Nebraska plains – clouds building.
Willet searching for food
Leave plenty of time for the 28-mile drive from Crescent Lake NWR to Lakeside, NE. The road is in rather miserable shape, but there are so many little roadside ponds filled with ducks, waders, dippers and shorebirds, you’ll spend most of your time stopped with your binoculars at the ready.
Northern Shoveler
Avocet showing the up-turned beak.
Avocets are so gorgeous in their breeding finery. This photo emphasizes the curved bill that they use to sweep back and forth in the shallows, stirring up small invertebrates to eat. Some compare it to a scythe motion.
Killdeer hunt at the pond edges.
Female phalaropes are the showier of a pair and that’s only part of the avian role reversal. Once they lay the eggs, they leave to go off to mate again or fly on…
The more colorful female Wilson’s Phalarope
…while the males sit on the eggs and raise the chicks on their own. Sometimes, Phlaropes spin in circles on the water’s surface to create an upwelling to raise small food items to the surface where they pick them off.
Wilson’s Phalarope male
Female with male lurking in the weeds
Scenic old barn along the road
A Swainson’s Hawk scouts for grasshoppers, rodents or lizards.
Map that shows route
There’s not a lot left of the town of Lakeside. I assume it had a heyday once? A state highway sign points north on Highway 250 to Smith Lake State Wildlife Management area.
Lakeside, NE
Along the way you may need to stop to help an ornate box turtle, or two, cross the road. Ornate box turtles aren’t very big, maybe 5 to 6 inches long. They’re the state reptile of Kansas and Nebraska. It is of concern, and protected in six states, Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, Kansas, and Wisconsin. In winter they hibernate in burrows underground. They can live past 30 years if they don’t get squished on the roads.
Ornate box turtle, male. Red eyes are diagnostic of males. Female eyes are brown.
Distinctive snag
When you see this snag on the left it’s time to turn off 250 to the lake which can be seen from the highway. Follow the road past the boat ramp, around the end and on the other side is a small, free campground. Most people come to fish and then leave. Once in a while a camper spends the night. Of course, weekdays are best.
Pick a campsite and settle in to watch the activity on the lake or hike around to see the prairie that surrounds it. The bird life and flowers will keep a naturalist entertained for hours. One odd thing about the area is a large forest of evergreen trees surrounding the lake which were planted long ago. This unusual forest provides shade and cover for the many species that live there.
The lake with campground along the edge
Western Kingbird
Eastern Kingbird
Western Grebe
Yellow-headed Blackbird, adult male in breeding colors
First year male Yellow-headed Blackbird
Canada goose leading the parade
Orchard Oriole, adult male. They are an eastern bird that favors riparian areas.
First year orchard oriole male. They are our smallest oriole. Range includes eastern Colorado.
White pelican adult with visible breeding knob on bill. Lots of pelicans rest on the various Nebraska lakes on their way north.
Yellow warblers find homes in the cottonwoods.
Even wild turkeys are found here.
Hike away from the lake to see the surrounding prairie dunes.
Out here is where the long-billed curlews will be found.
Little gophers keep the soil aerated.
American Goldfinches like the introduced cedars.
Birds and animals love to eat the sand cherries later in the season.
Prairie wallflowers are adapted to grow out on the harsh plains.
A few butterflies find their host plants out here. This is an Acmon Blue. (I think)
These beauties live under the forest in shady areas
Along the lakeshore we found a mallard’s nest near our site and watched a muskrat busily patrolling the edge.
Cunning mallard nest.
Muskrat on patrol.
For now we’ll share the tranquil sunset with a group of white pelicans.
Photo from the Geologic Park website of a formation along the trail
Drive north on Highway 250 to Rushville and take a left on Hwy. 20. I met a couple while camping at Smith Lake who said I should see the Toadstool Geologic Park north of Crawford, so that’s where we’re headed. This park is known for unusual rock formations and valuable fossil deposits. There are 3 hiking trails, the easiest a one-mile interpretive loop. There is a modest fee to camp in one of the six official sites. We settled in and planned to hike in the morning.
View from campground at the Toadstool park
Nebraska panhandle is a good place to see Pronghorns
Evening settles on the park
In 1984 some Forest service employees built a replica of a “soddie” on the location of a 1929 sod house site. It gives visitors the feel of a pioneer house built completely of available materials of that time.
Sod house replica with rain clouds threatening
Looking through the ” soddie” to the opposite wall and window. Notice how thick the walls are.
It started raining the next morning making the hike less appealing. A front bringing iffy weather was in the forecast so home we went. We’ll be back another time.
Sundown at Toadstool Park.
Afterward:
There is a museum nearby, the Hudson-Meng education center, that describes the history of the area’s ancient megafauna. I’ll tack on a YouTube link to a video from the center.
We didn’t have time this trip to visit the Museum of the Fur Trade in Chadron or the museum at Ft. Robinson. On the return loop there is also the Agate Fossil Beds Nat. Monument that is worth a stop. If you want a modern, personal history of the sandhills look for ecologist Steve R. Jones books about the area we’ve mentioned in this blog. “The Last Prairie: A Sandhills Journal” (Bison Books, 2006) and his newer one, “Nourishing Waters, Comforting Sky” (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2022)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM7gKaUP2dw&t=556s
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