Volume 91, Issue 2, 2013
March 2013
- Identifier:
- nela.2013_091_02
- Title:
- Volume 91, Issue 2, 2013
- Issue Name:
- March 2013
- Date Issued:
- 2013-03-01
- year:
- 2013
- month:
- March
- Season:
- Winter
- PDF filename:
- NL_91.02_2013_Mar_Spreads_Entire.pdf
- Publisher:
- Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
- Format:
- Periodical
- volume:
- 091
- issue:
- 02
- number:
- 091.02
- Decade:
- 2010s
- Type:
- Rights Holder:
- Copyright Nebraskaland Magazine/Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, all rights reserved.
- Extracted Text:
-
A North American river otter rests on the ice on the Platte River near Grand Island.
Photo by Luke Kathol.
INSIDE
Crane Trust Nature and Visitor Center
Parks Through the Seasons ● Turkey Vultures
The Year of the Rabbit ● Family Fossil Hunting ● Falconry
Volume 91, Number 2, March 2013
12 Keep Your Head Down – Bottles, Bones and Family
When the Morgenson family goes for a hike, they often
find a piece or two of history. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY JEFF KURRUS
18 Learning About An Ancient Sport
A large falconry “meet” in Kearney last November
offered the opportunity to learn about one of the world’s
oldest sports. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ABBY JENSEN
22 Parks Through the Seasons
A photographic look at some of the many great vacation
options that Nebraska’s state parks offer. PHOTOS BY ERIC
FOWLER AND JEFF KURRUS
32 The Crane Trust – Sinking Roots, Deepening the Vision
The Crane Trust Nature and Visitor Center has undergone
several changes but still remains a great way to explore
the Platte River’s ecosystem. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY BRAD
MELLEMA
36 The Year of the Rabbit
18
●
Those “rascally rabbits” have a way of burrowing under
the skin of even the meekest gardener. BY LISA KNOPP
38 Vultures – Nature’s Cleanup Crew
Although considered ugly and disgusting by many
people, turkey vultures have some amazing traits and
perform a valuable service. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ERIC FOWLER
Comment ................................................................... 4
Mixed Bag................................................................. 6
Nature Notes ............................................................44
In the Kitchen ..........................................................45
Classifieds ................................................................46
Portraits from the Past .............................................48
Page 49 ....................................................................49
The Last Stop ...........................................................50
12
●
22
●
Cover: Sandhill cranes settle in for a cold evening on an ice-covered
Platte River channel. Photo by Brad Mellema. Opposite: Old iron greets
visitors to Fort Kearny State Historical Park. Photo by Jeff Kurrus.
NEBRASKAland (VOL. 91 / NO. 2, ISSN 0028-1964) is published monthly, except for the
combined Jan./Feb. and Aug./Sept. issues, by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission,
2200 N. 33rd St., Lincoln, NE. Periodicals postage paid at Lincoln, Nebraska, and additional
mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NEBRASKAland, P.O. Box 30370,
Lincoln, NE 68503-0370.
2 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
32
●
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 3
Hint section is a spotted cucumber
beetle.
Please keep up the great work!
Dave Poppe
Fremont, Nebraska
Lifetime Gifts
This year we, grandparents Bill and
Marilyn Bailey, decided to try to give
Christmas gifts that wouldn’t end up
in yard sales, as broken toys or be just
forgotten.
We outsmarted the grandkids this
time – Marilyn and I bought lifetime
hunt and fish permits for all nine of
them, from 2½ years of age up to 17.
Now they will always be able to
enjoy Nebraska no matter where they
end up living.
Bill and Marilyn Bailey
Lexington, Nebraska
Editor – What a great gift!
NEBRASKAland Visitor Letters
We want to thank all 24 readers
that sent e-mails and letters for last
issue’s visitor, a spotted cucumber
beetle that was on page 13 (see page
11 for the winner, rules and this issue’s
hint). Here are some of the wonderful
responses we received:
Thanks for the hidden visitor in each
issue of NEBRASKAland. I wasn’t
sure I had found it until I looked at a
previous issue and found that same
space empty. Then my wife Becky
and I had the same discussion – could
it be that obvious? On page 13, in the
NEBRASKAland Visitor Winner and
Richard Boonstra of Fremont didn’t
have to pay extra to advertise his
outdoor interests on his license
plate. His standard plate lists his
favorite rifle caliber, which he took to the field with his son-in-law and
grandsons last fall at age 82, his 37th deer season and first away from
the Pine Ridge. “I only want to try it once” he told his wife before that
first trip to Crawford.
If you have a unique outdoor message plate you would like to share
or know someone who does, e-mail a photo (high-resolution, JPEG
format only, please) of it to Eric.Fowler@Nebraska.gov, along with your
name, hometown and a brief description of the interests expressed on
your license plate.
4 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
Every month all of our family
takes turns looking for the visitor
in NEBRASKALand Magazine.
Sometimes it’s a challenge to find the
visitor and we need to search several
times thru the pages. January-February
2013’s visitor, however, is hidden in
plain sight on page 13, lower righthand
corner in the section announcing
last month’s winner and the hint of
where the visitor is not in this month’s
magazine. The visitor is a green and
blacked spotted beetle-type insect. I
have always enjoyed the magazine
from the time it was called Outdoor
Nebraska to the present. It’s been a
part of our family’s home as long as I
can remember.
Tom Ourada
Omaha, Nebraska
You guys were very cruel this month.
I looked through your magazine just
about with a magnifying glass three
times and my husband looked – no
bug. Then we decided it had to be
the bug on page 13 in your Nebraska
Visitor Winner and Hint area. Too
obvious – I kept thinking that could
not be the bug, that you had that bug in
each issue there. Then I looked in the
last issue. No bug. So I say the bug is
the obvious one on page 13.
Chick and Linda Straub
via e-mail
Pretty cagey on this one! At first I
could not find it and thought it had just
walked off my magazine this month.
Then I thought it must be the grub
that is inside the acorn on page 27!
Even though I thought you had used
the beetle before that was page 13,
(I was thinking it was just part of the
“visitor” box each month) I got looking
at past issues and realized it was not
there before!
So there it is on page 13 in the visitor
box!
Being a deer hunter I love Rick’s
deer photo on page 17 – it is great!
Ron Macomber
via e-mail
A familiar garden pest to many, the
spotted cucumber beetle is the bane
of cucumber and squash growers
everywhere. Spotted cucumber beetles
are ¼-inch long and yellowish-green
in color, with 12 spots on their backs.
They overwinter as adults in southern
states, and migrate into Nebraska by
early summer. Females lay eggs in
the soil, and after hatching the larvae
feed on plant roots. These larvae, also
known as southern corn rootworms,
have a fairly wide host range,
including cucurbits (cucumbers,
melons, squash, pumpkins), beans,
peas, potatoes, tomatoes and corn.
Adults emerge and begin to feed
on foliage and stems of cucurbit
plants. In addition to the physical
damage caused by their feeding, they
transmit bacterial wilt to the plants.
Bacterial wilt infection will initially
cause wilting in only one part of the
plant, but as the bacterium moves
through the plant tissue, the entire
plant collapses and dies. In Nebraska,
one to three generations of spotted
cucumber beetle occur each growing
season. Controls for this pest in your
garden include using row covers to
physically block the beetles from your
cucumbers, planting beetle and wilt
resistant varieties, and the use of
insecticides. Another tactic is to
plant more than you need and
surrender some plants to
the beetle.
Special thanks to Julie Van Meter, State
Entomologist, Nebraska Department of
Agriculture. Visitor image by Chris Helzer.
www.bugguide.net is a good site for identification
Send your comments to:
Doug Carroll, Editor
NEBRASKAland Magazine
P.O. Box 30370
Lincoln, NE 68503
or e-mail Doug.Carroll@Nebraska.gov
Please include your postal address and
telephone number.
Letters may be condensed and edited
for clarity. Photographs are welcome
and will be returned.
Any program that receives federal funding from the National Park
Service, or the United States Fish and Wildlife Service prohibits unlawful
discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, age, gender, marital
status, national origin, age, disability or political affiliation. Any person
who believes he or she has been discriminated against in any program,
activity, facility, or service, should contact the Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission, Lincoln, NE 402-471-0641, the Equal Opportunity
Commission, Lincoln, NE 402-471-2024, TTY/TDD 402-471-4693;
United States Fish Wildlife Service, Civil Rights Coordinator, 4401
N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203; Director, Equal Opportunity
Program, U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service, 1849 C
Street NW, Mail Code 0008, Washington, D.C. 20240-0001.
COMMISSIONERS
CONSERVATION OFFICERS
Director Jim Douglas
NORTHWEST
Officer
City
Jim Zimmerman (S) Gering
Commissioners
Chairman - Ron Stave, Waterloo
Vice Chairman - Norris Marshall, Kearney
2nd Vice Chairman - Jerrod Burke, Curtis
Dr. Mark Pinkerton, Wilber
Dr. Kent Forney, Lincoln
Lynn Berggren, Broken Bow
Rex Fisher, Omaha
Mark Spurgin, Paxton
Mick Jensen, Blair
MAGAZINE STAFF
Editor Doug Carroll
Associate Editor Jeff Kurrus
Art Director Tim Reigert
Regional Editors Eric Fowler, Julie Geiser,
Justin Haag, Jenny Nguyen
Contributing Editor Michael Forsberg
Regular Contributors Bill Hager, Chris Helzer,
Lisa Knopp
Photo Librarian Sarah Johnson
Circulation Donna Robinson
For address changes and questions about
your subscription, e-mail Donna.Robinson@
Nebraska.gov or call (800) 632-5263
Advertising
For advertising information contact
Donna Robinson, Circulation
Phone: (402) 471-5490
E-mail: ngpc.ads@nebraska.gov
NEBRASKAland Magazine Copyright 2013, all rights reserved.
NEBRASKAland is available in audio from the Nebraska Library
Commission Talking Book and Braille Service, Suite 120, 1200 N St.,
Lincoln, NE 68508. (800) 742-7691. NEBRASKAland Magazine and
the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission reserve the right to reject any
advertising not in keeping with the agency mission.
Rates: $18 for one year; $33 for two years; $44 for three years. Nebraska
recipients must add appropriate sales tax. To subscribe call
1-800-NEBLAND (632-5263), or go online to: NebraskalandMagazine.
com.
COMMISSION
C
COM
OM
OMM
MIS
ISSIO
SIION O
SI
OFFICES
F CES
FFI
FF
ES
S
Headquarters/Southeast District Office
2200 N. 33rd Street Lincoln, NE 68503
Phone (402) 471-0641
Northeast District Office
2201 N. 13th St. Norfolk, NE 68701
Phone (402) 370-3374
Southwest District Office
301 E. State Farm Rd. North Platte, NE 69101
Phone (308) 535-8025
Northwest District Office
East Hwy. 2, Box 725 Alliance, NE 69301
Phone (308) 763-2940
Bassett Office
524 Panzer St., Box 508 Bassett, NE 68714
Phone (402) 684-2921
Greg Hesse
Scott Brandt
Heath Packett
Dan Kling
Frank Miller
Phone (308)
(office) 763-2940
(cell) 641-6138
Alliance
760-3647
Gering
631-0663
Gordon
360-0682
Harrison
430-0572
Valentine (402) 389-0444
SOUTHWEST
Officer
City
Phone (308)
Roger Thompson (S) N. Platte (office) 535-8025
(cell) 530-3097
Ray Dierking
Brkn. Bow
870-0322
George Sund
Cambridge
655-0028
Michael Thome
Cozad
529-8146
Terry Brentzel
Doniphan (402) 469-5795
Matt Andrews
Elwood
746-2418
Dirk Greene
Imperial
882-0015
Dale Johnson
Kearney
440-3847
Brian Piernicky
McCook
340-6627
Dudley Sorensen
N. Platte
530-0016
Nicholas Fix
Ogallala
289-0427
Dennis Thompson
Ogallala
289-0755
Rich Routh
Rep. City
920-0367
NORTHEAST
Officer
City
Tom Zimmer (Sup.) Norfolk
Dale Davis
Steve Oberg
Daniel Roberts
Randy Pomplun
Jeff Jones
Jon Reeves
Tim Williams
Pat George
Doug Pollard
Cory Krause
Phone (402)
(office) 370-3374
(cell) 649-8053
Bassett
760-0712
Columbus
910-3366
Fremont
719-1108
Fullerton (308) 550-0489
Hartington
762-5022
Kennard
889-8508
Neligh
929-0051
O’Neill
340-0787
Ord
(308) 778-7101
West Point
380-6410
SOUTHEAST
Officer
Sean McKeehan
William Krause
Mike Luben
Dan Zuehlke
Darin Gress
Douglas Kramer
Dina Barta
Stacey Lewton
Levi Krause
Robert Finke
Russell Mort
Dan Evasco
City
Ashland
Auburn
Colon
Cortland
Hebron
Lincoln
Lincoln
Lincoln
Louisville
Milford
Nebr. City
Papillion
Phone (402)
521-0159
274-8063
443-6392
806-9084
768-8665
890-6465
890-6463
890-7140
949-0593
947-1363
209-1506
616-5961
ADMINISTRATION
Officer
Craig Stover (Adm.)
