Continue on to Highway 1 (3.0 miles). Turn south and go 1.7 miles before turning right on the road to the recreation area. After 1.3 miles swing right and continue to Stump Lake Park, a well-wooded area that is ideal for transient passerines and nesting woodland species.
A rewarding place to look for migrant and nesting woodland birds is Sully’s Hill National Game Preserve. To reach it start in the town of Devils Lake, go south from Highway 2 on Highway 20/57 for 12.0 miles, and turn left at the sign. After 0.6 mile turn left. Go 0.5 mile and turn left again. In 0.2 mile you will cross the cattleguard into the preserve, an area of rolling hills and uplands habitat. Ask at the headquarters for a list of the birds. You may either hike the nature trail (1.2 miles), drive the auto trail (4.5 miles), or do both.
The nature trail winds through excellent deciduous-forest habitat that is good for most of the birds listed under Turtle River State Park. The birds here go crazy when a tape-recording of a Common Screech-owl is played, which is a reliable indication that one of these little owls is in residence. The auto trail goes through a large enclosure, where Bison, Elk, and White-tailed Deer are allowed to roam freely. Because most of the tour traverses uplands and dry-land forests, you probably will not see many birds. Western Grebes, American White Pelicans, and Double-crested Cormorants can be seen anywhere near Devils Lake itself.
One of the best spots for migrant and nesting waterbirds is Lac Aux Mortes National Wildlife Refuge (also known as Lake Alice N.W.R.). To reach it go northwest on U.S. Highway 1 from Devils Lake. After about 13 miles turn right (north) on the road to Penn. Follow this gravel road through town and past Lake Alice. The road is chained off after 9.2 miles. The last few passable miles pass directly between Lake Alice and Chain Lake; you will have water on both sides of the road.
All of the grebes and waterfowl common to this half of the state can be observed in large numbers. In spring Snow Goose numbers may exceed 200,000. American White Pelicans and Double-crested Cormorants use the lake throughout the summer, and there are large nesting colonies of Black-crowned Night Herons and Franklin’s Gulls. Great Blue Herons and American Bitterns are commonly seen, and Great and Cattle Egrets have been showing up in late summer for the past several years. The lake also attracts all of the regular shorebirds, gulls, terns, swallows, and blackbirds. Check the wet, grassy borders of the road for Marsh and Sedge Wrens and for Le Conte’s and Sharp-tailed Sparrows.