Day 1: Arrival in Rapid City

After arrival in the “Gateway to Mount Rushmore”, Rapid City, we will check into our hotel for the next 7 nights. As the birding sites are all 1-3 hours drive from the hotel we have decided to stay in, keep unpacking to a minimum. There is no birding on this day, it is an arrival day only with a dinnertime meeting being the first group activity.

 

Day 2: Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park Area

Our base in Rapid City is only an hour away from the Black Hills. The Black Hills, around Custer State Park, provide a jaw-droppingly beautiful combination of mixed prairies, woodlands and spectacular rock outcroppings within this 71,000 acre park. The drive to and from there will not be without highlight either, as we will make a stop 30 minutes from our base in Rapid City at the iconic Mount Rushmore, a national pilgrimage. Our first birding day will be spent around Custer, where not only birds will be on the agenda, but mammals too; big herds of bison roam the park and are readily seen, and other animals like Bighorn Sheep, Elk, and Prairie Dogs are all routinely sighted in the park. As far as birds go, the wooded hills are home to a beautiful avifauna, including Red-naped Sapsucker, Lewis’s Woodpecker, Clark’s Nutcracker, Canada Jay, Plumbeous Vireo, Black-headed Grosbeak, and Western Tanager. The wooded hills are interspersed with bison-grazed open areas, where other bird fauna like Say’s Phoebe, Mountain Bluebird, Lark Bunting, and Brewer’s Blackbirds may be found, while the rockier settings play host to Rock and Canyon Wrens.

 

Day 3: Grand River National Grasslands

The day before would have largely been spent watching mammals and birds in wooded hills in the Black Hills, so we will change tack on this day and head out north to the prairies just south of the border with North Dakota. This will be the longest day of the tour, as we drive 3 hours to Grand River National Grasslands, south of Lemmon. This area of mixed grassland prairie is home some real specialties, not least Baird’s Sparrow and Sprague’s Pipit. A neat set of other prairie birds to be on the lookout for includes Upland Sandpiper, Burrowing Owl, Western and Eastern Kingbirds, Western Meadowlark, the incomparable Bobolink, and Dickcissel. After a full day in the field, we will return to Rapid City for dinner and some rest.

 

Day 4: Spearfish Canyon Area

On our first day’s birding, we will have explored the Custer area of the southern part of the Black Hills National Forest, although on this day we will visit the famous Spearfish Canyon area in the north of it. This is the best place in the state for American Dippers that nest along Spearfish Creek, and other specialties include Ruffed Grouse, White-throated Swift, Cordilleran Flycatcher, Violet-green Swallow, Canyon Wren, and MacGillivray’s Warbler. Other species available on this day include Cedar Waxwing, Veery, and Red Crossbill. The drive time is only just over an hour, so we can enjoy the best part of a day in the field, getting back by late afternoon to our Rapid City base.

 

Day 5: Badlands National Park

All of the birding days on this tour offer birds alongside scenery, but this one may just be the best, as we focus on Badlands National Park. This designated wilderness area boasts some of the United States’s most spectacular rock formations, of buttes, spires, pinnacles, canyons, and multicolored cliffs. While it is also a birding day, plenty of time will be available to allow our smartphones to record images of this devastatingly beautiful landscape. Although coffee table book photos typically show stark looking panoramas, the Badlands actually have a more diverse mix of habitats than those alluring, iconic images might suggest, including cottonwoods and juniper stands on the hills, woodlands, and grasslands. Among the varied list of birds to watch out for will be Sharp-tailed Grouse, Golden Eagle, Ferruginous Hawk, Prairie Falcon, Horned Lark, Vesper, Grasshopper and Lark Sparrows, Blue Grosbeak and Spotted Towhee. Most of the day will be spent in the park and its scenic surrounds, before we return to our Rapid City base, only an hour’s drive away in the afternoon.

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Days 6-7: Return to the Black Hills

These days will be spent in other portions of the Black Hills National Forest, with the exact location being decided based on our returns from the previous two days in the area. We can also combine some local prairie areas with this too, if we feel we need to.

 

Day 8: Departure from Rapid City

On this day you will be transferred to the airport for departures out. There is no birding on this day.