Duane Arp (Ass.)
Jeff Clauson (Ass.)
City
Lincoln
Lincoln
Lincoln
Phone (402)
471-5531
471-5532
471-0480
Kearney Office
1617 First Ave. Kearney, NE 68847
Phone (308) 865-5310
Omaha Office
1212 Bob Gibson Blvd. Omaha, NE 68108
Phone (402) 595-2144
Nebraska Wildlife Crimestoppers 1-800-742-7627
Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium
21502 W. Highway 31 Gretna, NE 68028
Phone (402) 332-3901
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 5
Chytrid Research Ongoing
Jeff Kurrus
NEBRASKAland readers were first introduced to chytrid and its devastating
effects on amphibian populations in the August/September 2009 article “Survivor
– the North American Bullfrog.”
Chytrid, specifically Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) or “frog chytrid,”
is one of the planet’s worst infectious vertebrate diseases because of how many
species it affects. Amphibians with Bd experience a thickening of the skin, which
negatively affects keratin, the protein that makes amphibian skin tough and
resistant to injury. These changes then prohibit the amphibian from absorbing
water and electrolytes through its skin. When these electrolyte levels decrease too
much, the amphibian’s heart stops beating.
Until recently, there had been little Bd research conducted in Nebraska. In
2010, Mary Harner from the Crane Trust and researchers from the University of
Nebraska at Kearney conducted research on American bullfrogs along the Platte
River in south-central Nebraska. There they found that 41 percent of bullfrogs
sampled tested positive for Bd. But as reported in the 2009 NEBRASKAland
article, American bullfrogs are carriers of chytrid but they are rarely affected by
it.
The same is not necessarily true for native Nebraska amphibian species. During
a follow-up study conducted by Harner and a team from the Crane Trust in 2012,
chytrid was found not only in American bullfrogs again, but also Woodhouse’s
toads and plains leopard frogs, two native species that are negatively affected by
this fungus.
The Crane Trust plans to continue research in 2013 to evaluate chytrid
prevalence in relation to changes in habitat and season in order to better assist
resource managers looking for conservation measures to reduce the threat of Bd to
native amphibians throughout Nebraska. Frogs are a food resource for whooping
cranes along their migration route and fish throughout the year, so protecting
amphibians will help sustain this prey base for these species, as well as help
maintain the overall biodiversity of Nebraska’s wetlands.
For more information on wetland research being conducted by the Crane Trust,
visit www.cranetrust.org. Funding for the Crane Trust’s chytrid research has
been provided by the Nebraska State Wildlife Grants Program, the University
of Nebraska at Kearney, and the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation
District.
Here is a list of upcoming outdoor
events across Nebraska.
For more information about these and
other events, visit the calendar page
at www.Outdoor Nebraska.org.
March
Boating Safety Classes
Sign up now to take Boater
Education classes. To find available classes in your area, to go
OutdoorNebraka.org and click on the
Boating tab.
March 2-3, 9-10 and 16-17
Marsh Madness
Witness the spring migration
spectacle at Ponca State Park, where
nearly 300 bird species have been
reported and which The National
Audubon Society calls an “Important
Bird Area.”
Special educational bird programs
will be offered at the park’s
Resource and Educational Center
each of these Saturdays and field
guides and binoculars will be
available for public use.
A park entry permit is required to
enter the park, and the mini-lodges
offer a 30 percent discount off
regular rates during these weekends.
Contact Ponca State Park
402-755-2284
ngpc.ponca@nebraska.gov
Mid-March
Two Rivers SRA Trout Lake
Two Rivers’ popular put-and-take
trout lake will open approximately
mid-March this year, possilby as
early as March 9 depending on the
weather.
Contact Two Rivers SRA
402-359-5165
ngpc.two.rivers@nebraska.gov
PHOTO BY JEFF KURRUS
March 25
Spring Turkey Archery Season
March 25 through May 31.
For more information on turkey
hunting in Nebraska, check out the
2012 Turkey Guide or visit
www.OutdoorNebraska.org.
6 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
Whooper Watch
by Jeff Kurrus and Julie Geiser
More Than Cranes
T
o view the migration of more than 500,000 sandhill
cranes is reason enough to invade Kearney, the selfproclaimed “Sandhill Crane Capital of the World,” this
month. But it’s not the only one. There is a long list of
other activities happening at the same time, making this
locale perfect for the entire family. Here is a two-day
option to consider:
Day 1
6:00 AM – Crane Viewing at Rowe Sanctuary. Reserve
your spot at rowe.audubon.org.
9:00 AM – Drive country roads and watch cranes in
the fields, then head back to your campsite
at Fort Kearny SRA or at a lodging option
in Kearney.
12:00 PM – Lunch at Cunningham’s Journal in Kearney.
1:00 PM – Visit the Kearney Area Children’s Museum.
4:00 PM – Return to Rowe Sanctuary for an evening field trip.
7:00 PM – Dinner and dessert in Downtown Kearney.
or more information about these events, take a look at
VisitKearney.org. There you’ll get specific dates for
hockey and play performances as well as additional ideas for
your trip to Crane Country.
The thing this site won’t tell you, however, is one more
reason why you should visit Kearney this time of year – the
people. There’s
never a time of the
year where
visitors – birders
and non-birders
alike – are in a better mood.
It’s a spring revival on the grandest of scales.
8 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
BY JULI
E GEISE
R
F
Send Us Your Trail Cam Photos!
PHOTO
Day 2
6:00 AM – Roll over and press the snooze button.
8:00 AM – Venture to the Crane Trust Nature & Visitor Center at
the Alda exit.
10:00 AM – Visit the Museum of Nebraska Art, Trails to Rails
Museum, or Fort Kearny SHP for a dose of history.
2:00 PM – Late lunch at Tru Cafe in Kearney or a picnic at
Windmill SRA.
4:00 PM – Return
early to Rowe Sanctuary
to watch the evening
roost from the Center.
7:00 PM – See the Minden Opera House
performance of “Annie, the Musical” or watch the Storm play
hockey at the Viaero Event Center.
Deer hunters aren’t the only ones using trail cameras.
Tom Menze of York set one up to capture photos of pheasants
using his food plot. During two weeks in early 2011, he
captured more than 1,000 images of ringnecks, and a few
bonus photos of deer and red fox.
Please submit your trail camera photos by e-mail to:
nebtrailcam@gmail.com. Also include any information that
will help explain your photo.
River Recovery
Implementation Program, US
Geological Survey Northern Prairie
Wildlife Research Center, US Fish
and Wildlife Service, and Canadian
Wildlife Service, with support from
the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory,
International Crane Foundation, and
Parks Canada.
Migration places a large physical
toll on whoopers, so the Crane Trust
asks that people not approach or
disturb the birds in any way or report
locations to others, which may draw
a crowd of people and increase the
risk of disturbance. “We want to
make sure that the calories these birds
expend are being spent to reach their
final destination in Texas or Canada,
not flushing from photographers or
birdwatchers,” said Greg Wright, a
Crane Trust biologist.
Observers should stay at least 2,000
feet from whooping cranes, remain
in their vehicle or other viewing area,
and use binoculars or spotting scopes
to positively identify the birds. They
should then provide the following to
Whooper Watch™:
• The exact location of the whooping
crane(s)
• How many were seen and the date
and time they were observed
• What the whooping crane(s) was
doing (feeding, resting, flying, etc.)
• Distant photographs to help
researchers confirm the identity and
age of the bird(s)
For more about the program,
including information on how to
identify whooping cranes, go to
NebraskaNature.org.
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 9
PHOTO BY RICK RASMUSSEN
Eric Fowler
If you happen to be one of the lucky
few to spot a migrating whooping
crane while traipsing around Nebraska
this spring or fall, call Whooper Watch
at 1-888-3wwatch (1-888-399-2824) to
help researchers learn more about these
endangered birds.
A program of the Crane Trust,
Whooper Watch will help track the
fewer than 300 birds left in the last
naturally migrating flock, which pass
through Nebraska each year on their
2,500-mile journey to and from their
nesting grounds in northern Canada
and wintering grounds on the Gulf
Coast in Texas. These 5-foot-tall white
birds often stop to rest and feed along
the Platte and other rivers and wetlands
in central Nebraska for one to several
days before continuing on their trip.
The spring migration typically occurs
from March through April, while
the fall migration is usually October
through November.
When a call is received, Whooper
Watch sends a scientist to confirm
the sighting, document key features
of the location and learn more about
the habitat the birds are using to
survive. “The program is really a
unique opportunity for the public to
get involved and help us document
locations visited by these
magnificent birds during
their migration,” said Mary
Harner of the Crane Trust.
“Because there are so few
whooping cranes to be seen,
the more eyes we have watching
for them, the better our chances of
documenting their stopover locations.”
Scientists are already monitoring
about 40 whooping cranes that have
been fitted with GPS transmitters since
2009. The transmitters record the birds’
locations four times daily, allowing
researchers to determine where they
stop during migration. The project is
a joint effort of the Crane Trust, Platte
“A paradise for lovers of the outdoors” was the March 1965 NEBRASKAland
description of northwestern Nebraska’s Pine Ridge. That issue of the magazine
featured a 14-page color spread of the region throughout the seasons, drawing
attention to the landscape’s unique attractions and describing it as a land where
“imagination becomes reality.”
Nearly 50 years later, the Pine Ridge still boasts natural beauty to be enjoyed
by all outdoor enthusiasts, but visitors may notice considerably fewer
ponderosa pines today than they would have in 1965. A recent article published
by the Omaha World-Herald states that last year’s immense wildfires took
away the Pine Ridge’s title of largest ponderosa pine forest in the state. Now
the Niobrara River Valley comes in first, according to Doak Nickerson, district
forester for the Nebraska Forest Service.
“What pictures we have of the Pine Ridge with a beautiful pine forest draped
over top these beautiful hills – those pictures might be historic if we don’t turn
this ship around,” stated Nickerson.
Read more about the effects of last year’s Pine Ridge fires in an upcoming
issue of NEBRASKAland.
— Olivia Johnson
10 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
Dick Turpin
This old rod is sort of a special rod for
me … it’s different. It’s a seven-foot split
bamboo rod – a fly rod – and it’s just kind
of neat. It’s one of my favorites and I like
to take care of it and you know one of the
ways I do that? This is a cheap shot kids,
it don’t cost you anything – go down to
the hardware store and pick up some of the
pipe insulation. You run that fish pole up
like that – or your spinning rod – and cut
this to length and just slip that in there. It isn’t going to protect your reel much
but it’ll surely protect that rod and the eyelets. Once you get that in there, what I
like to do is take a little duct tape … wrap that around every so often … because
this foam is split … this is actually a split piece of insulation and I just tape it a
bit on the end so the rod cannot come out … wrap it in a couple of places so it
don’t come undone. Throw that in the back of your truck and you’re not going to
hurt the eyelets on that fishing pole. This is a good tip – you try this – you’ll save
your gear for the next fishing trip. ■
Private pond owners are encouraged
to report severe winter fish kills to the
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
following ice-out.
Winter fish kills occur when
oxygen levels fall too low to support
fish under the ice. Ice prevents the
direct absorption of oxygen from the
atmosphere, so oxygen produced by
plant photosynthesis during the winter
months is crucial to fish survival.
