Other woodland nesting species include Red-tailed and Cooper’s Hawks; Mourning Dove; Black-billed Cuckoo; Common Screech, Great Horned, and Long-eared Owls; Belted Kingfisher (along the river); Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers; Great Crested and Least Flycatchers; Eastern Phoebe; Eastern Pewee; American Crow; Black-capped Chickadee; White-breasted Nuthatch; House Wren; Gray Catbird; Brown Thrasher; American Robin; Cedar Waxwing; Yellow-throated, Red-eyed, and Warbling Vireos; Black-and-white (rare) and Yellow Warblers; American Redstart; Northern Oriole; Brown-headed Cowbird; Rose-breasted Grosbeak; and Chipping Sparrow.
[Illustration: Grassland Tour Salyer Refuge]
The second tour is the grasslands trail, which crosses 5 miles of mixed-grass prairie. It is usually passable from May 1 to September 15, but it should not be driven in wet weather, although you may still walk it. Precise directions may be obtained from the map at the headquarters, or you may find it by going east from Newburg (Bottineau County) for about 4 miles and turning north. The trail is marked.
Although not very long, the trail is great for finding the prairie specialties. Watch for Red-tailed and Swainson’s Hawks; Northern Harrier; Sharp-tailed Grouse; Gray Partridge; Marbled Godwit; Upland Sandpiper; Eastern and Western Kingbirds; Horned Lark; Sprague’s Pipit; Loggerhead Shrike; Bobolink; Western Meadowlark; Dickcissel; Lark Bunting; Grasshopper, Baird’s, Savannah, Vesper, and Clay-colored Sparrows; and Lapland (migration), Smith’s (rare—migration), and Chestnut-collared Longspurs.
The city of Bottineau is well-known in North Dakota as the gateway to the International Peace Garden, which symbolizes our long-standing friendship with Canada. More importantly to the birder, it is the gateway to the Turtle Mountains, which are actually low hills dotted with lakes and potholes surrounded by stands of aspen, poplar, birch, and oak. The west end of the mountains is just north of Bottineau, from which they extend 35 miles to the east. This popular recreation area is filled in summer with campers, boaters, fishermen, and water-skiers. The place is not nearly as crowded in winter, but you will still run across snow-skiers and those abominations of the north—the snowmobiles.