Date: 4/6/25 3:56 pm From: Rita Cunha via groups.io <rita23cunha...> Subject: [NEBirds] North Platte weekend, trip recap
Hey all. Back in February, I posted here asking for bird watching tips ahead of a trip I had planned to North Platte. Tobin Brown and Boni Edwards both gave me great tips, so I left Friday feeling hopeful. I'm happy to report the trip was a success!
Saturday started before dawn at a *Greater Prairie Chicken* lek. I booked the blind through Dusty Trails, who drove us out to the lek south of Sutherland. There were only four of us in the school bus turned blind. Despite the cold (25F) and overcast conditions, the chickens put on an amazing show! At one point I counted 25 birds on the lek, with 11 of them being hens. This wasn't my first time on GPC booming grounds, but it was definitely the best. The cherry on top was seeing a *Short-Eared Owl* (Tier I species) fly gracefully nearby for half a minute.
After the lek, the tour van took us to Sutherland Reservoir, where we spent a few minutes looking for waterfowl. The *American White Pelican* and *Double-Crested Cormorant* were plentiful, but the highlight for me was spotting a couple of *Baird's Sandpipers* mixed in a flock of other, smaller sandpipers. (Shore birds are hard, and we couldn't ID the rest.)
Later in the afternoon, we headed west to Lake Ogallala. I was hoping to see a Common Loon, but no luck. It's such a large body of water, it gets me itching to learn to kayak, but with only a pair of binoculars, scanning the middle of the lake gets tough. So we abandoned that plan and ventured out to Clear Creek SRA. This is such a beautiful, serene place! Hundreds of ducks, a *Bald Eagle* sitting in a nest, dozens of *Sandhill Cranes* , a lonely *Belted Kingfisher* , the warm golden afternoon light shining on the marsh... Wow.
Finally, Sunday we drove on county roads around North Platte. Thank you, Boni, for sending me a great birding route! The sub-irrigated meadows and wandering creeks are gorgeous habitat, and we saw multiple waterfowl species enjoying the water. It was an excellent morning, made even better by a *Loggerhead Shrike* (Tier I species)! My first-ever sighting, and one I had been hoping to see as a grasslands girl.