Oxygen levels drop because of plant
decomposition and respiration by
aquatic organisms. Shallow ponds
with heavy vegetation are particularly
susceptible.
Once the ice is gone, pond owners
should check their shorelines for
dead fish and note the species, size
and quantity. If hundreds of dead
fish are observed, owners may call
Jeff Blaser, Game and Parks’ private
waters specialist, at 402-471-5435, to
discuss options for restoring the fish
community.
The Southwest Focus on Pheasants (FOP) Partnership was given the Wildlife
Conservationist of the Year award this past February at Pheasants Forever (PF)
state habitat meeting Kearney. It was presented by the Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission and PF for outstanding efforts in promoting conservation and
working in a partnership.
The Southwest FOP, formed in 2010 to improve pheasant hunting by creating
more and better habitat, encompasses more than 950,000 acres in Hitchcock,
Hayes, Frontier and Red Willow counties. It has affected more than 15,000 acres.
The key partners include the Commisson, PF, Natural Resources Conservation
Service, Farm Service Agency, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Cooperative
Research Unit, UNL Extension Service, landowners and volunteers.
Park, Hunting, and Fishing
permits make great gifts...
www.OutdoorNebraska.org
all an angler needs.
Rock bass are usually found in, around or under some
type of cover, including rocks, fallen timber and aquatic
vegetation. In addition to its red eyes, other identifying
features include an overall brassy color and black spots on
the scales that form horizontal lines. Rock bass average
between 8 and 15 ounces in weight, 6 to 9 inches in length,
and the state rod-and-reel record is 2 lbs. 4 oz., caught by
Edna Zuege in 1972 from a Dundy County farm pond.
Consider pursuing rock bass when you’re out on the
water this spring. This species may be smaller than other
fish you’d normally seek, but the challenge of finding them
makes up for it.
See You Out There... But Where?
PHOTO BY KEN BOUC
By Olivia Johnson
Regardless of how much one fishes, there are times when
catches are unexpected and the question “What is this?”
arises. While fishing for smallmouth at Gavins Point Dam
that question arose as a small, red-eyed fish emerged from
the water that definitely was not a smallmouth. As it turns
out, it was a distant cousin known as the rock bass.
Rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris) are a member of the
sunfish family, along with crappies, bluegills, largemouth
and smallmouth bass. While I caught mine in moving
water last August, most rock bass populations are found
in standing waters, said fisheries biologist Daryl Bauer.
“Nebraskan anglers have a good chance of finding them in
Box Butte Reservoir, Minnechaduza Creek, the Missouri
River and many interstate lakes in central Nebraska. Anglers
hoping to hook one have several tackle options.”
The same tackle and presentations used for other panfish
also work well for rock bass. Small jigs, jig-spinners, small
spinners, crankbaits, small crayfish and leeches are effective
baits. An angler also can’t go wrong with the traditional
nightcrawler or minnow – that’s what I was using when I
hooked my first one. Light to ultra-light spinning gear or
spincasting gear spooled with with 4- to 8-pound test line is
Report Pond Fish Kills
Southwest Focus on Pheasants Wins Conservation Award
PHOTO BY JEFF KURRUS
Rock Bass
Turpin Time
Do you know where this Nebraska photograph was taken?
See answer at the bottom of page 11.
NEBRASKAland Visitor
Winner and Hint
Last issue’s winner of
the Visitor drawing
was Glenn Swoboda of
Omaha, Nebraska, who
found the cucumber beetle on
page 13. Readers are encouraged to
contact NEBRASKAland within 10
days after this issue’s publication
with the correct page number and
name of this issue’s “Visitor” – a
bug found in Nebraska that just
happened to find its way onto one of
the pages.
We will then gather the correct
entries and draw one to win a
NEBRASKAland Magazine mug.
To enter each month, write:
NEBRASKAland Visitor
2200 North 33rd Street,
Lincoln, NE 68503.
Or e-mail:
Tim.Reigert@Nebraska.gov
with “Visitor” in the subject line of
the message.
HINT: This issue’s visitor is not
on page 5, 40, 41, or 45.
LAKE WANAHOO NEAR WAHOO
Nebland Flashbacks
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 11
Keep Your
Head Down
Bottles, Bones and Family
Text and photos by Jeff Kurrus
When the Morgenson family goes for a
morning hike together, they do more than
enjoy the view. With eyes
toward the ground,
they often find
history with
each step
they take.
Above: A family affair shows (from
left to right) Cara, mother Carol,
Krista, with dog Sierra on a trip to
the Black Hills of South Dakota in
2003.
T
he quintessential
hunting
photograph,
speaking to both the
past and future of the
sport, shows a father and
son with a limit of mallards
in hand, or a daughter and dad
standing over her first downed doe.
NEBRASKAland has even had the privilege in
recent months to tell the story of a mother introducing
her son to hunting. But there need not always be quarry
on the ground to convey the message of introducing nature
to the next generation – sometimes a simple photograph of
father and daughter staring at a pile of rocks says as much,
if not more, of the various ways an adult can help a child get
interested in outdoor pursuits.
12 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
Bison skull,
Salt Creek
drainage,
170 or more
years old.
Krista Morgenson looks at a
fossil camel toe bone found on a
sandbar. She and her father have
been hunting for fossils, rocks,
bottles, skeletons and the like
since she was five years old.
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 13
Found items (from left): Buffalo brick, made in Buffalo, Kansas,
dates from the 1920s to 1930s; greenhorn limestone with
fossil fragment of inoceramus clam shell, late Cretaceous
period, more than 65 million years old; 6-ounce Coca-Cola
bottle, bottled in Fairbury, early to mid 1950s; shark tooth, late
Cretaceous period; ox shoe (one half), most likely dates from
Oregon Trail; small (miniature) sad iron made of cast iron,
early 1900s; fossil camel toe bone, 10,000 or more years
old; Dakota sandstone rock found in eastern
Nebraska, dates from Cretaceous period;
pharmaceutical bottle filled with Pharyngeal
teeth and serrated fin spines of carp;
and badger skull.
Jon Morgenson and
daughter Krista look at
a transparent agate she
found on a sandbar.
Some 15 or so years of
hunting has given
Krista good
experience in
identification.
14 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
Recently, Lincoln native
Jon Morgenson and his
daughter, Krista, spent a
Saturday morning looking
for fossils on the Little Blue
River in southeastern Nebraska. It was
a significant morning because it would
be their last together – at least the last
of an era. A few days later she would
be leaving for college, but not one
where weekend fossil trips could still
be the norm – she was heading off to
Purchase College in White Plains, New
York, some 1,300 miles from Lincoln
and seemingly millions of miles away
from river bottoms filled with bison
bones and bottles.
“Bottles yes, bottlecaps no,” said
Jon in a recent interview. “They rust.
I’m a generalist, but I have to draw the
line somewhere,” he said with a laugh.
Instead, Jon also looks for bricks and
arrowheads, but is not opposed to
uncovering other objects as well. “I
have a huge historical interest – from
Native Americans to settlement to
natural history. It’s just what I’ve
always done in the outdoors, and has
become a passion.”
That passion started while he was
a kid growing up in Abilene, Kansas.
“Mud Creek was a hangout spot for
kids back then, and we’d find old
bottles and rocks,” said Jon. “And I
also had an older brother who pushed
it along. So on family vacations to
Colorado, I was always picking stuff
up.”
Special Battery Oil bottle,
Thomas A. Edison, post
1915, found in Little Salt
Creek. These were used
by the railroads to power
crossing guard arms and
signals.
The battery (a glass jar)
contained zinc and lead
plates covered in an
electrolyte solution that
was then covered by a
layer of battery oil.
After being used, the
bottles were frequently
discarded along
railroad tracks.
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 15
“Now, I had to draw the line somewhere,” said Carol with
a grin.
It’s a very vague line in the Morgenson house, however,
because of all the family participants throughout time,
including Krista and her sister, Cara. “Ever since we were
young our parents were taking us hiking and camping,”
said Krista. “They encouraged us to pick up stuff and look
at it. Then Dad would tell us where it came from and we
developed a fascination with the natural world.”
“Anywhere we could peak their interest in the outdoors,”
Jon added. “See a bluejay feather or pine cone and pick it up
– that’s where it started. Then we just transitioned to rocks
Artifact Hunting in Nebraska
Where to Go
Many public areas, including Game and Parks
and National Park System lands in Nebraska, have
specific laws prohibiting the removal of artifacts
from their lands. Therefore, a person has two
alternatives to finding a place to “hunt.” One,
because there are many public areas owned locally,
contact those individual entities and state exactly
what your intent is on these lands. They may not
want you to remove bones, but may allow you
to keep any bottle you find. For a person like Jon
Morgenson, a place like this would be a goldmine.
Two, you can seek private landowner permission,
explaining your purpose and adhering to the
landowner’s wishes.
During your search for spots to search, you’re
probably going to ask “Why not on public lands
where people hunt and/or fish?”
“I’ve asked this same question,” said Jon,
“especially when I have no interest in hunting or
fishing in a traditional sense. And the answer is
that there is a finite amount of objects on these
lands, yet the animals that are taken should replace
themselves.”
So why else aren’t there lands set aside for people
like the Morgensons the way there are for hunters
and anglers? Funding.
Federal excise taxes on much of the equipment
used by hunters and anglers, as well as money
raised through the permits and habitat stamps
they have to purchase, funds many parts of
outdoor recreation while birders, rock hounds and
photographers access these same areas without
needing to buy any permit.
It’s definitely an inequity that may need to be
addressed as more and more people access nature
in nontraditional ways.
Preparation of Bone and Fossil Finds
Some fossils and bones or skulls may be found in
a good, solid state of preservation where they need
no more than gentle water rinsing and then left to
air dry before being displayed. Other finds, however,
especially if they have undergone repeated wetting/
drying cycles and outdoor weathering, may need a
little more attention.
One method that has worked well for me is to
give the ‘find’ a good but gentle cleaning with water
and a nylon bristle brush, removing all mud, dirt
and sand or gravel. Be careful if the fossil or bone
is weak and crumbling, making sure to capture any
pieces that fall off during this process. Following
washing, the fossil or bone should be air dried in
a protected location. When it is completely dried,
re-attach any loose pieces with Duco cement
16 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
and fossils as each year’s hikes went a little farther.”
Trips around Lincoln turned into vacations to Colorado,
Texas, the Dakotas and Kansas as the family knocked on
doors seeking permission to “hunt,” much like game hunters
do throughout the year. Once they gained permission, the
competition would begin.
“One-upsmanship has always been part of this,” said Jon.
“It was developed by my brother and a friend from Chadron,
and has continued with our girls. Pushing each other out
of the way or sprinting past each other down a beach, it’s
always been a fun competition of sorts.”
On Krista and Jon’s last morning together before she
went away to college, each strolled along with their heads
looking down, occasionally glancing up to look for any sort
of texture change in the terrain ahead of them. “Your eye
becomes trained to pick out what is different,” said Jon.
“Once you know the texture of a gravel bar, for example,
the gloss from an arrowhead will distinguish it [from
surrounding rocks].”
Sharp bends in creeks, sandbars and other low-water areas
draw heightened interest. “We wouldn’t be opposed to
some lakes completely drying up for a few weeks,” said Jon,
“but don’t tell fishermen I said that.”
Jon’s generalist interest makes any place –
a dried creek bed, an old barn, or even a
pile of fast-food flower bed gravel – a
great place to look. “I once found a
piece of ammonite (left) in a pile
of rock gravel in a shopping center,”
Jon said. “A colleague of mine found a grooved hand axe
(above right) in a pile of gravel he ordered for his yard.
You just have to keep your eyes open.”
This advice has been well heeded by the Morgenson’s
daughters – their rooms are filled with cigar boxes and
dresser tops full of bones, rocks and other remnants of
family trips together –
along with copies of
the fashion magazines
that seemingly find
themselves in the
rooms of all teenage
girls.
“There’s a ballerina in me and
one who wants to be in the mud,”
said Krista. “And I think this connection with nature through
my parents has really kept me grounded in dance. Because
I’m in such a competitive industry that can drive you crazy,
there are just certain moments when it’s time to take a hike.”
