Date: 6/27/26 6:45 pm From: Paul L. Pearson via groups.io <Propearson...> Subject: [NEBirds] UNK Cuckoo Surveys-6/27 Burt, Thurston Counties
I had the opportunity to join Dr Jacob Cooper on Sat June 27 for some 2026 cuckoo surveys being conducted by the UNK Ornithology Program in Burt and Thurston Counties. Protocol was stopping at pre-selected locations with presumed suitable habitat and playing a 6 minute recording of calls (with interspersed pauses) from both species.
We started at spots near/in Summit Lake SRA (Burt). We had one Yellow-billed call at our first stop, but unfortunately I didn’t catch it. After a few more stops in Burt without any cuckoos, we proceeded to Middle Decatur Bend, an historic oxbow on the Eastern side of the Missouri River across from Decatur but part of Nebraska. After our playback loop, a Black-billed Cuckoo called once distinctly from a fair distance south of our location through tick and poison ivy infested weeds that prohibited trying to search for it. This was only the 2nd BBCU found (so far) in the statewide survey. Per eBird and NOU county records, this is a Burt county FIRST record! Personally this was my first BBCU in the 21st century and only my second (June 1983). We celebrated with some (unexpectedly) great brisket for lunch at the Hillbilly Smokehouse in Decatur.
We then proceeded north into Thurston County and the Omaha Tribe Reservation (with prior permission) and tried various locations that we were able to access until it became too windy to reasonably continue.At Big Elk Wildlife Park in Thurston we heard our second and last YBCU of the day. A final stop at Pelican Point SRA (Burt Co) on the Missouri river was our last attempt and we saw 2 Least Terns on the Iowa side of the river in Monona County. Along with our 3 cuckoos, we both added county ticks in Washington, Burt and Thurston (Jacob-59 in Burt and 27 in Thurston!), as well as attracting several actual ticks.
