The reason I was so determined to get to Minot was to visit the “Upper Souris Loop”, three refuges just to the north of the city. Thanks to the trailer problems I didn’t get to spend as much time as I would have liked – I have standing reservations for the July Fourth weekend that meant I had to keep moving. While I visited all three – Des Lacs, J. Clark Salyer, and Upper Souris – I spent the most time at Upper Souris due to its proximity to Minot. I also felt, after visiting the others, that as a venue for photography it was the better location. My visit was limited to the area around Lake Darling (named after “Ding” Darling, namesake of the Florida wildlife refuge and designer of the USFWS blue goose logo) and the auto tour, though there is much more to explore.

In addition to the flycatcher featured in the quiz, one of the highlights was this very cooperative Barn Swallow. It wasn’t on a real great perch (sign) so I thought I would take my chances and see how close I could get. Guess this bird found the whole concept of posing for photos a bit too tedious and boring. Or maybe it was just that chasing insects all day to feed a nest full of kids is hard work.Either way, shortly after I took this photo it flew off toward the lake, presumably for more tasty insects. A few minutes later a Barn swallow flew in and landed in the same spot - must like the place.

The shores of Lake Darling are also home to a colony of nesting Western Grebes not far from one of the boat ramps. The afternoon that I was out there I parked on the dike next to the marshy area that contains the colony and, after taking a couple of shots of her sitting on the eggs, there was a little commotion and most of the grebes vacated their nests. All were staring in the same direction and it wasn’t difficult to see what had been the object of their attention: a beaver was swimming in one corner of the pond. After the beaver cleared the area they began to return to their nests one by one.

I do have a correction to make: in this entry I mentioned that I only needed Horned Grebes to complete the sweep – my bad. I completely forgot about the Least Grebe, a Texas specialty that will have to wait until the winter. Thanks to Mike at I and the Bird for pointing out that little oversight.

I’m currently in Medora, ND where I will be visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the Little Missouri National Grassland before moving into Montana and Wyoming later this week.