We did not have a lot planned today. We thought we would sit out at the 261st Street dirt road to we could find some new birds, look for the Belted Kingfisher, and mail postcards in Canistosta, SD.

The first activity was to go to Canistosta Post Office and pick up a coke for John. This was uneventful until we were pulled over for doing 35 mph in a 25 mph zone. The speed limit on the highway through Canistosta is 25 mph. When you leave Canistosta the speed limit does not increase to 55 until at least 2 miles out of town, and there are no signs on the highway in town reminding you to go 25. The police officer was great and let us go with only a verbal warning. Yeah!! Otherwise, this would have been Kate’s first speeding ticket.

From here, we drove down 261st street – the dirt county road that goes along the northeast edge of Lake Vermillion. As we were approaching the lake, we saw an American Pelican Pelican swimming in the far inlet. Next, we saw a Great White Egret in the near inlet. When we parked, we saw a Great Blue Heron near the Pelican. Shortly after we arrived, the Great White Egret flew over to the Pelican.

After watching the birds for a few minutes, the Great White Egret flew to a downed tree on the water. John was not able to get an good pictures in flight, but he did get catch the Egret balance beam performance.

The Great Blue Heron was not impressed by the performance, but the Great White Egret did not seem to care. They still gave each other the stink eye.

I appears that the heron won the stink eye contest because the egret flew away.

The pelican spent this entire time swimming in circles and feeding, until flying away right by John.

Later a Green Heron flew onto a tree branch near where the egret was perched. Kate’s Merlin App indicates that Green Heron sightings are rare. This is the first Green Heron sighting since we went to Galapagos many years ago.

John thinks Green Herons must be part owl to twist their head around like that. This entire time, the Great Blue Heron just kept wading around and minding its own business. Eventually, a Great White Egret fly to other inlet and landed. It spent a great deal of time wading around and not finding any fish.

Of course, Kate had to take a stack of selfies 🙂

We then drove to Lake Vermillion Dam. We saw some of the typical birds but also a hurt Pelican on the shore close to where people fish. The bird was struggling with the waves pushing it around. We notified the park of the bird just in case they could help it out or at least prevent people from bothering the bird.

In the air near the same, there was a flock of white and black birds. We thought they were seagulls, but it looks like they are Least Terns, due to the beak color and white triangle on the forehead.

At the dam, there was a single sandpiper that looked different than the previous ones. Sadly, it appears to be a juvenile Spotted Sandpiper, so nothing new.

There was also a sparrow that we have not photographed. It appears to be a Song Sparrow.

While John was taking pictures another selfie was taken with the dam in the background. 🙂