“Our daughters have always balanced both worlds,” said
Jon. “Krista started in the Lincoln Dance Academy when
she was six and is still studying dance. Cara, meanwhile, is
studying in Poland after earning a Fulbright scholarship.”
When asked if their hunting forays are a thing of the past,
Jon can only smile. “I’m getting a lot of calls and e-mails
right now from Cara,” he said. “She’s wanting to come
home and start looking for stuff.”
This is how the Morgensons spent time afield, from mom
and dad to daughters, gazing just in front of their shoe tips
for something to pick up and doing so in the eyesight of
each other for as long as they can. That is why that day
before Krista left was so powerful to see. Days later, she
would be thrust into one of the world’s biggest and most
intense cities. While picking up rocks that day, her mind
had to be running a thousand directions. Meanwhile, Jon
was close by doing his own searching, but no doubt also
wondering where his little girl was going.
Yet for the moment life was nearly perfect for a dad – he
had sand, he had rocks and he had a hunting partner. ■
Jon and Krista search along a
sand and gravel bar.
By Jon Morgenson
(hobby type glue with an acetone base) and dry
again.
The final step is applying a hardener, referred
to as a consolident by professionals. This is done
to harden the entire fossil or bone, not just the
exterior surface. For this reason, white or school
glues (even diluted) are not a good choice because
they only provide an outer coating and do not
penetrate, allowing the fossil or bone to possibly
crumble from within.
A good choice for home preparation is a mixture
of one part white shellac diluted with five parts
denatured alcohol. The alcohol acts to carry
the shellac deeply into the fossil and harden it
throughout. Multiple applications can be made until
the hardener is no longer being absorbed.
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 17
HAND AXE PHOTO BY ERIC FOWLER
His hobby continued into
adulthood, where a pile of books,
the Nebraska State Historical
Society, and the paleontology
department at UN-L answered
the questions he couldn’t after
uncovering his latest finds. And finds there
have been many, with Jon having more than a thousand
items he has brought home through the years, including a
recently discovered mummified mouse (above) that took
center stage on the family mantle until his wife Carol vetoed
their newest decoration.
Learning About
An Ancient Sport
A partnership between man and bird
Text and photos by Abby Jensen
F
Lauren McGough
and Dexter, a
golden eagle, watch
for jackrabbits
during a falconry
hunt near Kearney
last November.
18 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
jackrabbits, joined by several falconers from other countries
alconry was a world I knew nothing about until
as well as Lauren McGough, who has become a sort of
last November, when I was fortunate enough to
falconry “rock star.”
get an introduction to this world of passionate
Lauren started getting into falconry in Oklahoma at 14
people, amazing birds of prey and ancient cultural
traditions in Kearney, where more than 500 people years of age, when her love of the outdoors and research
of wildlife, especially snakes, led her to the sport. As a
from 40 countries had descended for the annual meeting
17-year-old, Lauren traveled to Mongolia to immerse herself
of the North American Falconers and the International
in golden eagle falconry,
Falconers associations.
returning as a Fulbright
I arrived at the Kearney
Scholar at age 22 to not only
Holiday Inn a bit too late
hunt foxes, but to also study
Monday morning to join
rich culture surrounding
any of the falconers on their
falconry in that ancient land.
morning hunts (in addition to
She then moved to Scotland
educational and procedural
to pursue golden eagle
meetings, a big part of these
falconry on the moors, and is
“meets” is the opportunity for
currently working towards an
the attendees that are able to
anthropology doctorate at the
bring their birds to hunt the
University of Scotland. Lauren
surrounding area and show off
is currently in the process
their birds), so I went to check
of writing a travel book that
out the raptors that weren’t
will include stories from her
being hunted. Just south of the
falconry adventures worldwide,
hotel was the “weathering yard”
and said she was hooked on
– an open area where tethered
the sport the first time she got
birds could preen, stretch their
a taste of it: ”I believe you are
wings and enjoy the weather.
born a falconer – once you
Inside the enclosure were more
discover it, it is a passion that
raptors than I had ever seen
you must pursue.”
in one place – kestrels, redtailed hawks, peregrine and
Chase, who had become a
gyrfalcons, and many other pure Dexter keeps up with a twisting and turning jackrabbit as
good friend of Lauren through
and crossbreeds of every size
he closes in for the kill.
past meetings, was thrilled she
and shape. I had been walking
could join us. Although most birds are somewhat shy around
around awhile admiring and photographing these beautiful
people other than their handlers, Lauren’s vast experience
creatures when I noticed a separate area being built west of
with golden eagles was easily evident, so it didn’t take long
the main yard. My curiosity was peaked.
for Dexter to settle in with her and do his thing. Once we got
Turns out the new area was specifically for golden eagles,
to the area that we had permission to hunt and everyone was
which require a line of site blocked from the other raptors
ready, the group scattered out in a line and started walking
in order to relax while in a weathering yard. This is where
the field with Dexter perched on Lauren’s leather gloveI met Minnesotan Chase Delles and Dexter, his seven-yearold golden eagle, for the first time. After visiting with Chase covered arm (like almost all raptors, goldens have extremely
sharp talons), hoping to flush jackrabbits and watch Dexter
for a while and photographing his beautiful, bird, I asked
in action. Golden eagles hunt by sight and you could see
permission to join them on a hunt and Chase very willingly
him scanning the fields as we walked. We were able to jump
let me tag along.
several “jacks” that day, and each time Dexter would launch
So off we drove into the country side in search of
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 19
Mark Hurd of Washington
works with a young
golden eagle.
A wide variety of raptors enjoy the early
morning sun in the weathering yard as they
prepare for the day’s events.
himself off Lauren’s arm and use his powerful wing beats
to chase the rabbit until close enough to grab it. Once the
rabbit was caught, Dexter would wait for Chase to come
retrieve the prey. It was an understanding the two of them
had come to – Dexter would soon enough get his reward
for his hard work, often a rabbit heart from a previous hunt.
Although Dexter didn’t catch every rabbit that was flushed
(sometimes the prey wins!), it was a very successful day
– we got to watch this magnificent species spot, chase and
catch a number of “jacks.”
Perhaps the best part of the hunt was watching the
interactions between Chase and Dexter and the partnership
they shared – falconry birds are trained to come back for
food, but fly completely free while they hunt and it’s totally
up to them whether they return to the falconer. Most return
to their handler time and time again, choosing the good
quality food, safe habitat and security that their handler
offers. In the event that a bigger hawk drives the falcon
away, or strong winds drive it out of
sight, many falconers fly their birds
with telemetry gear attached that
helps them track
down the bird.
Dexter has
never once opted to not come back to his people.
Many of the birds used by falconers were born in
captivity. Others were taken from the nest (by those with
the proper permits) at a young age and raised and trained in
captivity. Dexter is a bit of a different story – a “passage”
bird (one captured from the wild that can already fly),
Dexter was trapped by Chase in March of 2008 when the
United State Department of Agriculture declared part of
Wyoming a 50-square mile depredation area due to golden
eagles in the region killing livestock, mainly newborn
lambs. Possessing all the necessary permits, Chase was
allowed to enter the area and trap Dexter when the golden
was approximately three years old.
Three short months later, Dexter was free flying with
Chase and had learned that they would be hunting partners.
Chase was able to take his time with Dexter because of the
hunting seasons in Minnesota: “No need for me to rush, we
had time to build a good working relationship – hunting
season didn’t start until September.”
As for himself, Chase first learned about falconry at the
ripe old age of seven. He was
at a renaissance fair in
Minnesota when
he came upon a
falconer. By
age 15
he
Dexter returns to his hunting partner,
Chase Delles, after catching seven
jackrabbits during an early afternoon
hunt.
had passed all the necessary federal and state falconry tests
and was permitted to have his first bird, which ended up
being a red-tailed hawk. His love of falconry quickly grew
and he became interested in goldens. After much research
and training, including meeting and trading tips and ideas
with Lauren, he became one of the most recognized eagle
trainers in the United States. In fact, he and Lauren traveled
to the United Arab Emirates in 2011 to train 20 eagles in
three weeks for the International Festival of Falconry. “That
was a huge honor and it was an incredible opportunity to
work with those eagles,” said Chase, adding that “through
falconry I have developed close friendships, started to travel
internationally, which I probably would never have done,
and falconry is now helping to shape my career path. This is
a passion for me, a front row seat to the natural world.”
Falconry was a passion, no doubt, for everyone I talked
to at the meet. Everyone was welcoming, willing to explain
this ancient sport, and eager to share their stories and invite
me along on hunts. Although the North American Falconers
Association holds a national meet every year, it rotates
among various states. This year marked the sixth year it has
been in Nebraska – in 2013 it will be held in Colorado, and
in 2014 it’s scheduled to be held in Texas. In a few years
it’ll probably be back in Nebraska, likely Kearney again.
When it is, you know where I’ll be. ■
Abby Jensen is a native Nebraskan who now lives in
Steamboat Springs, Colorado. To see more of her wildlife
photography and other work, visit www.jensen-photography.
com.
Becoming a Falconer
The ffederal
Th
d l and
d state
t t permitting
itti and
d licensing
li
i process
for becoming a falconer is very detailed and does not
happen overnight – finishing the apprenticeship takes
about two years, and becoming a master falconer takes
at least seven. This is to help ensure the safety of these
raptors and the continuation of the sport.
Falconry is also not cheap – it takes a lot of time and
money to properly care for the birds, which require
attention 365 days a year as well as a significant
amount of room in their “mew” – the place where they
are housed. That said, this sport can be a wonderful
way to interact with nature for those willing to endure
the intense demands involved with being a falconer.
Falconry clubs exist across the United States and
throughout the world and are a great way to find out
more about the sport and how to get started in it.
Information about the Nebraska Falconers’ Association
can be found on the web at http://home.earthlink.
net/~nebraskafalconers/, and The North American
Falconers Association web address is http://n-a-f-a.
com.
To receive a falconry packet that explains the process
of getting the permits necessary for possessing a raptor
in Nebraska, write:
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
Wildlife Division, Nongame Section
2200 N 33rd St PO Box 30370
Lincoln, NE 68503
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 21
Parks Through
the Seasons
Photos by Eric Fowler and Jeff Kurrus
Fog rising from the Missouri River drifts up a wooded
draw below the overlook at Indian Cave State Park on
an October morning. Spectacular autumn color is the
prime attraction for visitors who flock to the park each
fall, but a full slate of activities, including a Haunted
Hayrack ride, greets them on many October weekends.
PHOTO BY ERIC FOWLER
22 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2009
MARCH 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 23
ERIC FOWLER
W
here? When? What? It’s the start of any
vacation discussion amongst a family
looking for something new to see. In
Nebraska it can be a tough decision – should you
go out west into canyon country? Explore the
rolling Sandhills? Head east to enjoy the scenery
of the Missouri River bluffs? Somewhere in
between? Hiking or skiing? Binoculars or
fishing poles?
We know these challenges because we deal with
them every month in NEBRASKAland. In the
following pages we’ve suggested a few options,
but don’t limit yourself to these – use a few
of the locales as starting points for your own
Nebraska adventures and visit a place you’ve
never been before.
Or re-visit an old favorite during a different
time of year. You’ll find it’s easy to rekindle the
love affair. We always do. ■
ABOVE: A pronghorn doe surveys
Soldier Creek Valley beneath the Red
Cloud Buttes at Fort Robinson State
Park. More often associated with the
wide-open Oglala National Grasslands
to the north, pronghorn have taken a
liking to the park as well, often roaming
the pastures with the park’s horses.
Visitors might be able to view all of
Nebraska’s big game species at Fort
Rob: elk, bighorn sheep, pronghorn and
both white-tailed and mule deer.
JEFF KURRUS
24 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
RIGHT: Largemouth bass are a favorite
species at Memphis Lake SRA, which
boasted the state’s highest catch rate
of bass longer than 15 inches during
2012 fall surveys. With 81 acres of water
to fish, ample shoreline opportunities
for bank anglers, and 150 campsites,
this eastern Nebraska hotspot is a
must-fish for 2013.
