It was foggy much of the day, but it cleared up in the early evening. We decided to look for nocturnal wildlife again on the wildlife loop. On the drive, we were almost hit by a Common Nighthawk. It was close to where we saw on the last time. Maybe it really liked being in the headlights last time? It thought it was on Broadway! Or, insects were attracted to the headlights, and it was trying to catch the insects.

A little further on, we saw a Bison about 50 feet off the road near a pull-off, so we pulled over. It turned out to be an entire herd of Bison out in the prairie. John tried to take pictures, but they were too far away for the camera flash to properly light them up. These “Bison in the dark” pictures are the inverse of a “Polar Bear in a snow storm”. They are just a few little light points in a dark background.

While John was trying to take pictures, he heard something. You might need to turn up your volume, but it sounded kind of like this …

Either there is a Tyrannosaurus Rex loose in the park or Bison snore. Get that Bison a CPAP, stat! We drove the entire rest of the wildlife loop, and it was pretty much empty. We saw a few eye-shines off in the distance in the trees, but it was nothing like the first try. Near the end of the loop, when we had pretty much given up, we heard something again. This time, it was not Bison snoring.

There are no wolf packs in Custer State Park, but sometimes, lone wolves pass through. Our best guess is a Coyote howling; it does not sound quite right for wolves.