Date: 4/21/25 5:52 am From: Tobin Brown via groups.io <tobinjbrown...> Subject: Re: [NEBirds] Planning a Dakotas Prairie Pothole Visit
I don't know much about North Dakota but I have birded through the Badlands and the Black Hills before!
Badlands National Park is amazing if you're going through that way. I would recommend taking Rim Road and Sage Creek Road. There are tons of burrowing owls on Rim road <https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/620260053> by the prairie dog town and other grassland birds just north of the park on Sage Creek, like Upland Sandpiper. Violet-green swallows are all over the ridge, and there's always a chance for Prairie Falcon. Definitely a park I will be visiting again.
It's on the other side of the Black Hills from Wind Caves, but Roughlock Falls just south of Spearfish is a great spot. I had American Dipper, Western Flycatcher, MacGillivray's Warbler and others in that area last June. Not exactly grassland, but still cool birds. I suspect Wind Caves NP will have a similar selection of birds.
Here are the trip reports from the 2 times I was up there last year (including a bit of Nebraska birding along the way). On the second trip I went up through the Oglala National Grassland: lots of gravel roads, but excellent shortgrass habitat.
