20 Nebraskaland • October 2023
October
Morning
on the
Niobrara
Photos and story by
Gerry Steinauer, Botanist
n an early October day last year, dawn arrived cool and
crisp on the central Niobrara River. Although the sun
was still below the horizon, its rays painted the eastern
sky a light blue and the scattered clouds muted reds and
purples. When the orb peaked above the skyline, the bluff
tops were fi rst to be illuminated, then the sunlight slowly
slid down the valley fl anks, fi nally settling in the fl oodplain,
where it fl ashed the autumn-yellow leaves of ash and
cottonwoods to glittering gold.
Unlike the fl oodplain trees, the bur oaks growing on the
river terraces and in bluff ravines showed only a hint of
fall color, a slight browning between the leaf veins. The
hardy oaks had previously dropped their acorns, and early-
rising squirrels scurried about the forest fl oor gathering and
stashing the bounty as winter fare. Some of the rodent-buried
nuts would sprout roots yet that fall.
In the nearby prairie, frost clung to the dried, browned
stems and leaves of grasses and the still-green leaves of late
wildfl owers, mostly sunfl owers, goldenrods and asters. A few
of the fl owers held lingering blooms; it would be a race to
create seed before succumbing to the harder frosts to come.
As daylight fi lled the valley, a white-tailed deer, after a long
night of foraging, waded into the river's shallows and drank
before bedding down for the day. Meanwhile, downstream, a
lone Canada goose rose from its sandbar roost and fl ew low
up the braided stream, its shrill honking announcing to all
that morning had arrived on the Niobrara
.
N
O