JEFF KURRUS
LEFT: There are 10 state historical
parks throughout Nebraska, including
Fort Atkinson SHP (pictured). Living
history demonstrations are held from
May through October on scheduled
weekends. Visit OutdoorNebraska.gov
for specific dates.
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 25
ERIC FOWLER
ABOVE: Cabin and boat lights
accent the deep blue sky and
water of Lake McConaughy on
a summer night. Big Mac offers
great fishing and miles of white
sand beaches to play on.
LEFT: Riders take in the
historical scenery at Rock
Creek Station SHP. The park
and adjacent recreation area
is a mecca for horse owners
thanks to miles of trails and
a campground that includes
corrals.
ERIC FOWLER
ERIC FOWLER
26 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
RIGHT: Eugene Melechson of
Omaha rips across Calamus
Reservoir on his sailboard.
While Calamus anglers may not
appreciate the lake’s seemingly
constant wind, windsurfers do,
often driving hours to catch a
good ride.
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 27
JEFF KURRUS
JEFF KURRUS
ABOVE LEFT: Eugene T. Mahoney SP’s CenturyLink
Lake offers both bank and nonpowered boat fishing.
With 10 acres of water, the lake is a destination
point for panfishermen all year long or just another
alternative at a park with so many recreational
options.
ABOVE RIGHT: Driving roads with a camera out
the window is a favorite pastime at Ponca SP.
Fox squirrels (pictured), white-tailed deer and wild
turkeys can turn any afternoon drive into an “I Spy”
competition between friends and family.
JEFF KURRUS
28 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
RIGHT: With nary a stich of breeze and the lake like
glass, an angler casts for pike and largemouth bass
in the flooded brush at the upper end of Box Butte
Reservoir on a September evening. The crystal-clear
water of the reservoir draws visitors from near and
far for its fishing, camping and watersports.
ERIC FOWLER
LEFT: At Two Rivers SRA near Yutan, visitors can
horseback ride, bike, fish, sleep in a caboose, or
simply catch and release toads with folks of all
ages. Located west of Omaha, Two Rivers has five
fishing lakes, including one stocked with trout, and a
swimming beach.
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 29
ERIC FOWLER
ABOVE: Frost and fresh snow
cover the ponderosa pines and
landscape at Chadron SP in
2011. The park and other areas
in the Pine Ridge will look much
different following last summer’s
catastrophic forest fires, but the
park and its cabins are still open
for business as usual.
JEFF KURRUS
30 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
RIGHT: Steam rises up from the
water at Smith Falls SP on a
bitterly cold winter day. Like other
streams in the Niobrara River
Valley, the one that forms the falls
is fed by groundwater bubbling
up from beneath the Sandhills.
ERIC FOWLER
LEFT: Pallid sturgeon are just
one of many native fish and
animals on display at Ak-Sar-Ben
Aquarium.
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 31
The Crane Trust
Sinking Roots, Deepening the Vision
Text and photos by Brad Mellema
I
and Joel Sartore, as well as famed
ethologist Jane Goodall, started using
their photos and words to tell the world
how unique and important this event is.
People raised in the Big Bend region
of the Platte River have long known
about the cranes – how could they
not? Hundreds of thousands of them
fill the area’s landscape each spring,
as they have for thousands of years,
and their presence is as much a part
of the season’s rhythm as the planting
of corn. For many of the locals, it
never occurred to them that this was
something unique or exotic, and many
wondered about each year’s increasing
number of people who came to see
the cranes. But come they did, and the
hospitality industry certainly noticed,
as they provided a large income boost
during an otherwise slow time of year.
The nature center (then called
Crane Meadows Nature Center) was
n 1985, a group of local leaders in
the Grand Island area got together
to launch a nature center along the
Platte River in south-central Nebraska.
The plan was to provide a place where
people could connect with the Platte
River and the sandhill cranes that
rely on it each spring as a place to
rest and refuel during their northward
migration.
Renown scientists such as Dr. Paul
Johnsgard had written about the cranes
and their remarkable journey and
springtime concentration on the Platte.
Birders took note of what he and others
wrote, and soon people from across
the country and around the world were
showing up to see for themselves one
of North America’s greatest wildlife
phenomena.
Soon the general public started to
take notice of the spectacle, as nature
photographers such as Mike Forsberg
originally located in a small building
on Alda Road, one-half mile south of
the I-80 interchange. The site and its
surrounding prairie and river channel
were made available to the nature
center by the Crane Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the
protection and maintenance of critical
habitat for cranes and other migratory
birds along the Platte River. Under
the arrangement, Crane Meadows
prospered, public attention grew, and
it wasn’t long before the Bosselman
family in Grand Island donated a
nearby travel center on I-80 to expand
the nature center.
In 2001, the center was completely
remodeled into the state-of-the-art
facility it is today, complete with
The braided channels the Platte River
in central Nebraska provide important
habitat for migrating sandhill cranes.
The Crane Trust Nature & Visitor Center
Grand Island
Alda
Kearney
Gibbon
The Great Platte River
Road Archway
Monument
Alda Rd.
Shelton
Exit 305
Exit 291
Exit 285
Exit 279
L 50A
●
●
Fort Kearny
State Historical Park
CPNRD
Roadside
Viewing Site
●
●
Rowe Sanctuary
Visitors Center
32 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
●
Denman
24 Rd.
24th &
Denman
Road
Platte River
Road
CPNRD
Alda Roadside
Viewing Site
17 Rd.
Elm Island Rd.
Sodtown
Road
Lowell Road
Sioux Road
Denman
Road
Prosser
Road
Alda/Juniata
Road
v
te Ri
Plat
er
Platte River Road
●
●
CPNRD
Hall County Roadside
Viewing Sites
Osborne
Expressway
ILLUSTRATION BY TIM REIGERT
Fort Kearny
Hike/Bike Trail
★
●
CPNRD Plautz
Viewing Site
Exit 312
Monitor Rd.
Exit 300
Exit 272
Wood River Rd.
Wood
River
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 33
The annual spring stopover of sandhill cranes along the Platte River is a spectacle often taken for granted by locals, but each year
thousands of visitors from across the country and world descend on central Nebraska to experience it.
meeting facilities, classrooms, art
gallery and gift shop. An observation
tower was erected overlooking the
Platte River Valley, and two expansive
footbridges were built to provide
wheelchair-accessibility to the Platte
River channel and a network of hiking
trails that meander out across the
prairie – all just a short distance from
the main building.
Today the center operates as the
Crane Trust Nature and Visitor Center,
preserving a vital gateway for the
public to this extraordinary ecosystem
along the Platte. The new center is
also a good place for illustrating the
essential work being done by the Crane
34 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
Trust and other conservation partners
to ensure a more promising future for
America’s cranes.
Established in 1978, the Crane Trust
is the product of a court-approved
settlement over the construction
of Grayrocks Dam on a Wyoming
tributary of the Platte River, more
than 400 miles upriver. The settlement
between the National Wildlife
Federation, the State of Nebraska and
the Missouri Basin Power Project is a
testament to the good that can happen
when differing interests come together
to find a lasting solution to complex
and interlocking issues.
With more than 10,000 acres of
habitat under its control, either through
direct ownership or conservation
easements, the Crane Trust has been
working from the ground up for
more than three decades to research,
restore and protect this extraordinary
ecosystem for future generations. Well
known in the conservation community,
the Crane Trust remains one of the
state’s best-kept secrets so far as the
public is concerned, but the nature
center may help change that.
This year, for example, the Trust
hosted its first annual Research
Symposium at the center, with
researchers from across the country
coming together to share ideas, present
The Crane Trust Nature and Visitor Center is a gateway into the Crane Trust’s work
along the Platte River and features classrooms, an art gallery and a gift shop.
findings and discover new ways to
collaborate on future projects. The
forum was open to the public and
contributed to greater understanding
and support for conservation through
media and public participation.
Looking ahead, visitors will also
be able to experience the Crane
Trust Nature and Visitor Center’s
new discovery trail currently being
developed with support from the
Nebraska Environmental Trust and
private contributors. When complete,
visitors will be able to use the trail
to explore and experience Crane
Trust grounds in ways that reveal
the interconnectedness of the prairie
and river habitats. The trail will also
highlight best practices in conservation
along with the biology, hydrology
and natural history of the region.
Most recently, an exhibition herd of
American bison was added in 2012.
Over the years, the Crane Trust
and now its nature and visitor center
have ushered a lot of water past their
doorsteps, sharing this incredible
bounty with a myriad of interests. As
a new crane season begins, the Crane
Trust Nature and Visitor Center has
once again set the stage for visitors to
experience the magic of the sandhill
crane migration, including a variety
of guided crane tours with spectacular
river views and its Wild About
Nebraska speaker/event series. To learn
more or to book a tour, visitors can go
to NebraskaNature.org or call (308)
382-1820. ■
A life-long outdoor educator and
now director of the Grand Island
Convention and
Visitor’s Bureau,
Brad Mellema
has introduced
thousands of
visitors to the
Platte River and
its cranes over the
years.
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 35
The Year of the Rabbit
By Lisa Knopp
L
ast summer I planted my vegetable garden three
times. Each time, shortly after the chard, cucumbers,
carrots, beets, lettuce, onions, green beans, cabbage
and sugar peas emerged, I found the tender new shoots
and leaves mowed down and piles of tiny, round rabbit
droppings nearby. I tried a variety of home remedies – onion
water, garlic salt, human hair, chili powder, blood meal and
something involving cat urine – to discourage the varmints.
Sometimes I’d bolt out the backdoor, my arms flailing.
“Stop, thieves!” I’d shout. The rabbits would zigzag across
the yard and slip into the forsythia bushes or under the
wooden fence, only to return once I’d gone back into the
house. I even sicced my elderly beagle, Belle, on them. But
with her dimming vision, deepening deafness and clear lack
of interest in giving good chase, the rabbits were literally
unmoved by her slow approach. Nothing I tried deterred
the varmints. Finally, it was too late in the season for me
to plant yet again. I grew chard in boxes on the deck and
tended the corn, tomatoes and zucchini in what remained
of my garden. Each Saturday morning I spent money at the
Haymarket Farmer’s Market on vegetables I should have
been able to grow in my own backyard.
This year on Mother’s Day my son, Ian, arrived at my
house with a truckload of bricks, chicken wire, weed mat
and stakes. His gift to me would be a rabbit-proof garden.
He went to work digging a trench around my freshly tilled
garden and partially buried the chicken wire. Next, he put
down weed mat and then stacked bricks inside the fence.
He assured me that the rabbits couldn’t
get in unless they dug under the fence and
pushed the bricks aside or pole-vaulted over the top. In the
middle of the garden, he rigged an elevated sprinkler. I took
a cardboard campaign yard sign from the last election and
turned it inside out. With black marker, I outlined a cute
bunny face with big, floppy ears, and then drew a red, circlebackslash symbol over it. If the fence and bricks didn’t keep
the bandits away, surely my sign would. I was confident that
my rabbit-free garden would soon be jungle-like, with every
thing I needed to make a really good salad. In return for
Ian’s good work, I’d plant extra cucumbers and a long row
of the radishes that he loves.
After we fortified the garden, we sat on the deck sipping
iced tea and looking out upon the rabbit-free space we’d
created with our hard labor. “You know, part of the problem
is the way rabbits are portrayed in the books that I read
to you when you were little,” I said. “Take ‘The Tale of
Peter Rabbit’ – it’s the worst. Peter wears those cute little
shoes and that cute little blue jacket with brass buttons and
cries real tears. His mother even brings him camomile tea
when his tummy hurts. So when poor Mr. MacGregor finds
Peter looting his garden, we’re rooting for the bunny. Don’t
even get me started on what Walt Disney did with rabbits.
What this world needs are children’s books and movies that
portray rabbits as the evil, destructive, nasty pieces of work
they really are. Then we’d be able to do what needs to be
done to get rid of them.”
Ian nodded. He’s a deer hunter and has his own issues
with Disney.
What I didn’t tell my son is that these misrepresentations
are to blame for a terrible thing that I did winter before last.
During a particularly cold and snowy spell, I noticed a rabbit
– big, shiny black eyes, twitchy little nose, flopsy ears and
fluffy cottontail – huddled and shivering near my back fence.
