Date: 6/16/26 11:51 am From: Tobin Brown via groups.io <tobinjbrown...> Subject: [NEBirds] Crescent Lake BBS
Nebraska Birders,
This weekend I completed the Crescent Lake Breeding Bird Survey. This was only my second year running the survey.
Overall, the hills look to be recovering quite well from the wildfires, but the grasses are still only a few inches tall due to a lack of rain. Low water, fairly windy conditions and the recent wildfire recovery led to a pretty significant drop in diversity from last year (59 to 40 species).
- Only 4 species of waterfowl observed compared to the 10 from last year - No Bitterns detected (perhaps due to wind), but I did find 3 Black-crowned Night Herons at Rush Lake. - Very short grasses led to the absence of Bobolink and a significant drop in Grasshopper Sparrows (39 last year to 3 this year), and Dickcissel (24 to 6) - Long-billed Curlew, Marsh Wren, and blackbird numbers were relatively stable. - New species for me on the route, bringing my personal species count to 64: American Robin, Western Greve, Black-crowned Night Heron, Swainson's Hawk, Sharp-tailed Grouse
I also extended my trip before and after the route, spending a few more days in the Sandhills and Panhandle, which netted some more great birds! It seems like a really good year for Cassin's Sparrow, which I listened for on my BBS route, but didn't find. The complete trip report is here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/537726
