I want to start this week’s post with a massive “Thank You!” to those who contributed to the GoFundMe I announced last week. In the time since last post I’ve had a few more complications in the form of ~$5300 worth of work needing to be done on my car, but thanks entirely to the support of others I think I just might be able to make it all work out and keep the show on the road. Also, today’s post is coming out a whopping nine days late, but the good news is that “next week’s” post is going to be coming out tomorrow, and after that I should be (and stay) fully caught up! Now, that’s enough of that, let’s get to talking birds!
Back in March, amidst the Raptor Wars and Harrier Craze of Kansas, I took a two-day detour to Nebraska to witness the spectacle of Sandhill Crane migration through the Platte River. While the highlight of that first visit was unquestionably the 500,000+ Sandhill Cranes I saw in a 24-hour window, I also decisively exceeded my goal of 70+ species for The Cornhusker State, leaving Nebraska at 97 species. Despite blowing even my most optimistic expectations out of the water, leaving the state so close to the “finish line” of 100 left a sour taste in my mouth. In the months since I have countless times been asked “How many states have you visited so far?” or “Are there any states you have to go back to?”, and I was forced to give an answer of something along the lines of “I’ve visited 42 states and hit 100 in 41 of them, I just have to get back to Nebraska!” On August 18th, at the start of Week Thirty-four, I finally got back to Nebraska.
The 18th itself was a rather limited day of birding, with my only real birding coming in the morning on the Cowboy Trail at Ta-Ha-Zouka Park, where I rocketed past the Century Mark with ease thanks to picking up Chimney Swift, Red-headed Woodpecker, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Eastern Kingbird, Warbling Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Purple Martin, Cliff Swallow, Northern House Wren, Orchard Oriole, Baltimore Oriole, and Indigo Bunting for my Nebraska list.
On the morning of the 19th I met up with a birder I’d reached out to back in March who unfortunately wasn’t able to meet up. Part of the reason this birder wasn’t able to make space on his schedule to join me for some birding was something that I, a former state Big Year birder myself, can definitely relate to: wanting to preserve any vacation time for chasing and not wanting to dedicate time to something during a prime window for rarity chasing. This birder, Tobin Brown, has had quite the year since, having racked up 336 species as of the time of my visit with a few remaining low-hanging fruit targets (and up to 342 as of writing this post!), well on his way to his goal of 350 species, which would break the existing Nebraska Big Year record that sits somewhere in the high-340s. Tobin helped me track down a target of my own when we met at a Sod Farm west of Omaha, where I snagged Barn Swallow and Pectoral Sandpiper as well as my first-of-year Buff-breasted Sandpiper, the reason for the visit. After a great first stop we made our way west towards Lincoln and paid a visit to the Marsh Wren Community Wetlands in search of more shorebirds and the resident pair of American Barn Owls, but unfortunately recent rain had flooded out the mudflats with water too high for shorebirds and the owls didn’t come out to play, though we were greeted by swarms of mosquitos that rivaled those of the bogs of upstate New York.
Before parting ways so he could head to work, Tobin and I headed over to Pioneer Park to track down Nebraska’s 5th record of Swallow-tailed Kite, a bird Tobin had picked up when it showed on the 17th. We bumped into a host of birders there and spent a while staking out out the kites – which were actually present as a pair – and soon enough the birds seemed to just materialize overhead. Almost assuredly the last Swallow-tailed Kites I will see this year, I enjoyed watching them until they drifted out of sight, after which I headed back to my car and prepared to continue on west.
In the afternoon I made my way to Kearney Nebraska, where back in March I met up with Dr Jacob Cooper and his wife Caroline Cooper, who hosted me at their house and took me on a drive to see a hundred thousand cranes before treating me to dinner. On this August visit they greeted me with equal hospitality, and after a quick birding stop at the Yanney Heritage Park treated me to dinner along with some of their local birding friends and colleagues in Cody McGregor, Letty Reichart, and Peggy Huss. Following spending the night at their house (and buying some anti-itch cream the following morning to treat the 283 mosquito bites I suffered at the Marsh Wren Community Wetlands the previous day), the 20th was a rather uneventful day of birding outside of a single stop in the morning. That single stop was a spectacular one, though, where after getting special access arranged to head to the Rowe Santuary’s Southwest Meadows I added Northern Bobwhite, Piping Plover, Spotted Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Baird’s Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Least Tern, Black Tern, Willow Flycatcher, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Sedge Wren, Gray Catbird, Grasshopper Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Bobolink, and Yellow Warbler to my Beef State list. After a quick stop at the main Rowe Sanctuary center I spent the rest of the day doing DoorDash orders and doing some work on my computer before heading north in the evening to prepare to move on west to Wyoming.
