Brad Sondahl's blog

Brad's Blog

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Oct. 4, 2019
A couple weeks ago I might have seen some Loch Ness monsters at Farragut Park:

Except that another photo reveals them to be:

Western Grebes....
I like the impressionistic graininess of these photos... And we don't have western grebes on little Spirit Lake...

I keep expecting flocks of migrating ducks to come through, like the ring-billed... This wood duck male and his harem of 3-4 females has been the most reliable group in the mill pond lately... Wood ducks are, in my opinion, the second most beautfiul ducks, after the mandarin...

Oct. 10
We got a repeat of last month's rain turning to 3 inches of snow a couple nights ago, resulting in patchy snow and cold nights in the area...
Butters and I went up on the ridge and I saw a tiny skink, about two inches long:

It prompted me to write this to a local young person who's been writing articles on Idaho lizards and amphibians:
"Today I found this small skink on the trail by Spirit Lake. Unfortunately it was frozen... It reminded me that my wife and I have a long sadness related to local kids making a spring habit of overturning rocks on the ridge hunting for skinks. It is wrong to capture them, and it is wrong to overturn the rocks and leave them overturned, killing the native wildflowers and making a worse environment for lizards to survive. I'm not sure if you've written about skinks, but if you do, you might encourage people to enjoy them with photos instead of captures and habitat destruction... A photo of a living skink is much harder than catching one..."
This was the view from the ridge today towards Maiden Rock:

Oct. 14-23
We made a trip to Minnesota and Iowa to visit our relatives, and along the way saw some great scenery and birdlife....

This was typical of the Montana Big Sky Country on the way east...

In Northfield Minnesota, along the Cannon River walkway, willow roots, sotted on all the water they can drink, push their way through the asphalt...

The Cannon River, running high from the fall rains that left most of the corn in the midwest unharvestable... I caught this photo in the early morning when the bland Ames Mill received the shadow of the witch's hat tower from the buildings a block away on Bridge Square..

This was the view of the Cannon from the pedestrian bridge...

On to the Quad Cities along the Mississippi... On a Sunday morning this nearly 150 year old family farm in Illinois has diversified into offering an experience as well as produce. People came swarming in for pumpkins, corn maze, bunny petting farm, etc.

If you are a birder, there's nothing like the Ebird app to help you keep track of your species. It turns out I'd never listed a house sparrow, which have lived abundantly most places I've lived (but not, I think, Spirit Lake). There were plenty on the farm, so here's a picture of it...

This is son Forrest and wife Susa Down on the Farm...

Sandhill Cranes

White-throated sparrow

Ea
Eastern Bluebird

Duckweed forming a thin mat along the Mississippi backwaters...

Red-eyed vireo

Yellow Rumped Warbler

Along the Mississippi work on a new bridge has proceeded slowly due to spring and fall flooding...

On the way home we stopped in the park near my old home in Ames and I photographed the Skunk River...

On a tip we went to Brushy Creek Lake in NW Iowa to look for a rare Yellow-billed Loon. It was windy, raining, and near sunset when we surveyed the large lake without results, except this bald eagle panicking coots in hopes of an easy meal...

We watched a pale dawn in South Dakota at Chamberlain...

The Badlands are so photogenic...

Some parts of the park resemble elephant skin...

We saw over 50 Bighorn sheep in various parts of the park...

This is not the view of bison one wants to see--headed towards you. With the telephoto, and from the security of our car, it wasn't really an issue...

We had snow accumulating on the freeway in parts of Montana on the way back, but overall the travel was great...

books read

Dixie Dewdrop by Michael D. Doubler. This was an exceedingly well written tribute to the first star of the Grand Ole Opry and a personal inspiration when it comes to American Old-time music.

Bark of Night by David Rosenfelt. Another fine mystery revolving around dogs, with a fairly complicated conspiracy...
Cold Hearted River by Keith McCafferty Although I don't agree with the appellation of Hemingway as the greatest American novelist, the Hemingway mystique adds a fun dimension to what would otherwise be another fishing yarn...

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