From Mullen to Manawa

I think we could all have spent another week or two watching Sharp-tailed Grouse and Greater Prairie-Chickens in the Nebraska Sandhills, but schedules have a way of becoming inflexible when the airlines are involved, so after a wonderful breakfast at Denise’s Sandhills Coffeemill and farewells with Mitch and Patty at the Sandhills Motel, we loaded up the van and headed south and east.

As we drove through the central Sandhills, we found several more Sharp-tailed Grouse.

Horned Larks and Western Meadowlarks were singing up a storm, and every shelterbelt had its Red-tailed Hawk, including a couple on nests. The perfect Sandhills scene, though, was a Long-billed Curlew singing in display flight over the hills.

We paused in North Platte to look at waterfowl on the river, including incredibly close views of Ross’s Geese. And then, suddenly and abruptly, the weather changed on us. Gray skies drizzled, then dumped rain on us, and the only birds visible from the road were enormous flocks of Sandhill Cranes stubbornly gleaning waste corn in the fields on their way north.

To my relief, we outran the storms, and it was dry and nearly clear when we arrived at our motel. We checked in, then headed straight across the river to our evening site. Harris’s Sparrows were singing and chikking as they went to roost in the cedars, and many thousands of Ring-billed Gulls passed over on their way to the lake for the night.

The clouds had caught up with us, but the rain was holding off. Just at sunset, our quarry revealed its presence: the loud buzzes of American Woodcocks surrounded us, and it was not many more minutes before the first of at least 4 singing birds ascended. They were unusually hard to follow against the overcast sky, but eventually everyone had good looks at the bat-like shapes dancing overhead.

From sharp-tails to woodcock: only in Nebraska!