MAXIMAL SOCIAL DISTANCING
AND SELF-ISOLATION GODWIT-STYLE
(CHAPTER ONE: NEBRASKA) 

7-12 May 2020

    Hudsonian Godwits winging over marshland in Nebraska

Want to get away? Want to have lots of space to spread your wings? Head to Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Montana. Camp solo. Chase Hudsonian Godwits and other shorebird migrants. That’s what I am doing in May 2020 to keep virus-free. So far, it seems to be working.

    American Robin singing its heart out north of Utica, Nebraska

I had been scheduled to fly to Alaska on the 3^rd of May, to join Nathan Senner at his godwit research site on the Beluga River, west of Anchorage. But that all was canceled by the pandemic. So I needed a fallback plan.

    Blue Goose (blue morph of Snow Goose) lingering--should be headed to Churchill, MB

I departed Bethesda, Maryland, on 7 May at 0610am and headed due west. After 12 hours of driving I stopped for the night in Crawfordsville, Indiana. After a dinner picked up in a McDonald’s drive-thru, I headed out to Lye Creek Prairie Burn to see if I could see or hear a Smith’s Longspur. Lots of singing birdlife in the gloaming, but no longspurs.

    Lots of old cars out and about in small rural towns in the prairie...

The next morning I had hopes of having another look for the Smith’s Longspur, but the rain was steadily falling so I headed west on I-70, passing thru Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Eleven hours of monotony (the radio is only featuring COVID-19 discussions these days), brought me to the eastern flanks of the Missouri River in northeastern Iowa. And as luck would have it, there was a big mudflat back from the mighty river and just beside highway 34. I gazed leaft at 65 mph and there I saw large and dark-plumaged shorebirds. Scope set up and binoculars out and there I found a flock of Hudsonian Godwits, my flagship species for this third in a series of godwit journeys.

    Broad-winged Hawk

So I was seeing godwits, a happy and unexpected surprise, on the second day of my three-weeks of wandering. I had no expectation to commune with Hudsonian Godwits in Iowa, but I did, and this made my day!

    Hudsonian Godwits foraging in deep water in Nebraska

Ninety minutes later I was ensconced in Blue Valley Campground, right at the edge of bucolic Seward, Nebraska, where I had spent some productive hours back in May 2019. That day I bought a cell phone signal booster for my car and repaired the car’s air filter after I made the mistake of following a truck loaded with dusty cargo for 5 minutes (that’s all it took to take down my mighty SUV).

    Rose-breasted Grosbeaks sang from the Cottonwoods in Blue Valley campground

I had hopes of camping where I camped in 2019—at Smith Creek Recreation Area in Beaver Crossing, NE, but that was now closed to tent-camping by the powers-that-be because of the virus. So here I was in a town park, the only tent camper, in the banks of the Big Blue River. Lots of big cottonwoods, and a Great Horned Owl nest with two young right above my tent.

    Probable Long-billed Dowitcher

Once in Nebraska I started hunting for godwits in the places I found them last year—Tamora, Utica, and Gresham—tiny farming towns in the land of soybeans and corn. All I had to do was turn on eBird and recent sightings popped up. I was in business…

    Drake Shoveler duck

The godwits, migrating north from their wintering ground in Chile, stop over in several places in the great plains of the US. I was out in search of these birds during their brief stop overs. Most of the time they drop into flooded farm fields—usually soybean stubble fields with a big patch of water. Last year was very wet and there were hundreds of pools. This year Nebraska has been dry so the pools are few—mainly the Wildlife Management Areas managed by the state that are scattered about. South of Tamora I found my first flock of 7 HUGOs mixed in with a handful of other shorebird species—mainly Long-billed Dowitchers and White-rumped Sandpipers.

    Least Sandpiper - notice the little droop to the tip of the bill

The godwits feed in deep water, often their breasts in the water- their heads down and their long upcurved beaks drilling up and down sewing machine fashion—at that speed too. Somehow they locate prey this way.

    Hudsonian Godwits go deep

Here at the Straight Water WMA this morning the air temperature is below freezing and there is sparkling frost on the reeds. But spring is here. The Red-winged Blackbirds are going crazy singing and chasing. The Marsh Wrens are making a sound like a sewing machine. And the Western Meadowlarks are mesmerizing with their lovely distinctive series of musical flourishes.

    Hudsonian Godwit adult female - larger and plainer than the dark-breasted males

At lunchtime, I head to Gresham, where I visit Bob Romohr and his farming team (including brother John) to see how things are going for this productive family. Last year I got to know Bob because I was spending each morning and afternoon watching godwits and other shorebirds and terns and pelicans come and go from a wet field about a half-mile east of his homestead. This year we sat down for lunch and talked about the virus and agriculture… 

    Chase heads to one of the big machines on the Romohr farm in Gresham, NE

They are working 7 days a week focusing on seed corn and soybeans. They don’t seem to be held back by the virus. Nobody out here wears a mask out on the farm of course. The Romohrs and people like them are what makes America so successful year in and year out. No virus is going to slow them down. I salute them!

    Bob Romohr in his workshop with the big rigs! 

I spend 3 nights in the Blue Valley campground ($7 per night fee), and each morning I head out in search of migrant shorebirds. On Sunday, I meet Mace Hack and his son Joe to hunt for Buff-breasted Sandpipers. Mace is director of the Nebraska Nature Conservancy and an acquaintance from Princeton days. It is good to catch up this way…

    Two bright females and a dowdy male Wilson's Phalarope

This is the week the Buff-breasted Sandpipers race through Nebraska on the way north to their arctic breeding area. We start our hunt at Straight Water WMA, and the wind is kicking up (that’s the prairie for you). We start checking upland stubble fields that last year featured soybeans. After about an hour Mace says “Got ‘em.” We find a flock of 12 foraging cagily on a hilltop of stubble. They blend in so well with the field and stubble that it is a battle to get them in the scope. But there they are—perhaps North America’s most elusive migrant shorebird. This is a lifer for Joe.  And the best bird of the day for me and Mace. Any day with Buffies is a great day.

 

    Hudsonian Godwits over marshland in Nebraska