grey flat clouds, to the east the sky was broken, brightly contrasted between the deep thick dark blue storm clouds and the bright white where the sun was trying to break through. You could just tell that was where the cool stuff was.

I used the GPS on my phone to suggest a few routes home and decided to take Look Out Mountain Road out of Spearfish and then tried to stay on dirt roads and to the east of I-90 while still heading south. The roads were muddy, the wind was blowing and it was really really cold but that didn’t seem to keep the critters away.

I was delighted the first time Bear Butte showed itself. I love Bear Butte – It’s like a beacon, like Harney Peak, I know I’m not lost as long as I know where they are. Once I had the Bear in my sights I didn’t need the phone to find my way anymore – I just drove towards the mountain.

During the week, we had a rather substantial snow storm (see my earlier post about snowboarding down M Hill) and it was really windy out there. Occasionally the sound of my tires on the gravel would stir up the birds who were combing the recently revealed earth next to the road. Inevitably, I would disturb what they were doing and they would try to fly away but were always caught in the wind and thrown back with great force. I saw several different kind of birds who were treated the same way by the wind. Mostly meadowlarks and robins, but I did get to spend a little time with a beautiful American kestrel. I also found a frantic field mouse, some brand new cows and had a hilarious encounter with a prairie chicken on a fence.

I found myself on a great road.  I believe it was called Big Horn Road, I remember because it made me smile because of my recent quest to find and photograph animals by that very name. I decided the best way to document my location was to take out my iPhone and turn on the My-Fitness app. It cracked me up; the lady kept coming on every 3 miles or so to tell me how far I had traveled. She would say things like “time elapsed, 24 minutes. Miles gone: 9. Average speed: 4.7 miles per hour” (I’m too lazy to actually do the math, but what I really remember is that she told me it had taken me about 58 minutes to go 14 miles – it made me smile)

I spent a total of about 4 hours out there crawling along the back roads and I had called it a day several of times. I even had a failed attempt to head home when I tried to take the Alkali Creek cut off from Bear Butte to I-90 but I was forced to turn around when I reached a closed gate. A famous spring flurry had clouded the air but in the distance you could see Bear Butte glowing as the sun hit it behind the freak storm. I raced back to try to capture it but by the time I had reached a point where the whole mountain was visible, the storm had passed and everything was clear again. I turned left onto a road to turn back  but decided to see where it went instead.

It was on this road that I found the prairie chicken. It was so awkwardly perched up there that I wasn’t sure what it was at first. I thought it might have been a piece of plastic stuck to the barbed wire, it wasn’t until I got closer I realized it was a bird. But I still couldn’t tell what kind, I even thought it might be a duck for a second. Like I said before, the wind was really howling and was doing its best to get that goofy bird off that fence but it was downright determined to stay there. So much so that my pulling up, parking, backing up and pulling up closer to get a better shot didn’t disturb it. It just sat there and held on as tightly as it could with its over-sized feet.  Eventually it popped off the line and into the grass where it did what they do best and blended in among the brush until it disappeared completely. Just then my phone alerted me that I had a text message. It was from my mom. “Are you home yet?” it said. I responded with “no”.  She replied back “why not?” I smiled, turned the car on and drove home.

My adventure didn’t end when I got back to town. The sky called me up to Skyline Drive but this time it was passing in front of the sun casting great shafts of light all over the earth below. I raced up the winding road and was stopped by a magnificent crow who was checking out the view from the top of a dead twisted tree. I was so taken that I stopped in the middle of the road and grabbed my camera. I blocked traffic as long as I could before I headed onto the look out. It was a sight to behold but less impressive on camera than I had hoped. On my way back, I said to myself “If that crow is still there, I’ll take a few more pictures.” Not only was he still up there but he had called up a couple friends. I finished out my day with that crew and as I pulled into my driveway I realized; The journey decides when it’s over and if you keep your eyes peeled it will continue to be rewarding several times after you thought you were already done.

 

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