The fall is easily one of my favorite times of the year. The temperatures reach that perfect level of not too hot and not too cool. I can look out my window and see a mosaic of straw yellows, pale oranges, and dark woody browns. Another aspect about the fall that I love is the steady stream of migratory birds!
Starting as early as August, birds begin to migrate through Nebraska as they make their way from their northern breeding grounds to their southern wintering areas. Typically some of our first migrants are shorebirds. Least sandpipers (Calidris minutilla), greater yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca), and common terns (Sterna hirundo) are a few of the shorebirds that we noted passing through the Crane Trust. One of the most exciting shorebird finds we discovered on the sandbars of the Platte river was the black bellied plover (Pluvialis squatarola)! Breeding in the arctic, these large plovers are uncommon to be found in Nebraska. Showy during the breeding season, black bellied plovers take on much drabber plumage during their migration period.
Breeding Male Black Bellied Plover
Photo thanks to Matt Davis
Nonbreeding Adult Black Bellied Plover
Photo thanks to Bridget Spencer
As the fall progresses, warblers and raptors begin to make their migration through the area. While we do not see many warblers at the Crane Trust due to the lack of large woodland areas, we have our fair share of raptors. In mid September we had an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) who could be found perching on the sandbars and dead trees of the Platte. As well, September brought our northern harriers (Circus hudsonius) who can still be found swooping low above the tall grasses. Occasionally, we saw merlin (Falco columbarius) perched on the fence posts of our bison pastures. With our ample supplies of rodents, insects, and other prey items it is no surprise that the crane trust has an abundance of raptors.
Another notable migratory species is the blackbird. Most abundant from September through October, the blackbird migration is quite the spectacle. Birds in the thousands will fly in large groups, often called clouds, across the sky in a display reminiscent of passenger pigeons. As the day turned to dusk I could walk outside the bunkhouse and watch the clouds come from the north and descend upon the reeds on our plover pond. Commonly composed of red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) or european starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), if you were lucky you could spy the golden head of a yellow-headed blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) or hear the calls of a Brewer’s blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus).
Adult Male Yellow Headed Blackbird
Photo thanks to Dorian Anderson
Adult Male Brewer’s Blackbird
Photos thanks to Jonathan Eckerson
Shorebirds, warblers, raptors, and blackbirds are all species groups we detected on our new fall migration surveys! Also known as “firbs” , our fall migration surveys were conducted in a similar manner to breeding bird surveys of the summer. An expert and a recorder would set out to some of our eighty long term monitoring plots to conduct fifteen minute point count surveys. Typically we focused on our riverfront and forest habitats rather than our grasslands, as they were more likely to have migratory species. For this fall migration season our expert was Elsa Forsberg, Crane Trust’s wildlife biologist. With her expertise we were able to detect and record many unique species which migrate through our little patch of Nebraska. Some notable species were Smith’s longspur (Calcarius pictus), Wilson’s snipe (Gallinago delicata), lesser yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes), and white-faced ibis (Plegadis chihi).
Now I would not be a real Crane Trust employee if I did not take the time to mention our famous migrants: the sandhill and whooping cranes!! While only in the tens of thousands rather than the hundreds of thousands that visit in the spring, the sandhill cranes make a quick pit stop in the fall at the Central Platte River Valley on their way to their southern wintering grounds. While they noisily visit our sandbars and fields, this fall we have been conducting our fall crane surveys via plane. To learn more about these surveys check out our blogs page for weekly updates.
In addition to our fall crane flight surveys, we have been continuing our whooping crane behavioral surveys. These surveys provide critical long term monitoring data to help better understand the habits of federally endangered whooping cranes (Grus americana). To learn more about these exciting surveys check out the instagram and facebook posts I released in November.
Adult and Juvenile Whooping Crane
Photo thanks to Jeff Langford
As winter looms in the distance, this fall migration will soon come to an end. I know I will miss the peeps of the plovers, chatter of the blackbirds, and of course, the distinct call of the sandhill cranes. See you in the spring firbs!!
William Hamson
Saunders Conservation Fellow