Spring on the Prairies

The Aimophila Adventures trip to Nebraska each March is typically a late-winter trip, with chilly temperatures and at least a little snow on the ground. Not this year! It was in the high 60s Fahrenheit when I landed in Omaha last Wednesday, and American Robins, an exotic sight for a southwesterner, were running and singing from greening lawns and fields.

Most were males, as expected, coming in early to battle each other in preparation for the arrival of the females.

Carolyn and I did some scouting on a still-warm Thursday, and were happy to find Tree Swallows chirrupping over Wehrspann Lake.

 

The cedar-lined shores also hosted a good selection of sparrows, including White-throated and Harris’s Sparrows; in colder years, both those birds can be tough to turn up in late March, but we enjoyed Harris’s at several sites and in good numbers throughout the trip.

More surprising were Field Sparrows, two of which joined a flock of Harris’s at Wehrspann on Saturday. Even earlier were Chipping Sparrows, with one at Lake Manawa and another at Rowe Sanctuary. The globe is warming.

One bird we look for with great eagerness, and a little anxiety, on each trip is Rusty Blackbird. As most of you know, this is one of the most rapidly declining songbirds in North America, and where even I can remember encountering flocks of hundreds in spring and fall, seeing the bird at all is cause for celebration nowadays. We ran across only one this year, a nice male at Lake Manawa, picking through a flooded field with Red-winged Blackbirds and a surprise flock of 15 American Pipits.

A great start to what would turn out to be a great trip!