Nebraska

It had been years, literally, since Alison and I had both been to Nebraska for a holiday, so we were very happy to find that our schedules would let us meet in Omaha this year for a short week with my family. Not quite so happy, I guess, to find it cold, gray, windy, and [...]

Birding time goes way too fast, and we woke up last Wednesday to find that our trip would soon be over. But the overnight rain had cleared up, and we had a delightful walk through the Missouri River bottomlands, where the now-familiar Harris’s and Song Sparrows were joined by 8 to 10 Red Fox-Sparrows and [...]

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 [...]

I’m quite serious when I say that heaven must look a lot like the Nebraska Sandhills.
 
These 20,000 square miles (!!) of vegetated sand dunes, crossed by pristine rivers and dotted with grassy marshes, are the last great stronghold of the prairie grouse, and as I have written elsewhere, the ranchers and townspeople of Hooker County [...]

It’s a breathtakingly beautiful drive from Grand Island to Mullen, and the birds and the landscape lured us off the highway so often that it was nearly 3:00 by the time we arrived at the meeting place for our grouse excursions. The Sandhills Motel is always a delightful and comfortable place to stay, and thanks to Patty [...]