The 21st was a day of predominantly driving, but I got in my fair share of birding as well. I started the day at Ravenna Lake before heading west, where I made a brief stop at the Nebraska National Forest Bessey Ranger District on my way to Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge, which hosted a good array of new Nebraska birds for me including Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet, Long-billed Dowitcher, Wilson’s Phalarope, Willet, Forster’s Tern, Western Grebe, White-faced Ibis, Loggerhead Shrike, Marsh Wren, and Lark Bunting. Before the day came to an end I drove by a small body of water along the side of the highway called Lane Lake, which served as host to one of the coolest sights I’ve ever witnessed in 1,200+ Wilson’s Phalarope all spinning around in the water, plus an assemblage of other birds including my Nebraska-first Eared Grebe.
On the 22nd I bid farewell to Nebraska, but not until after I paid a visit to the North Platte National Wildlife Refuge where Franklin’s Gull, Osprey, Prairie Falcon, and Western Wood-Pewee brought my list for Nebraska to its final tally of 156. Finally, at 2:47 pm, I crossed into Wyoming and got started on 5th-to-last state.
My plans for Wyoming experienced a very last-minute change on the morning of the 22nd. My original plans were to primarily stick to the northern parts of the state and I hadn’t anticipated heading south much at all, however following a post my dad made on the ABA Birds and Birding Facebook page (hello to everyone who discovered me through that!), my dad was reached out to be a birder by the name of Daniel Smith, a recently-retired birder who had embarked on his own birding road trip and was in Wyoming heading east towards Nebraska as I headed west from Nebraska to Wyoming. Given that our paths were generally on a collision course, Daniel reached out to my dad to get my contact information, though his usage of talk-to-text created an entertaining typo as he introduced himself as “an avid murderer on a trip of his own” rather than an avid birder. Having been reached out to be an avid murderer who wanted to meet with his son, my dad of course handed over my contact info and Daniel and I made plans to meet near the town of Laramie at the Hereford Wyoming Ranch.
On my way first west into Wyoming and then south to meet up with Daniel I started building up my state list with a wide variety of birds I found along rural roads as well as the highway, tallying Mourning Dove, European Starling, American Kestrel, Swainson’s Hawk, Rock Pigeon, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Brown-headed Cowbird, Common Grackle, American Goldfinch, Red-tailed Hawk, Barn Swallow, Lark Bunting, Western Kingbird, Horned Lark, Eastern Kingbird, Western Meadowlark, Loggerhead Shrike, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Vesper Sparrow, Lark Sparrow, and American Crow before I ever did any real birding. Eventually I arrived at the Hereford Ranch and spend some time birding as I waited for Daniel to arrive, picking up a Townsend’s Warbler and my Lifer Broad-tailed Hummingbird as I did! Eventually the avid murderer arrived and we had a pleasant time birding first at the ranch and then at a nearby reservoir, building up a solid species list including a variety of shorebirds, ducks, and songbirds as we did.
On Saturday the 23rd I headed west from Laramie into the Medicine Bow National Forest, where a very productive stop at the North Folk Little Laramie River Trail produced Canada Jay, Clark’s Nutcracker, American Dipper, MacGillivray’s Warbler and Wilson’s Warbler and the following stop at Brooklyn Lake added American Three-toed Woodpecker, Western Flycatcher, Townsend’s Solitaire, Red Crossbill, Western Tanager, and my first-of-year Pine Grosbeak! Before heading out of the mountainous woods to work my way north I stopped at the Libby and Lewis Lakes area which added Dusky Flycatcher and Orange-crowned Warbler as well as the Centennial Snowy Range Visitor Center for Rufous Hummingbird and Brewer’s Sparrow.
After working my way out of the mountains I hit the road, and as I made my way towards northern Wyoming I was blown away by the staggering numbers of Swainson’s Hawks along the road as well as a few complementary birds in Bald Eagle, Golden Eagle, and Ferruginous Hawk along with a good number of Red-tailed Hawks. I closed out the day a bit northwest of the town of Kaycee where a hunt for Common Poorwill yielded success, giving me Lifer #613 and Year Bird #568.
