40 NEBRASKAland • OCTOBER 2015
American avocets in their gray winter plumage take flight from a Pelican Lake wetland at Valentine National Wildlife Refuge in
Cherry County.
American avocets in their gray winter plumage take flight from a Pelican Lake wetland at Valentine National Wildlife Refuge in
Cherry County.
American Avocet
Destined for the Texas Gulf Coast,
American avocets in their winter
plumage lift off from a Sandhills
lakeshore where they bred earlier in the
summer. Migration along the Central
Flyway from Canada to Mexico is
in full swing as the mid-continent
population of ducks and geese,
shorebirds and cranes are all moving
south racing winter that will lock
much of the land up in snow and ice.
Lakes, rivers and wetlands throughout
the state are critical stopover habitats
as upwards of 20 million migratory
birds move north to south along this
international aerial highway from
prairie potholes to playa basins in the
heart of North America.
Swift Fox
Only the size of a small house
cat, the swift fox is a creature of the
western Great Plains and found in
the shortgrass prairies of western
Nebraska. By October, their young
pups, called "kits," are old enough
to hunt on their own and begin their
fall dispersal from their parents and
their natal dens. Swift foxes spend
more time belowground in dens than
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A swift fox trots down a two-track trail road in the shortgrass prairie of Dawes County.
