22 Nebraskaland • March 2024
using along the stream, which you
could also call a slough. Disconnected
from the river at the upper end long
ago, it is fed entirely by groundwater
and fl ows intermittently depending on
the season and the year. Last spring,
it was not fl owing, only holding
water in low spots. To the north is a
privately owned pasture. To the south
is a native lowland tallgrass prairie
laced with wet meadow swales the
Nature Conservancy acquired in 2007.
A decade ago, they cleared brush and
smaller trees from the creekbottom,
leaving cottonwoods and other larger
trees, to create a savanna-type habitat.
The stream bed sits about 8 feet below
those grasslands, and 3 feet below the
bottomland prairie and forest it winds
through. The muddy banks of the
stream in the spot I chose were littered
A sandhill crane cups its wings and glides in to join the rest of the birds in the creekbottom.
LEFT: A crane dances in the stream.
OPPOSITE: A crane looks skyward at
other birds fl ying past.
