Date: 7/14/25 10:02 am From: Jacob C. Cooper via groups.io <cooperj2...> Subject: [NEBirds] Boone & surrounding counties birding
Hi all,
Yesterday (Sunday, July 13th), Peggy Huss, Robin Harding, and I did a big loop of east-central part of the state. Our goal was to help fill in our state maps – namely, Peggy had bever birded Merrick, Nance, Boone, or Greeley counties before, and I had never birded Boone. Robin, who had extensive notes from birding the region with Lanny, guided us to some of her favorite birding spots in the area.
We started in Bader Park, Merrick County. We had a total of 39 species there, which isn’t bad for late July. While we were along the river, Robin spotted a flyover Spotted Sandpiper, followed soon after by a flyover Black Tern. We had three species of vireo singing along the riparian strip (Bell’s, Warbling, and Red-eyed) and we were thoroughly impressed by a Cedar Waxwing flycatching swallow-like over one of the lakes.
From here, we worked out way north towards Fullerton where we found some flooded cornfields just south of the Nance-Merrick count line on Highway 14. This ended up being one of our best spots of the day. Not long after arriving, we spotted two Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks flying across the highway – they eventually disappeared to the northeast over the feedlot, but it would be worth checking this site again. These ducks were a life bird for Peggy and, from what we can tell, these would be a first county record for Merrick. At the same fields, we had a group of 18 Lesser Yellowlegs flying around, as well as some Spotted Sandpipers, Killdeer, and a lone Pectoral Sandpiper plying the shore. We had more Black Terns here as well and we spotted a Black-crowned Night Heron out in the middle of the flooded corn stubble – Peggy’s second life bird of the day. The heron eventually took off, circling around before heading south.
We cross the county line into Nance, and drove 270th road, which was marked as “good” on Robin’s maps. We ended up having 25 species on this road, including two Indigo Buntings. Next, we headed towards some wetlands at the corner of 555th and Hwy 14 Robin knew about, and we were immediately greeted by the raucous songs of Marsh Wrens (they sounded like “eastern” birds to us). As we sat there with the windows down, Peggy and Robin looked at each other and in near-unison said “Bittern!” I got out of the car and was delighted to hear the hollow coos of a Least Bittern coming from near 555th Road. Despite our efforts, we were unable to obtain looks at this bird, but we thoroughly enjoyed hearing it sing. This was a state bird for me, Peggy’s third life bird of the day(!), and it appears to be a first county record for Nance per eBird and the NOU website. After a quick check of the Fullerton Cemetery, we decided to head north into Boone and get our next new county of the day.
We explored southern Boone County a little bit and then started heading north towards the grasslands. On the way, we stopped at another road that Robin had marked on her maps - 205th road out of Loretto, which weaves through Bur Oak hillsides before emerging in nice prairie that has recently had large amount of cedar removed. We had our typical suite of grassland and woodland birds, but right at the end of our drive we stumbled across two Say’s Phoebes, one of which looked like a young bird. Out next stop was the Olson Nature Preserve, where we walked around for about a half hour and found 30 species of birds, including some Eastern Phoebes using the shelter by the parking area. We wrapped up our Boone County birding with Beaver Valley Road and the adjacent grassland, where we had 80 Dickcissels in about a ten mile drive. We also had good numbers of Bobolinks in the wet grassland and Grasshopper Sparrows in the drier areas. Our highlights on this stretch included Solitary Sandpipers and Soras along Beaver Valley Road in the marshes.
Our next county of the day was Greeley County – which, when measured by the number of complete eBird checklists, is the least birded county in the entire state. We went to two cemeteries on the north side of Spalding, where the heat of the day kept activity low but we nonetheless had 17 species, including our only Purple Martins of the day. At the water control structure on the south side of Spalding, we had Spotted Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, three Least Sandpipers, and some Killdeer. As we were leaving Spalding, we had a flyover flock of 15 Killdeer. Our only other major stop in Greeley County was the Happy Jack Chalk Mine, where we had a Spotted Towhee.
At this point, we started heading back towards Buffalo County, making a quick stop at Davis Creek Reservoir, where we probably saw more people than birds. Our last fun find of the day in nearby northeastern Sherman County, where we stumbled across a group of ~575 Bank Swallows by some small ponds. There was one Cliff Swallow mixed in, and we had two random Ring-billed Gulls fly by as we were watching the swallows as well.
