FALL FIELD REPORT, August-November 2022

• Main Author: Silcock, W. Ross
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln 2022
• Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Ornithology; Population Biology; Poultry or Avian Science; Zoology; Iceland
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebbirdrev/1532; https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/nebbirdrev/article/2530/viewcontent/page_126_150.pdf

All in all, this was a fairly uneventful fall season, although even uneventful seasons have their share of oddities and variations from the norm. A noteworthy event was a fire that took out much of the brushy habitat in Carter Canyon, Scotts Bluff Co (see photo on following page). It will be interesting to read upcoming spring reports to see what effect the fire might have had on numbers of birds that frequent brushy areas, like towhees and buntings. Optimistically, fires have attracted rare woodpeckers, with first to arrive Black-backed, which would be a first documented Nebraska record, and typically after a few years, American Three-toed. There was an amazing number of both early and late dates spread across the board, but with few if any patterns emerging. Among the 31 early dates, notable were a number of species that arrive in Nebraska from the north and west and usually winter, such as Surf Scoter, Barrow’s Goldeneye, Common Merganser, Horned Grebe, Iceland Gull, Northern Red-tailed Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk, Northern Shrike, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Brown Creeper, Townsend’s Solitaire, and Fox Sparrow. Late dates were even more ubiquitous, tallying about 82 species of all stripes. A few species groups showing lateness were apparent, though: cuckoos, nightjars, swifts, shorebirds, flycatchers (including 3rd latest on record Eastern Kingbird and 2nd latest Western Wood-Pewee), vireos, swallows (including record late Barn and Cliff Swallows), wrens, mimids, notably 10 species of sparrows (including record late Eastern Towhee in the northeast), Bobolink (check it out), and about seven warbler species including 4th latest on record Black-throated Green Warbler. There were some startling high counts this fall; observers should at least make an attempt to estimate large numbers of birds in single locations using a method of counting by 5s, 10s, and 100s. Most mind-blowing were the record tallies: 409 Hooded Mergansers, 156 Wilson’s Snipe, 900 Lesser Yellowlegs, 13 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 55 Snowy Egrets, 10,900 ...