Nebraska - 16 Apr. 2009

Well, spring has arrived for me and I recently made my trek out to western Nebraska to start my fieldwork with Long-billed Curlews.

First things first though, and that was driving out from Iowa with two giant vehicles!  However, everything went smoothly and Ashley and I even got to stop at Lake McConaughy for a quick look around.   We found:

Western Grebe (5000+)

Horned Grebe (8)

Common Loon (10+)

6 species of gulls (Ring-billed, Herring, Franklin's, Bonaparte's, Glaucous, Lesser Black-backed)

Say's Phoebe (1)

Eastern Phoebe (1)

Loggerhead Shrike (10+)

Here is a picture of the Glaucous Gull:

Further up the road near Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge, we found things like Loggerhead Shrikes, Long-billed Curlews, Burrowing Owl, etc.  Below is a Loggerhead Shrike shot from the other day:

Near Scottsbluff, I saw White-throated Swifts which nests up on the cliff faces.  The picture below is pretty poor quality... but it IS a swift, you know....

Also, Black-billed Magpies were common near the National Monument:

As many of you know, I do not have internet at the refuge I stay at.  Hence, updates to the blog will be weekly at best (I think).  Of course, all of this assuming someone actually looks at this blog at all!  Ha.