Author: Mark

I have spent a lot of time in the car and, as a result, see lots of roadside birds.  Many of them are black. Starlings are still with me – I have seen starlings every day of my trip and that includes Starlings hopping round near bison. Larger than a Starling but similarly iridescent when seen really well,…

Today I drove around the southern Black Hills of Dakota in the rain.  I saw a few Bison, I saw some birds and I had a nice day. I also learned what I did, really, already know, that I really should check where the jack, wheelbrace, spare tire etc are just in case I get a flat after…

Yesterday I wrote about Wounded Knee and today I bought Roger L. di Silvestro’s ‘In the Shadow of Wounded Knee’ which I will read properly but share these points from his book.   The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is almost the size of Connecticut and is home to 40,000 people whose median annual income is…

I drove through the Badlands enjoying the scenery, the early morning coolness, the promise of another sunny day and the ubiquitous song of the Western Meadowlark. Meadowlarks, Eastern and Western, are declining grassland birds who suffer from the earlier cutting of hay and silage these days.  They are the corncrakes of North America.  But with their…

The Badlands National Park is 224,000 acres of scenery south of the I90 and it is stunningly beautiful. A prairie grassland with striking rock formations. And the sun shone all day.   I saw Bison and Pronghorn Antelope roaming the Plains, Bighorn Sheep on the rocks, Mule Deer in the valleys and Prairie Dogs in…

I didn’t really want to go to Wall Drug but I am glad that I did. The legend behind the drugstore, restaurant and shopping arcade on the I90 is that it was set up in the 1930s and wasn’t really making a go of it until the lady behind the business had an idea. They…

I woke early this morning and knew that it had been raining in Midland, SD but that now the air had cleared. I got up, dressed, tip-toed down the creaky wooden stairs of the Stroppel Hotel and strolled down the rain-soaked main street. Midland was quiet at 630am although there were orioles singing, House Sparrows…

I’m in South Dakota – only just over the border from Minnesota, but in Sioux Falls.  I started in Wisconsin, drove right across Minnesota and arrived here in South Dakota.  This is the West – although Sioux Falls doesn’t seem very wild at the moment. And that mammal from yesterday – thank you to those…