July 2024 • Nebraskaland 31
snowmelt and overland fl ow. Because they are largely reliant
on precipitation, water levels in playas can vary dramatically
from year to year.
In spring 2020, Nebraska was still in the midst of a relatively
wet period. Almost every wetland I visited was full of water
and hosted an incredible diversity of birds. As the season
progressed, I watched as the annual procession of waterfowl
stopped over in Nebraska's wetlands. Starting with northern
pintails and snow geese, the cast of birds gradually changed
to blue-winged teal, northern shovelers and an eclectic mix of
shorebirds. One of my more memorable experiences occurred
in April 2020 when I belly-crawled across a large mudfl at in
the Rainwater Basin to photograph a fl ock of American white
pelicans as they seined for food in the murky water.
As the project progressed, drought gradually began to take
hold across the state. In March 2020, we installed a timelapse
camera at North Lake Basin Wildlife Management Area, a
large playa wetland in the Rainwater Basin near Utica. When
the camera was installed, there was no shortage of water, and
we donned our muck boots to get to the old windmill where
we mounted the camera. As the year progressed, the wetland
American white pelicans were a common sight in the Rainwater Basin in the spring of 2020,
when water levels were still relatively high.
Soil cracking in the Rainwater Basin in August 2020. These
large cracks that form in dry conditions help recharge
groundwater when wet weather eventually returns.
