32 Nebraskaland • July 2024
gradually dried until there was no water within the entirety
of the camera's view. With this disappearance of water, an
abundance of plant life, including smartweed, barnyard grass
and coreopsis, fl ourished on the recently exposed soil.
Through the fall and winter of 2020, the wetland remained
dry and was passed over by waterbirds on their fall migration.
However, in spring 2021, a large precipitation event quickly
brought water back to North Lake Basin. The abundant seeds
produced the previous fall provided fuel for the thousands
of migratory birds that stopped over on their migration. If
wetlands don't periodically dry out, many of the plants that
provide a critical food source for wildlife would disappear.
The cyclical nature of playa wetlands is also important
for amphibians. In permanent bodies of water, fi sh will
eat the eggs of frogs, toads and salamanders. Because
playas periodically dry up, most playas do not have fi sh,
making them an ideal habitat for amphibians able to wait
underground for wet conditions to return.
Even when wetlands are dry, they still provide valuable
habitat to a suite of wildlife. In August 2020, a small team
from the Platte Basin Timelapse and Nebraska Game and
Parks traveled to southwestern Nebraska to photograph and
fi lm the aptly named Southwest Playas. During our trip, most
of the wetlands were dry and, at fi rst glance, they seemed
An abundance of migratory waterfowl stopped over at North Lake Basin Wildlife Management area near Utica in March 2020.
Less than six months later the wetland was almost completely dry.
A Leconte's sparrow perches on a patch of smartweed in the
Rainwater Basin. The abundant seeds found in dry wetlands
are an important food source for migratory birds like this
passerine.