How could I leave something that precious to the ravages of
the Nebraska winter? Each day I trudged through the snow
and left carrot tops, broccoli stumps and potato peels by the
back fence. Each day after my little friend finished eating, he
or she turned to the kitchen window where I stood watching
and gave me the sweetest look of gratitude. Ever since, I’ve
been plagued by rabbits.
Ian and I complained a bit more about the problems with
anthropomorphization, considered the efficacy of some of
the rabbit repellents that I hadn’t yet tried (powdered fox
urine, vinegar-soaked corn cobs, a border of thorny rose
bush clippings, and chicken manure), and bemoaned the
perfect environment that we city and suburban dwellers had
unwittingly created for Sylvilagus floridanus. If only we
could bring in some natural predators such as foxes, weasels,
coyotes, bobcats, skunks, badgers, hawks and owls to assist
the prowling house cats that are already hard at work on
reducing the backyard rabbit population. If only. Then we
talked about pickles. Come August, we we’re going to can
cucumbers. Ian is partial to dill pickles. Even when he was
a toddler, he’d take a dill pickle over a cookie or candy bar
any day. I, however, prefer mild, sweet, bread-and-butter
pickles. We considered the possibilities – mustard pickles,
garlic pickles, chili pickles, cajun pickles, sweet Wasabi
pickles, curried pickles. As we were estimating how many
Kerr jars that we’d need to hold all of the slices and spears
of cucumbers that we were going to be growing in my
rabbit-free garden, I noticed two of the creatures nibbling
grass near the forsythia bushes.
“You might want to throw some lettuce in the
garden tonight and see if it disappears,” Ian said.
I felt a flash of alarm. “And if it does?”
“You could live trap them. You’d probably
catch one every night.”
“Then bring them to your place and turn them loose there?”
Ian scowled. “We could electrify the fences.”
“Belle would get zapped every time I let her out, unless
I’d put her on a stake and cable near the back door.”
“I could let you have Thunder.” Ever since Ian was given
a beautiful, golden German shepherd that he didn’t ask for,
he’s been trying to find a good home for her. “She chases
rabbits.”
“I don’t need another dog.”
“I could bring over my bow and shoot them.” Normally,
I’m opposed to the killing of sentient creatures. But if
that sentient creature has a breeding season that lasts from
February to September with an average litter of four to six
kits, four to seven litters per year, a 28-day gestation and the
ability to get pregnant the day after giving birth, and if all
couple hundred or so descendants possibly produced by that
one eastern cottontail doe in one season wanted to hold their
family reunions in my backyard, I might backslide a bit on
this moral principle.
“Would you eat them?” I asked. I’d feel a little better
about this plan if I knew that the rabbits would end up in Ian
and Brandy’s crock pot.
“Nah. Those are city rabbits. Full of pesticides. I wouldn’t
even feed them to Thunder. I’d just throw them away.”
I considered my options: three dozen Kerr jars packed with
pickles and a freezer full of green beans, peas, and chard
or a garden full of leafless stumps and rabbit droppings.
“Chicken manure. That’s what I’m going to try next.” ■
Lisa Knopp is an award-winning American
essayist and author of introspective short stories,
essays and creative nonfiction. She teaches
creative nonfiction at UN-O and has been
contributing to NEBRASKAland since 1992.
ILLUSTRATION BY TIM REIGERT
36 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 37
Nature’s Cleanup Crew
Text and photos by Eric Fowler
T
here are many beautiful bird
species that soar through
Nebraska’s skies. And then
there’s the turkey vulture, with a face
only a mother could love.
To be fair, the turkey vulture’s
plumage, while drab, is not unattractive
– it’s the bird’s beady eyes and bald,
red head (which resembles that of a
wild turkey, hence its name) that are
hard to like. Add in its seemingly
disproportionally smallness compared
to the rest of the body and it’s easy to
see why its head adds nothing to the
bird’s attractiveness. It does, however,
serve the bird’s lifestyle well – you
see, a feathered head would collect
pieces and parts of dead deer, raccoons
or whatever carcass it was sticking
its head in at dinner time, possibly
resulting in infection. Yes, the turkey
vulture’s preferred meal is a nice, ripe
body. Yet another reason to not love
this bird.
However, even if you don’t like
their feeding habits or appearance,
you have to appreciate the turkey
vulture’s flight skills and you may
have more opportunity to watch them
in action in the years to come, as their
numbers are growing rapidly, both
here and elsewhere. But that could
lead to problems, too. Some will be
real, such as large numbers of roosting
birds making a mess on homes, yards,
businesses and the like. Others will be
people just not wanting this ugly bird
around.
The turkey vulture (Cathartes
aura) is the most widely distributed
of the seven vultures found in the
New World, its range extending from
southern Canada to the tip of South
America. Most of the United States,
including Nebraska, is included in
the species’ summer breeding range.
Depending on the weather, turkey
vultures arrive in or migrate through
Nebraska in March or April and stay
through October or November. Those
birds head south for the winter, some
as far as Central and South America.
Some turkey vultures are year-round
residents of the southeastern U.S., from
Texas to New York, a range it shares
with the black vulture.
Other New World vultures include
the endangered California condor and
the yellow-headed vulture of Mexico
and Central and South America. Turkey
vultures are similar but unrelated to
15 species of vultures found in the Old
World. While they have similarities to
both, their relationship to hawks and
storks is still debated.
Dark brown in color apart from the
silver to white trailing edge on the
underside of its wings, turkey vultures
measure two to three feet in length and
weigh five to six pounds. They make
the most of their six-foot wingspan
and are masters of soaring flight. Other
than during takeoff and landing, they
rarely flap their wings, which cant
upward slightly. While cartoons and
Westerns might lead you to believe
that groups of circling vultures are
homing in on their next meal – maybe
even waiting for it to die – it’s more
likely the birds are riding thermals or
updrafts to gain altitude, a common
behavior called kettling. Thermals are
columns or bubbles of rising air created
by the uneven heating of the ground
by the sun, especially in the morning.
They often form over bare ground,
city buildings and parking lots or hills
Left: The turkey vulture gets its name
from its distinctive red, featherless head,
an attribute it shares with the wild turkey.
Right: More than 100 turkey vultures
used this transmission tower on the
University of Nebraska - Omaha campus
as a roost during the summer of 2011.
38 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 39
Did You Know?
• When approached or threatened, vultures often
vomit. Researchers are unsure if they do this to offload
weight and make flying away easier, or to distract
predators from continuing their pursuit.
• Vultures lack a syrinx – the vocal organ that most
birds have – and are only able to communicate with
grunts or low hisses. Hear samples of their sounds at
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Turkey_Vulture/sounds.
Turkey vultures dine on a dead deer in a soybean field along the Platte River west of Louisville. While vultures prefer fresh kills,
they often have to wait until the carcass has been opened by other predators or softened by decomposition.
facing the sun. Updrafts are caused
by a hill or building deflecting wind
upward. Once at the desired height,
vultures can glide at speeds of up to
60 mph to their next stop or source of
lift.
Turkey vultures use this climband-glide flight sequence to fly for
hours without flapping their wings,
teetering from side to side to stay
on course. They can complete their
entire migration, which takes some
5,000 miles from British Columbia to
Venezuela, in the same fashion. One
study documented a vulture covering
approximately 100 miles a day for six
days. Due to the lack of thermals, they
typically avoid crossing large water
bodies and don’t often migrate on rainy
or overcast days. While vultures may
rise to altitudes of nearly four miles to
fly over storms, they typically fly at
2,000 feet while migrating.
Vultures’ soaring flight is also used
in their search for food. Like their
relatives, hawks and eagles, turkey
vultures have excellent eyesight and
sometimes locate meals with their
eyes. Because they aren’t equipped
with sharp talons that are capable of
40 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
killing prey, however, they feed almost
exclusively on carrion, using their
highly developed sense of smell (a
rare trait in the bird world and among
the best of them all) to detect even the
slightest trace of the scent of death
while gliding at lower levels.
In a study done in Panama, turkey
vultures found 71 of 74 chicken
carcasses within three days, with no
difference in the time took to find leafcovered birds under the forest canopy
to those in the open. The vultures did
not easily locate fresh kills, but found
most within a day. Studies have shown
vultures prefer fresh meat but, because
they lack a beak strong enough to tear
the thick skin of larger mammals, often
must wait until their meal is softened
by decomposition or opened by
coyotes, opossums or other scavengers.
Turkey vultures feed primarily on
mammals, ranging from mice to large
ungulates. They are opportunistic,
however, and will also eat birds, fish,
mussels, reptiles, amphibians, insects
and even animal feces or rotting
pumpkins. They also prefer to eat
herbivores, avoiding dogs, coyotes and
other carnivores. Many may gather at a
carcass, but typically only one feeds at
a time, making others wait their turn.
While deemed disgusting by some,
the birds are praised by others as
part of nature’s “cleanup crew.” Its
common name comes from the Latin
word vellere, which means to pluck or
tear. In its scientific name, Cathartes
means purifier, and aura means air
or the breeze. One study found that
the stomach acid of a turkey vulture
kills the bacteria responsible for
such diseases as botulism, anthrax,
cholera and salmonella, and that their
feces were free of these pathogens.
So by cleaning up carrion that would
otherwise be consumed by maggots,
bacteria or other scavengers, vultures
may actually help curb the spread of
disease.
Vultures are believed to mate for life,
but don’t build a nest. Instead they lay
their eggs in or on whatever surface
they might find in a variety of dark
recesses, including rock ledges, hollow
trees or logs, caves, animal burrows
and abandoned hawk or heron nests
or buildings. Most clutches contain
two eggs, dull white with tan, brown
or purple blotches. Both adults share
incubation, which begins when the
second egg is laid and can last 28 to 41
days depending on the temperature of
the nest site. Young weigh about two
ounces when hatched and are covered
with white down, except for their dark
gray faces. The adults also share in
brooding and feeding, regurgitating
well-digested food for the young.
Young fledge at 60 to 84 days, their
heads still gray. They spend a few
weeks perching and roosting at the nest
site, still dependent on their parents
for food. That dependence is short
lived, although young may continue to
follow adults on foraging flights once
they leave the nest site and join the
communal roosts.
Found throughout Nebraska, vultures
typically inhabit areas where forest
meets open grassland or farmland,
providing trees for perching and
roosting and areas where carrion may
be present.
While they don’t have a voice box
like other birds and communicate
only in grunts and hisses, they are
social. Vultures gather in communal
roosts at night, with numbers ranging
from a few to a 100 birds or more,
even thousands in some southern
locales. Large cottonwoods or pines
are common choices for these roosts,
but transmission towers are also used.
Vultures don’t often leave the roost
until a few hours after sunrise, when
the air has warmed and thermals can be
found. If undisturbed, vultures may use
the same roosts year after year.
Vultures sometimes roost in cities,
putting them at odds with those who
live below them and don’t appreciate
the whitewashing caused by their feces.
In recent years, Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission and USDA Wildlife
Services biologists have responded to
an increasing number of complaints
Turkey vultures spread their wings to soak up the morning sun at a Lincoln roost. This Horaltic (spread-winged) pose serves to dry
the morning dew from the birds’ wings and also helps raise their body temperature, which they lower at night to save energy.
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 41
from communities across the state
about vultures roosting on radio,
television, phone and water towers,
grain elevators, and in treetops above
homes and even a cemetery.
One flock of vultures moves from
roost to roost in a southwestern Lincoln
neighborhood. Some of the roosts are
on large lots and not directly above
homes, thus are mostly tolerated by the
homeowners. Other roosts, however,
turn rooftops and back yards into
bombing ranges. Some homeowners
bang on pots and use other noisemakers
42 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
in hopes of scaring the birds away.
While the birds are protected by the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act, all are legal
methods of hazing.
Other deterrents found to be effective
and used elsewhere include spraying
the birds with water, even using motion
activated, rooftop-mounted sprinklers,
“shooting” the roosting birds with red
or green laser lights, or hanging an
effigy in the roost. Scientists aren’t
certain why this works, but the sight of
a dead vulture hanging by its foot has
proven effective enough that replicas of
vehicles or other property has ranged
from none to $20,400 – mostly
involving the cost of washing feces off
of property but also including a pricey
antenna on a cellular phone tower that
was broken by perching birds.
