Each year, May is Bird Month in Nebraska. Birding is one of those activities that bring friends and family members of all ages together to enjoy nature. If you have binoculars and a camera, great! Use them! But you don’t need any special equipment to enjoy birds.
Here in Box Butte County we see a variety of birds in our backyards and our parks. We can hop in our cars and visit some great birding sites in the Panhandle. Crescent Lake, south of Lakeside, is a National Wildlife Refuge, focused primarily on birds. Or turn north at Lakeside and head to Smith Lake Wildlife Management Area (WMA). All the lakes and ponds in that area have geese, shore birds, swimming birds, wading birds. Watch for beauties like swans, white-faced ibis, curlews, avocets, herons, and grebes. And so many kinds of ducks.
The Nebraska Birding Guide suggests several locations in the Panhandle. Dawes and Sioux Counties have several birding hot spots: Box Butte Reservoir, Chadron State Park, Fort Robinson, Toadstool, Gilbert Baker, Sowbelly Canyon, Agate Fossil Beds.
Southern Panhandle birders enjoy the Wildcat Hills Nature Center. They also bird at Oliver Reservoir, Lake Minatare, Kiowa WMA. A little further east, Ash Hollow, Lake McConaughy, and Lake Ogallala are great birding locations.
The Nebraska Birding Guide has an online interactive map that lets you click on each location to find out more information about that site and what birds you might be seeing. https://birdtrail.outdoornebraska.gov/
Celebrate Nebraska Bird Month by getting outside and tracking birds during the Nebraska Birding Bowl, May 1-31. The Nebraska Birding Bowl is sponsored by Nebraska Game and Parks, Great Plains Audubon, Nebraska Wildlife Conservation Fund, and The Wild Bird Habitat Store.
You can help contribute data for bird research during this free, statewide birding competition. Gather your friends and family or go solo and choose from four competition category levels listed on the registration form. Registered participants that meet the category requirements are entered into the running for prizes like birding gear and a $1,000 cash prize!
There are four competition levels in the Birding Bowl:
Fledgling Flock, for youth groups or families. Identify ten birds during the month and submit one eBird checklist.
Backyard Birder participants must identify ten birds, submit five eBird checklists, and attend one bird month program, online or in person.
Dabbling Birder groups must observe twenty species, submit five eBird checklists with at least one being from a location from a Nebraska Birding Guide Map, and register and attend at least one bird month program.
The Competitive Birder category requires the team to observe at least 50 birds and submit eBird lists from at least three locations from the Nebraska Birding Guide Map.
There are several rules that must be followed. People can only be on one team. Each team must have at least one adult, and adults have to be registered with an eBird account. One person on the team must submit the eBird checklist to verify what they have seen.
You can only add birds to your list if you can positively identify them. But you can use books like the Birds of Nebraska Field Guide or All the Birds of North America. Merlin Bird ID is a great app to download and use, and it is available free from Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Merlin allows you to identify using a photo or sound.
Sound like fun? Go online and set up your accounts. https://birdtrail.outdoornebraska.gov/birdingbowl/ Then head outside and look for birds!