Date: 9/7/26 4:06 pm From: Robin Harding via groups.io <pine2siskin4...> Subject: [NEBirds] Valley County
Nebraska birders,
On September 07, Bill Flack and I visited Rita Cunha in Ord. She has been seeing a couple Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at her feeders. The birds didn't disappoint us, giving us a good show. As usual, they spent more time chasing each other around the yard than drinking from the feeders.
Rita took us to a place near Ord where she had seen a pair of Barn Owls with young. When we arrived, we saw one of the adults standing in the opening of a hole in a tall dirt bank. Soon, a young owl came into view beside the adult. It was very cool!
Our next destination was a Prairie Dog town about two miles down a very minimum maintenance road. There were a few spots along the "road" that we weren't sure if we could get through. Bill managed it very well. We watched the dog town for forty minutes. Bill spotted a Say's Phoebe and got his scope on it so that Rita and I could also see it. Unfortunately, we didn't see a Burrowing Owl.
Rita has received permission to enter the area with Ord's sewage lagoons. We drove slowly around the ponds. We saw three Ruddy Ducks, a Northern Pintail and a female Ring-necked Duck. There was also a Wilson's Snipe that let us get very close before it flew. There were several Spotted Sandpipers and a Forster's Tern. We heard a Marsh Wren and saw a Dickcissel.
We walked some of the trail at Anderson Island but the mosquitos were thick and thirsty. We didn't stay too long.
It was a very nice morning to bird with friends. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Barn Owl and Say's Phoebe were new Valley County birds for Bill. The hummingbird and owl were new county birds for me. I don't have all of my historic lists entered into ebird but the Barn Owl is number 400 on my North America life list.
I hope to see you next weekend in Kearney at the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union meeting/birding event.
