Pawnee Lake

This is the second most popular lake for birding in the county. Habitat is much the same as Branched Oak, but being smaller, you can manage what views of the lake you can get in 1-2 hours.  Areas start at the marina as Area 1 and then go clockwise (so you have to drive on blacktop around the lake to get to the separate Areas 2 and 3) The parking lot on the West side is closed in winter, so as soon as the lake melts, it is more of a hassle to see from the West side except the very South end by the dam. The pictures below the map can be enlarged by clicking them.

The birds have been good for a while. Loons were easy to find this week.

I had eared grebes there two years, this year had at least the one horned grebe.

I've had a Swainson's hawk there but can't find the picture just now. Pipits can be found at the rocks near the dam as well as spotted sandpipers in summer. Other sandpipers are few but there was a bit of mud this year. Baird's and Yellowlegs, both.

And there may be a lot of cormorants and pelicans.

Songbirds and signs of spring

Many birds today, counted 41 species in an hour. Just regular birds, a few sparrows. Aside from song sparrows a few fox sparrows.

Meadowlarks singing.

Where I expected maybe pipits, a Savannah sparrow.

Wood duck pair at Holmes lake.

Soon a whole lot more songbirds and shorebirds show up. Had Baird's and both yellowlegs.

Migration seems to be in full swing. On Apr 14th there was a large fallout of all kinds of migrants. I may be able to catch the tail end of this, as it is quite windy and the stopped migrants may stay an extra day. Other than that, summer residents for the county are coming, such as this Eastern Phoebe.

I always look at the red-winged blackbirds for yellow-headed blackbirds. Among grackles you may find some bird that looks different, such as this one:

Praire Chickens

Out near McCook and near the Kansas border out there. They are a type of grouse of the open prairie. They are found in the sandhills, mostly the shorter mixed grass prairie.

It's almost impossible to catch the claws out fights in that light with my equipment. They did not want us using a flash. even if you had professional cameras. Here is a still from a video and the short video following.

A wider view of the lek and the goings on:

Spring almost here

Keeping track of waterfowl coming through, such as red-breasted mergansers:

Some pelicans

Tons of blackbirds, mostly cowbirds

And my nemesis purple finch, not a great day for photos then:

Last of the winter birds

I have not managed to find any real rarities, other than a difficult (for me) rusty blackbird. The picture is not terrific, so we will just post here the winter range:

It comes from the Canadian bogs and marshes, with some trees, to winter here. Omaha is certainly in the common area on the map, but here in Lincoln we are starting to be at the end of the range.

I am not great at finding horned larks in fields while sitting in a car. It gets a little easier with snow, and sometimes you find them right at the road side.

I did find a brown creeper. They need a little bit of a forest, a few back yard trees are not enough to keep them all winter. By spring they are gone.

I rarely find Longspurs so here are the only pictures I have of a Lapland Longspur from a  year ago:

In early March local birder Steve found a long tailed duck. A small Arctic bird I was able to add to my NE list:

It is headed North and stops at half frozen lakes on the way to dive for clams and such on the bottom.

Winter Hawks

Doing a Christmas bird count we found a Red-shouldered Hawk at Branched Oak. others have found it there as well. The bird seems to have wintered here. This was unusual before and the bird is never found West of Lincoln.

In various places in Lancaster county in Dec and Jan you can find rough legged hawks:

Other rough leggeds are quite dark. The upper side has some white spotting but the white spot on the rump is not always there:

Today I found an odd hawk that does not quite fit rough legged. The head is very light, most our redtails have brownish heads. The heavy streaking on the upper breast is not typical. I left it unassigned.

Branched Oak lake

This man made lake, made for fishing and boating, turns out to have enough habitat to be the best birding site in the state, just by a few birds. A larger lake (McConaughy/Ogallala) out West has just a few birds less. At Brached Oak in December and January you can see Bald Eagles.

The lake freezes for a short time but starts to melt in spring and we see more birds travel through from February on.

The levee on the East end offers views of what might be on the lake that day, such as masses of gulls or snow geese. Both ends of the levee have parking lots if you want to use a spotting scope. Going North you take the main entrance (it goes directly to the Marina (part of area 11) and has some indoor toilets part of the year) and you can get to these areas from the Marina to Area 10, mostly by gravel road:

Gulls and shore birds are here. Area 10 has some woods but is fenced off from time to time for grazing cattle in the North end. Area 10 far left parking lot gives views of gulls, ducks, mergansers, cormorants in that NW bay.

Going around the lake you can get to the Western half. Area 8 at the end of a gravel road has brushy areas. I've found Bell's Vireos in the bushes there every year. A sevice road goes North from Area 8, go on foot and avoid getting in private lands to the West. At area 8 some views of the same bay as from Area 10 are available.

Returning to Branched Oak Rd you can get to areas 5 and 6 and Lieber's Point which has offered good views of gulls, grebes and loons for me. It also gives views of ducks in the very middle of the lake. Birders often end up driving between Lieber's point and the Marrina to view the same bird in the middle.

On the South end there are three spots to view the lake. Multi-purpose trails (yes, horse poop found) give some woodland birds in May. You can start from a couple of parking lots just for hikers. Area 14 has a picnic shelter and you can walk fields in October to look for sparrows.

I happened to be doing the area Christmas count with another local birder and we had pretty good luck for December, with one hawk still to be assigned:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41152848