Date: 6/25/26 7:28 pm From: Jason Thiele via groups.io <jasonthiele...> Subject: [NEBirds] Tilden BBS results
Good evening. I have just finished data entry for three Breeding Bird Survey routes completed this month, so I thought I would take a few minutes to share results and thoughts.
I completed the Tilden route on June 6. The Tilden BBS route starts in Tilden and goes north and east through portions of Madison, Antelope, and Pierce counties, ending in the Plainview area. This route was run for the first time in 2019. I will probably never top the results of that first year, when the abundance of water on the landscape from the spring flood produced species that would not be expected in most years. This year's run was slightly below average with 58 species recorded, but total birds were right around the 1000-1100 mark that has been typical. A White-breasted Nuthatch was also encountered on the route between stops.
The Northern Bobwhite tally was the highest for this route by far. The previous high was 27 last year. Two straight years with mild winters and good nesting conditions have been kind to this species. I have seen the same trend on my other BBS routes and throughout my travels around northeast Nebraska. Counts for other species generally fell within the observed ranges over the past few years. Probably the biggest misses were waterfowl (first year I haven't recorded at least one duck or goose species) and Willow Flycatcher (first time missed on this route).
