Date: 11/24/25 5:06 pm From: Matt Shurtliff via groups.io <mmscornhusker...> Subject: [NEBirds] Not Nebraska - Loess HIlls NWR, NW Missouri
OK this isn't Nebraska but it's just across the river from Rulo and a lot of Nebraskans bird there. I've been the last two Saturdays and have been watching checklists for the last month -- I've had a couple of friends who wanted to "see swans" and I wanted to make sure I could give them a show.
Swan migration is on right now. Checklists say 3 three weeks ago, 130 two weeks ago, 400 (mine) one week ago, and 500 (also mine) on Saturday. A few Tundras in there. This number will grow to at least 2K in my experience.
Snow/Ross Goose migration is on, from literally zero white geese a week ago to 20K-ish on Saturday. Ducks are also on, a week ago it was Mallard-Pintail-Ring Necked-Shoveler. This week add in Redhead, Scaup, Bufflehead, Gadwall, Wigeon, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser, Green-Winged Teal, and some late Blue-Winged Teal.
One small group of Sandhill Cranes. No white ones :)
Eagles just starting to accumulate, if you've never been there they'll go well over 200 during December-January.
Last week I saw a very large mixed blackbird accumulation, I had it at 50K on my checklist - multiple migrating flocks were converging at sunset. Huge but nothing compared to the massive one I caught once at Cheyenne Bottoms in Kansas that was in the millions.
46 species checklist on Saturday 11/22, pretty good for a mid to late November, and the only wintering songbirds seen were Fox Sparrow and Tree Sparrow. So we left a few easy ones on the table. I'm sure they were there; we only checked the woodland areas from the road and didn't spend much time doing it.