For Commission and Wildlife
Services biologists, the initial response
to a complaint is educating the
homeowners on steps they can take,
including harassing the birds. When
that doesn’t solve the problem, Wildlife
Services may step up the harassment
with pyrotechnics or laser lights.
“You can pretty much move all those
birds with harassment and pyrotechnics
and everything else,” said Richardson.
“But sometimes those last few just
decide ‘To heck with you, we ain’t
moving.’”
As a last resort in those cases,
Richardson said his staff has had to
resort to shooting vultures, a measure
only allowed under a special permit
from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. Shooting one or two birds is
usually all it takes to get the stubborn
birds to move. “Death really translates
A turkey vulture chick stretches its wings in a nest its parents chose on the second
floor of an abandoned farm house south of Clarkson. The adults came and went
through a broken window.
well with these birds,” said Richardson.
Welstead doesn’t blame those who
complain about vultures. “These things
are pretty filthy, I’ve got to admit,” he
said. “It’s pretty nasty.”
On the other hand, Welstead also
dealt with a complaint of 10 birds
roosting on a water tower that may
not have been as warranted as a
whitewashed backyard: “They felt like
those were birds that represented death
or something and didn’t like to see
them sitting on their water tower,” he
said of the town folks who complained.
Joel Jorgensen, bird program
manager with the Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission, agrees the bird’s
appearance and reputation may make
some folks less tolerant than they
would be otherwise. “If they had a
group of bald eagles nesting in their
trees rather than turkey vultures, I
think they may view it differently,”
he said. “But turkey vulture feces can
make a mess, so I don’t want to give
the impression they’re completely
innocuous either.”
PHOTO BY TOM WELSTEAD
While vultures sometimes appear to be flying in circles simply because they can, they
do so to gain altitude and save energy with the help of thermal currents or updrafts.
dead vultures are being commercially
produced and sold.
Tom Welstead, district wildlife
manager in the Commission’s Norfolk
Office, found the effigy doesn’t even
need to be a vulture – in response to
a Blair homeowner’s complaint about
roosting vultures, he hung a tattered,
broken wild turkey mount by its foot in
a roost tree and was able to convince
the 30 or so vultures using it to find a
new home.
The need to haze vultures is growing
with their population. The annual North
American Breeding Bird Survey, which
uses June bird counts to track the status
and trend of bird populations, shows an
average annual increase of 11 percent
in turkey vulture numbers in Nebraska
from 1967 through 2010 – among the
highest rates in the nation and five
times the rate of increase nationally in
the same time frame.
Welstead has watched turkey vulture
numbers grow in his 30-plus years
with the Commission. “I grew up down
in southeastern Nebraska and I don’t
remember ever seeing turkey vultures,”
he said. “I went off to college in
Colorado and when I came back in ’76,
that’s when I noticed my first one.”
Now he sees them throughout the
territory he manages and throughout
the state as well. “I think their numbers
have just grown exponentially,” said
Welstead.
The first turkey vulture complaint
Welstead received came in the mid1980s from the Genoa area, where
birds were nesting in an abandoned
barn and the landowner “didn’t like
them being there because of the smell.”
It wasn’t until early in the 2000s that
he received the first complaint related
to a vulture roost in northeastern
Nebraska.
While the Commission doesn’t track
vulture complaints, USDA Wildlife
Services does. Chad Richardson,
director of Wildlife Services for
Nebraska, said their first recorded
complaint was in 1996 and was the
only one in that decade. Complaints
have been an annual occurrence and
increasing, however, since 2003. The
most received was 12 in 2011, from
which biologists dispersed 105 birds.
The most birds dispersed was 370
in 2010, a number that came from
six complaints. Damage to building,
A tattered wild turkey mount hung in
effigy in lieu of a turkey vulture was
enough to get vultures roosting in a
sycamore in Blair to move elsewhere.
Jorgensen said only a handful of
bird species are increasing as much as
turkey vultures, including wild turkeys
and Canada geese, which have also
become a nuisance in some cases.
Several factors could be contributing to
the increase in turkey vulture numbers.
The protection of the 1918 Migratory
Bird Treaty Act was the first, ending
most of the trapping, shooting and
poisoning that had been occurring
based on unfounded beliefs that turkey
vultures preyed on newborn, young
or weak livestock, and spread disease.
While this continued into the mid1900s in places such as Texas, where
ranchers killed more than 100,000
turkey vultures in the early- to
mid-1900s, the population rebounded
elsewhere between 1920 and 1940.
The widespread use of DDT and
other organochloride pesticides
following World War II led to local
and regional declines in turkey vulture
numbers. DDT made its way through
the entire food chain and affected
many bird species, especially raptors,
by reducing the thickness of egg shells
and nesting success. Turkey vulture
populations began to rise soon after it
was banned in 1972.
Some believe the increase in deer
populations and the number of vehicles
on highways is also helping turkey
vulture numbers, as the combination
usually means more road kill for
vultures to dine on. Were road kill
not apt to be frozen part of the year,
vultures might be year-round Nebraska
residents. That said, the northern edge
of the turkey vulture’s winter range
is creeping northward, a byproduct of
climate change.
Whatever the reason, the turkey
vulture population increase is real
and could very well continue. Which
means there will be more opportunities
for people to watch a kettle of soaring
vultures, roadkill won’t linger on the
roadside as long and people will need
to learn how to live with the roosting
birds or how to get them to move on. ■
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 43
Hedge Apples: Mysterious Fruit of the Plains
From the Field to Your Table
What is this lumpy fruit, and does it really repel pests?
Wild Game with Pasta? You bet.
By Olivia Johnson
By Jenny Nguyen
W
Tagliatelle with Rich
Three-Meat Sauce
fairly low maintenance, and can tolerate harsh heat, winds
and poor soils.
So what purpose does the resilient Osage-orange tree and
its strange fruit have in our part of the world? According to
horticulturists at Iowa State University, not much – other
than its use as a natural fence and some cover for wildlife,
the trees are rather ambiguous. They are less than ideal
for landscaping, as they’re covered in thorns and leave the
ground covered in softball-sized hedge apples every fall.
Although squirrels are known to feast on the seeds buried
inside the tough fruit, most animals find hedge apples
unpalatable. They aren’t a vital food source for wildlife.
What about repelling pests, such as insects and mice?
Unfortunately this folktale, although rooted from a bit of
real information, has not been proven to be effective. A
study completed at Iowa State concluded that while insect
deterrent compounds have been extracted from the apples,
the fruit as a whole isn’t effective at preventing nuisances
from entering your home.
Scientific proof or not, some still claim that hedge apples
are an ideal, natural pest control method. If you know of an
Osage-orange tree in your area, go ahead and give the fruit a
try in your basement. Just don’t be surprised if you still have
eight-legged roommates lurking around. ■
PHOTO BY JON FARRAR
44 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
Servings: 4
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 30-45 minutes
Ingredients:
olive oil, extra for drizzling
• 43 tbs.
ounces
• diced of pancetta (or lean bacon),
“Tagliatelle with Rich Three-Meat Sauce” is a wonderful pasta recipe to try out.
onion, chopped
• 11 garlic
minced
• 1 carrot,clove,
chopped
• 1 celery stalk,
chopped
• ⁄ lb. ground venison
• ⁄ cup of chicken liver, chopped
• 1 cup of crushed tomatoes
• ⁄ cup dry white wine, such as Pinot
• Grigio or Chardonnay
beef stock
• 1⁄ cup
tbs. dried oregano
• 1 bay
leaf
• 1 lb. dried
tagliatelle (pasta)
• salt and pepper,
taste
• grated Parmesantocheese,
for serving
•
1
1
1
1
2
4
2
2
1. Over medium-heat, heat 4 tbs.
of olive oil in a large heavy-bottom
saucepan. Add chopped pancetta and
cook for 3-5 minutes, or until just
turning brown. Stir occasionally. Next,
add chopped onion, carrot, celery and
minced garlic. Cook for another
5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Turn heat to high, add ground
venison and cook for 5 minutes, or
until browned. Break up meat with
a wooden spoon and stir in chopped
chicken liver. Cook for another 2 to
3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Pour in 1 cup of beef stock and
⁄2 cup of dry white wine. Add 1 cup
of pureed tomatoes, 1⁄2 tbs. of dried
oregano, 1 bay leaf, salt and pepper to
taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a
simmer. Cover and simmer for 30 to
45 minutes, or until sauce reaches
desired thickness.
1
4. As the sauce simmers, bring a pot
of lightly salted water to a boil. Add
the tagliatelle pasta and bring back
to a boil. Cook according to package
directions until tender but firm, al
dente. Drain cooked pasta and transfer
to a warm serving bowl. Drizzle with
olive oil and toss well.
5. Discard bay leaf and ladle
sauce over pasta. Toss again. Serve
immediately with grated Parmesan.
■
Jenny Nguyen
recently joined
the Nebraska
Game and Parks
Commission as a
Public Information
Officer and is based
out of the NGPC
office in Norfolk.
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 45
PHOTO BY SEAN WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY
While I was growing up, spaghetti
wasn’t a favorite. My brother and I
ate a lot of the canned stuff, and we
ate numerous pastas from boxes. If
we were low on food in the pantry,
my mom would sometimes do the
unthinkable by using ketchup for
sauce, which still traumatizes me to
this day. Don’t get me wrong: My
mother is a fantastic Vietnamese cook,
but when she decided to go “ethnic”
– which included anything outside of
Vietnamese – my brother and I never
knew what we were going to get.
Spaghetti was one of those foods, and
we still joke about it today. I’ve had it
in so many uninspiring ways that I used
to avoid it altogether as a young adult.
About three years ago, however, I
had my very first taste of wild game. I
became completely enthralled, not only
with the process of hunting, but also
with the endless culinary possibilities
that wild game held. That’s when
my boyfriend Rick and I started our
blog called Food for Hunters, (www.
foodforhunters.com) where we share
our wild game cooking adventures.
“Tagliatelle with Rich Three-Meat
Sauce” is hands-down one of our
favorite wild game recipes. It’s hearty,
rich and cooked with three different
types of meat: ground venison, pancetta
and the ever suspicious chicken liver.
It’s a pasta dish that I never mind
having, and organ haters need not
be scared: This dish doesn’t have
too much liver in it – just enough to
give the three-meat sauce an extra
something special.
PHOTO BY JENNY NGUYEN
hether it was at the grocery store, the farmer’s
market or your grandpa’s farm, you’ve probably
seen a hedge apple at some point in your life.
Many people, hopeful of deterring spiders and
other unwelcomed home invaders, purchase this
unique fruit with the belief that it repels undesirables. But
what exactly are hedge apples, and are they really effective
for pest control?
Hedge apples, also referred to as “hedge balls,” grow on
Osage-orange trees (Maclura pomifera). These trees, native
to parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, get their name
from the Osage tribe, which originated in the region. In the
19th century the trees were commonly planted throughout
the Midwest as living fence lines, known as hedgerows, for
farmers and ranchers. This led to the origin of the fruit’s
name, the “hedge apple.” Widespread Osage-orange planting
eventually ended with the debut of barbed wire. Treelines of
Osage-oranges are still a common sight across the plains, but
many have been bulldozed in recent years.
Osage-orange trees stand anywhere between 25 and 40
feet in height and are dioecious, meaning they produce
male and female flowers on separate plants. The trees
produce green flowers in May and June, and the female trees
produce hedge apples in September or October. The tree is
BOOKS/PUBLICATIONS/VIDEOS
NEBRASKA WILDFLOWERS. It’s baaack ... ! Out
of print for 21 years, the second edition of Field Guide
to Wildflowers of Nebraska and the Great Plains is
now available. This 6-inch by 91/8-inch paperback is a
must have for anyone interested in learning more about
wildflowers in Nebraska and the Great Plains region and
makes a great gift. To order this publication or to learn
about other great gift ideas, visit NebraskalandGifts.com
or call (800) 742-0056.
EXPLORE NEBRASKA art, history, culture and the
great outdoors with a subscription to Nebraska Life
Magazine. One year (six issues) for $21 or two years
(12 issues) just $38. Phone (800) 777-6159, write us at
206 W Norfolk Ave, Norfolk NE 68702-0819 or visit
www.NebraskaLife.com. Makes a great gift.
