44 NEBRASKAland • MAY 2015
A
ccording to the Commission's Non-Game Bird
Program Manager Joel Jorgensen, 41 species of
shorebirds move through Nebraska and the Great
Plains each year along the Central Flyway, and 14 of
those species regularly breed or have documented
breeding records in the state.
By early June, most of Nebraska's breeding
shorebirds will be settled on nests near wetlands,
lakes and rivers across the state. By late summer they
will begin to gather again in loose flocks.
Left: An American avocet
hunts for insects following the
contour of an alkaline lake's
shoreline in the Nebraska
Sandhills.
Above: A trio of marbled
godwits take flight across
the prairie in mid-May after
just arriving to their breeding
grounds.
Opposite: In late summer, a
Mountain plover races across
a prairie dog town on the
shortgrass prairie.
