The Muddy Creek Wetlands was one of the best stops of the trip. I saw my first several Cinnamon Teal and plenty of first birds for the trip, including Brewer's Blackbirds and a wary adult Sandhill Crane with its young. I would like to have spent more time at the wetlands, but the crane was not relaxing wherever I went along the backtrail, so I snapped a few quick photos of the main body of water then headed back for the car.
My last night on the road would be spent at the Rocky Point Campground in South Dakota. I got there as the sun was going down and people were loading their boats back onto their trailers. The campground was quite busy, so I was a little concerned how the noise would be overnight, but the noise issues would not be people-based.
Sometime in the middle of the night, a decent storm showed up, stirring some wind and rain, both of which bombarded me with noise and guaranteed another near-sleepless night. As soon as the sun started to show, I was up, birding, and eager to get home.
The drive home was smooth. The whole trip went well. So, before the trip, my goals were 25 lifers and 100 total species. I ended up one lifer short of 25 but crushed my total species goal with 163. I also shaded some states on my eBird map (Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming) and got a good break from my usual routines. Overall, it was a good trip. I don't have any other big birding plans for the summer but have done a little local birding which I'll add updates for some time in the near future (probably).
