Notes- Nebraska Bird Review (December 1981)

• Main Authors: Pennington, Iola, Turner, Harold, Lingle, Gary, Bliese, J.C.W., Lock, Ross
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln 1981
• Subjects: Poultry or Avian Science; Zoology; Canada; Gordon Creek; Grand Island; Pennington; Wood Buffalo; Wood River; Wood Buffalo National Park
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebbirdrev/230; https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1229&context=nebbirdrev

DIXON COUNTY. In mid-March 1981 there were thousands of Snow Geese on the Missouri near Ponca, also Canadas, and we saw 6 White-fronteds up close in a plowed field. We also saw lots of ducks: Pintails, Ring-necks, Redheads, Mallards, and others. We saw Field Sparrows, and in town White-breasted Nuthatches, Robins, and Starlings were everywhere. -Iola Pennington, Wauneta, NE 69045 GREATER PRAIRIE CHICKEN. On 12 December 1980 I flushed a Greater Prairie Chicken. I could clearly see the black band across the tail, indicating a male. A short time afterwards I was visiting at my brother's place, and they said that they had seen a flock of 13 fly across the road in their area. My observation was in Franklin Co.; theirs in Adams Co. -Harold Turner, Nichol Hotel, Minden, NE 68959 RUDDY TURNSTONES. On 14 May 1981 Mia Hay and I observed 3 Ruddy Turnstones on a sandbar in the south channel of the Platte River, at Mormon Island Crane Meadows, south of Grand Island in Hali Co. This was about 7:30 PM. The birds were all in breeding plumage, and they allowed us to get to about 40 yards of them before flying. We watched them for several minutes before we flushed them. I am familiar with them from the Great Lakes and the Massachusetts coast. -Gary Lingle, 619 W. 12th, Grand Island, NE 68801 LITTLE BLUE HERON. I saw a Little Blue Heron about 11:30 AM 23 May 1981, on the Platte River in Buffalo Co., west of the bridge on the Hike-Bike Trail. This is less than a mile east of site of the 20 August 1979 sighting reported in NBR 48:89. -Dr. J.C.W. Bliese, 107 E. 27th St., Kearney, NE 68847 WHOOPING CRANES. On 19 October 1981 two Whooping Cranes in adult plumage were sighted in Sherman County, on the Middle Loup River 3 miles east of Rockville. On 27 October two birds in adult plumage were sighted in Buffalo County, on the South Loup River 7miles west and .5 mile north of Pleasanton. Both of these sightings were verified by state or federal wildlife biologists or conservation officers. The following records of a radio-tagged chick and its parents were made by following them in an airplane on their southward migration from Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada. They spent the night of 21 October in northeast Montana, west of Medicine Creek National Wildlife Refuge. The next day (22 October) They flew nonstop kJ Gordon Creek, in Cherry County 4.5 miles south and 2.5 miles west of Merritt Reservoir. On23 October they flew to the Wood River, in Custer County 1 mile northwest of Oconto, and the following morning they flew to near Rush Center, Kansas. -Ross Lock, Game and Parks Commission, P.O. Box 30370, Lincoln, NE 68503