On the morning of Sunday the 24th I’d planned to meet Sheridan-area birder Dalton Spencer around the town of Buffalo, from which we’d intended to launch a day of birding in the Bighorn National Forest. Unfortunately Dalton was feeling a bit under the weather with an upset stomach and said he’d unfortunately have to cancel on the plans for the morning but would check back in if he was feeling better in the afternoon, and so I headed to into Bighorn solo. I didn’t have much in the way of new birds at the Circle Park Trailhead, and after a morning in the mountains headed back into town. Shortly after getting back into Buffalo Dalton reached out saying he was feeling better and we made plans to hit a series of less intensive stops than our original plan, first meeting at the Mountain Plains Heritage Park. Mountain Plains treated us very well, with highlights including locally-uncommon Stilt Sandpiper and locally-rare Rose-breasted Grosbeak, the latter of which was Dalton’s first for Wyoming and both of which were chased by a few other local birders. Joining those two rarities were a series of other new birds for my Cowboy State list including Wood Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Cinnamon Teal, American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, Wilson’s Snipe, Least Sandpiper, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Northern House Wren, Gray Catbird, Clay-colored Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Yellowthroat, and Yellow Warbler.
Dalton and I’s birding success didn’t stop there, as our next stop at the Healy Reservoir produced Northern Pintail, Ring-billed Gull, Eared Grebe, Willow Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Violet-green Swallow, American Redstart, Common Nighthawk, Brewer’s Blackbird, and another local rarity and Wyoming first for Dalton in Black-and-white Warbler. There was also a second Traill’s Flycatcher (the old name for Alder and Willow Flycatcher before they were split) that we suspected could have been a locally-uncommon Alder Flycatcher based on some visual ques, though unfortunately the bird never vocalized and without vocalization the two species are nearly indistinguishable. After Healy we got great looks at a Ferruginous Hawk on our way to the Story Fish Hatchery, a spot which only yielded three species, though one of this was my first-of-year Hammond’s Flycatcher – only the second I’ve ever seen! We capped off the day at the Bradford Brinton Memorial and Museum, a fantastic stop that gave us our fourth locally-rare bird of the day in a continuing Black-chinned Hummingbird as well as three other hummingbird species in Rufous Hummingbird, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, and my Lifer Calliope Hummingbird, along with 21 other species including three new Wyoming birds for me in Lesser Goldfinch, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Tree Swallow. Following the conclusion of our birding I headed to Dalton’s house to spend the night on his couch and talk plans for my birding for the rest of my time in Wyoming as well as Dalton’s former home of Montana.
Next week’s post, which should come out tomorrow evening, will follow the conclusion of my time in Wyoming including a fantastic couple days spent around Yellowstone National Park as well as the start of my birding in Big Sky Country. Happy Birding!
eBird Trip Summary:
First and foremost - thank you to anyone who chooses to support me in this insane adventure of mine. When I initially had this idea and began planning I didn't even consider the possibility that others would want to support me, but I am extremely grateful to those who have reached out to do so. For those who are interested in supporting me, I have set up a Patreon, which can be accessed by clicking the logo to the left (or you can send me a message via the contact page). Again, thank you for your incredibly generous support!
All Patrons will receive my "Daily Notes" 12-36 hours after the end of each day, and Patrons subscribed to the "Sponsor" tier will receive monthly postcards, mailed out between the 25th and end of each month.
For anyone who wishes to support me without using Patreon, clicking the "$" Icon will link you to my Venmo as well. There is also an option on Patreon to purchase my Daily Notes Collection for a one-time $10 payment without becoming a paid member, which will give you access to the Daily Notes without having to subscribe to a monthly subscription. For those who it requests the last four of my number for, it's 1403.
Following recent suggestions I went ahead and created a GoFundMe in order to help ensure I can keep this adventure going and afford the costs of gas, vehicle maintenance, and food (including, with enough support, some more diversity in my diet). The GoFundMe can be accessed by clicking the image link with the coin going into the donation box. (If anyone knows how to add a custom icon on Elemetor to make the Venmo and GoFundMe Links their respective logos, I'd love to hear how to do it!)
Thank you again to those of you who have supported me so far, it's tremendously generous and greatly appreciated.
Follow me on my journey to see 100 species in every Lower-48 State during 2025, experience some of the incredible places and events in American birding, and meet and bird with as many local birders as possible along the way.
Posts will be made every Wednesday (I will try to have them out by 5pm, but situationally they might be a bit later) and will cover the previous Monday through Sunday. Additional posts will be made periodically with no set schedule.
