Sunday, May 6, 2012

Wild turkeys, wild flowers and more...

Three Toms and Lady
While in the western part of the state in late April, I happened to come upon various unique scenes and wildlife as I toured the backroads in my free time.  This post is a collection of images from those experiences for you as well as some random shots from East River the last month.  The first three photos of the wild turkeys were taken just west of the Cheyenne River and not too far from the semi-ghost town of Owanka, SD.  I had never seen Tom's in full display mode before, so it was fun to watch them try to woo about a half dozen hens.  Click on a photo for a larger file to view and enjoy!


A month and ten days since I saw my first pasqueflower of the year East River, I found this lovely patch high up in the Northern Black hills.



A yellow-bellied Marmot (or rock-chuck) sighting in the Northern Black Hills, which was also a first for me.  It reminded me a lot of a prairie dog.


Here is a nice stand of Blue Flag flowers (or wild iris, I think) on a roadside of Custer State Park:

Custer State Park deer

Sunset above trees near Keystone, SD

Star trails and painted clouds from the lights of Sioux Falls add a little drama to this abandoned farmstead near Montrose, SD.  I was working on a column about star trail photography in April for www.southdakotamagazine.com.  The column (with more photos) is here if you are interested:

The "super moon" above the trees of Adams Homestead and Nature Preserve in extreme southeast South Dakota.  This was taken on the evening of May 5th, when the moon was closest to the earth for the year 2012.

Gosling at Covell Lake in Sioux Falls over my lunch hour one day in late April.

1 comment:

Laura said...

Very nice, Mr. C. The moon is lovely -- and I've been eagerly awaiting baby animal pictures all spring. Yay!