“BECOMING AN OUTDOORS-WOMAN” cookbook.
150 pages containing a variety of recipes, including
traditional home cooking along with Dutch oven and wild
game. $9.75 plus $2.50 shipping. Call (402) 471-5482, or
go online to www.NebraskaBOW.com.
DOGS
DUCKDAWG RETRIEVERS - Raising exceptional
yellow and black Labradors. 30 month written health
guarantee. www.duckdawg.com North Platte, NE (308)
534-3659.
PREMIER GUNDOGS TRAINING KENNEL, Inc:
Nebraska state licensed gundog training kennel specializing
in training programs for waterfowl and upland hunting
retrievers, spaniels, pointing Labradors and all gundog
pointing breeds. Dale-Kris Taylor (402) 787-2048, www.
premiergundogs.com.
FLATLANDER KENNELS INC, Scottsbluff, Ne. This
region’s premier full-time retriever training facility for
the serious hunter or AKC and HRC hunt tester. Trainer
of NE, CO, KS and SD’s first and only GRHRCH’s!
Training, puppies and stud dogs available for all levels of
hunt tests and gun dogs. Chris Jobman (308) 249-0707,
www.Flatlanderkennels.com.
GERMAN SHORTHAIRS AND BRITTANYS:
Very close-working hunters that point and retrieve
naturally. Awesome stud dog service available. Puppies
occasionally. We “HUNT” our dogs on “WILD” birds.
We can train your dog. Plum Thicket Kennels for
40 years. Elm Creek, NE. Doc & Jared Nelson, (308)
987-2294.
FISH/FISHING
FISH FOR SALE. Catfish, largemouth bass, smallmouth
bass, perch, crappie, bluegill, walleye, rainbow trout,
grass carp, minnows. Pleasant Valley Fish Farm, 72645
U.S. Highway 83, McCook, NE 69001. (308) 345-6599.
NEBRASKA LAKE MANAGEMENT. Biological lake
surveys, fish stocking, rough fish control, lake aeration,
algae control, aquatic weed control. Rob Hofpar, Aquatic
Biologist, licensed, insured and qualified. (402) 784-6005
Valparaiso - (888) 850-2460 www.nelakes.net.
VACATIONS/RESORTS
CRESCENT LAKE FISHING – Blue Creek Lodge is
located seven miles south of some of the best panfishing
and ice fishing in the Sandhills of Nebraska. The lodge
offers bass boat rentals for your fishing excursions and
a five-star lodge with additional fishing and hunting on
the property. Visit www.bluecreeklodging.com or call
(308) 772-9912.
THE OLDE MAIN STREET INN. A historic bed and
breakfast listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Beautiful dining room with fireplace. Headquarters for
General Nelson Miles, Wounded Knee Incident, 1890-91.
115 Main Street, Chadron, NE 69337 (308) 432-3380.
www.chadron.com/oldemain.
FOOD/GIFTS/HOME
HOMEBREWING/BEER AND WINEMAKING.
Fermenter’s Supply, 8410 K Plaza, Suite #10, Omaha,
NE 68127. Phone orders only, (888) 655-2739. Advice
line (402) 593-9171. www.fermenterssupply.com.
GUIDES/OUTFITTERS
CANOE - KAYAK - TUBE RENTALS on the
beautiful Niobrara River with Dryland Aquatics
at Sparks, Nebraska. Your Niobrara River Specialist.
(800) 337-3119. www.drylandaquatics.com, info@
drylandaquatics.com.
OUTDOOR EQUIPMENT
IS PERFORMANCE IMPORTANT? For the finest
canoes and accessories look to Great Plains Canoe Co.,
205 Main, Springfield, NE 68059. Phone (402) 253-2000.
BIG BLUE RANCH & LODGE – Enjoy fishing,
horseback riding, hunting, hiking and birdwatching on
working cattle ranch in southeastern Nebraska. Beautiful
log lodge with fireplaces, kitchens and big covered
porches, overlooks 20 acre lake. www.bigblueranch.com
(402) 865-4335.
BLUE CREEK LODGE – Oshkosh, NE. 13,000-acre
farm & ranch resort. Located by Crescent Lake National
Wildlife Refuge and State WMA. First-class lodging;
ice-fishing; hunting and fishing boat rentals; waterfowl,
upland bird and coyote hunting; reunions, meetings
and getaways. Visit www.bluecreeklodging.com or call
(308) 772-9912.
STONE’S COUNTRY CABIN: Open year-round,
minutes from Harlan County Reservoir. Fully furnished
two bedroom, w/d and full kitchen. Families, hunters
and anglers are welcome. (308) 799-4475 or (308)
920-0024. www.harlancountymeatprocessors.com/html/
stones_country_cabin.html
TAKE AN IN-STATE vacation this summer! Close,
affordable rates and locatons with a view – visit a Nebraska
state park or recreation area. Go to OutdoorNebraska.org
and click on State Parks to look at the multiple options
available and to make reservations at state park facilities
located across Nebraska.
Classified Rates: 85¢ per word, minimum $15.
Closing: First business day six weeks before issue
date. Classified ads are accepted on a first-come,
first-served, space-available basis. Classified
Ads, NEBRASKAland Magazine, P.O. Box 30370,
Lincoln, NE 68503-0370. Telephone (402) 4715473. Fax: (402) 471-1984.
E-mail: ngpc.ads@nebraska.gov.
46 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 47
Questions for God
Cayden McConnell, a 12-year-old from Beatrice, recently passed away. Many want to know why.
By Jeff Kurrus
I
▲ These two photos were taken at Mallard Haven north of Shickley back in the mid-’60s. Every year friends and I hunted
the area for pheasants and ducks. Back then a dog wasn’t needed to hunt – you just had to be willing to walk. I continue to
use the same side-by-side 10-gauge that I used in the ‘60s.
LEFT PHOTO: Pictured from left are: Bill Siedhoff; Dale Johnson (myself); Steve Prawl; and on the ground is Richard
Reed. Several of us were from Cortland, where we hunted a lot. Tom Mass is taking the picture.
RIGHT PHOTO: Pictured from left are: Richard Reed; Dale Johnson (myself); and Steve Prawl. I still hunt with my friend
Tom Mass, who was the person taking the picture. Once in a while I see Steve Prawl. Richard Reed has passed away.
– Dale Johnson, Lincoln, Nebraska
▲
This picture is of Duane Green (left)
of McCool Junction and myself, Don
Mathiasen. Trapping was about the only
means of making any money during the
winter months while going to high school.
The picture was taken about 1⁄4-mile south
of McCool Junction in either 1947 or 1948
and shows our pelts of three raccoons, one
mink and 13 skunks that we had hunted or
trapped.
Duane still lives in McCool Junction.
Although I now live in La Mesa, California, I
do return for deer hunting season as often
as possible.
– Don Mathiasen, La Mesa, California
Send contributions to: Portraits from the Past, NEBRASKAland Magazine, P.O. Box 30370, Lincoln, NE 68503-0370. Or e-mail to
tim.reigert@nebraska.gov. Photos should show people enjoying Nebraska outdoor activities, such as camping, boating, hunting or fishing,
and must have been taken before 1980. We will give priority to unusual photos or activities. When possible, please include a story about
the photograph and identify the people, places and approximate date it was taken. Photos will be returned.
48 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
have a journal near my desk at NEBRASKAland that
contains a list of questions for God. Shortly before
Christmas of 2012, I added another entry after learning
that 12-year-old Cayden McConnell of Beatrice had
succumbed to cancer after
fighting the disease for more than
a year.
I did not know Cayden well.
In fact, I barely knew him at
all. I met him and his dad Ryan
on the opening weekend of the
firearm deer season in 2011 on
the property of Gage County
landowner Rex Adams. When I
arrived that Friday night before,
Cayden was already asleep in the
bunk house/deer stand as Ryan
and I shook hands and whispered
pleasantries in the dark before we
all fell asleep in anticipation for
the morning hunt.
However, about three hours
after we turned in I awoke,
sweating. I reached over and,
thinking of no one but myself,
turned the space heater off. Shortly after, Ryan turned it
back on and added another cover for Cayden. While it was
my introduction to this family’s situation, it obviously was
not Ryan’s.
Cayden’s brain tumor was first discovered in August
2011– only two months before our opening day trip, but
more than sixty nights of going to bed knowing he could be
dying and sixty mornings of waking up to find he hadn’t.
Cayden’s body, you see, was already breaking down, as
evidenced by our meeting the following morning. His left
arm was paralyzed and he had added a limp to his walk.
Pills, radiation and chemotherapy had stripped any sort of
normalcy from his life and those closest to him.
It was upon seeing him that I thought about my own
daughter, Madeline, who was two years old at the time.
Before her, I didn’t truly understand the extreme sadness that
accompanied the loss of a child. I just didn’t get it. However,
as soon as she was conceived, the feeling of mere potential
overrode all. By the time she was born, I would have traded
my father to guarantee her safety.
It was during these times shortly after her birth that friends
and family were quick to say who she looked like – Mom’s
ears, grandmother’s mouth, etc. And as the days became
weeks, onlookers began seeing the personality traits that
will make her for the rest of her life. What makes her angry,
what makes her smile – all those little qualities that make
each person special until they are old and gray.
But what happens if a child never gets that chance to grow
old? What happens when you’re only 11 and you have to
walk with a cane? That’s where the questions to God come
in. For it was evident during that trip with Cayden that
he was patient as a hunter, and
probably as a person. That he
was confident when he squeezed
the trigger, despite optimal use
of only one limb. And that he
was, above all, strong. How could
one feel their body trying to both
grow into a man and deteriorate
at the same time and still keep
it together without having a will
of iron? And why, if placed on
this planet with those qualities,
does this person have to succumb
to something so debilitating and
dreadful? When we think about
our own children, we see them as
kids, teenagers and adults, then
wives and husbands – not dying
of cancer before they can drive a
car.
Which is what pains me even
more when I think about Cayden and his family.
I was told shortly after his death that he had put his new
crossbow to good use last fall before passing away. And
I imagine on those days that it wasn’t easy for him to get
around, and that everyone around hung on every word he
said. Understandably so – while his physical self was just a
shadow of the run-all-day boy he had been, all those traits
that he had shown since he was a baby would repeatedly
come out for those closest to him.
For Cayden’s life brimmed. Any person who passes up
small bucks for the chance at a bigger one is not thinking
about the cancer in his body. He is thinking about the
opportunity to shoot a big buck, to show photos to his
friends, to stare at the deer on the wall for the rest of his life,
remembering every moment of that day.
These are the stories we hear from the elderly whose lives
have been filled with days afield. And it is much easier to
be around these people whose own days are numbered, for
the dozens of photos adorning their walls tell of a thousand
lives lived. And not once have I ever thought about asking
another question to God when an elderly relative or friend is
laid to rest.
But when a young boy, whose passion for life and all that
it will hold for him over the next 70-plus years, has a disease
that ends his hunt too many years too early, I just repeat the
questions again in my journal – praying that I won’t ever
have to ask them again. ■
MARCH 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 49
Focusing on What’s Important
O
n July 20, 2012, a lightning strike ignited a fire along the Niobrara River that ended up
burning more than 65,000 acres and destroying several homes. Much of the area burned
was part of The Nature Conservancy’s Niobrara Valley Preserve. I was at the Preserve
during the latter days of the event, helping the staff deal with the fire and its aftermath;
putting out smoldering trees, propping up burned fences, and documenting the impacts of
the fire.
By the evening of July 25, the fire was still burning and we were all dog tired – but the end was
in sight. I was crossing the Norden Bridge near sunset when I saw a photographer by the falls
below. Something about his presence really struck me. Surrounded by a landscape that was mostly
charred and black, he was focused only on the water and the light. Watching him was a reminder
that there was still tremendous beauty in the valley.
Most people who look at this photo will only see a pretty image of a
photographer and the river. For me, it will always represent much more. When
I look at it, I’ll remember the smell of smoke and sweat, and the emotional lift
I felt from seeing this vignette of beauty at the end of a very long day.
Chris Helzer
July 25, 2012
50 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2013
Position: 743 (23 views)