This Month on the Chicken Dance Trail

The Region

Nebraska birdwatching trails — Chicken Dance Trail

Featured Bird

Burrowing Owl:

True to its name, the Burrowing Owl often nests in a hold in the ground provided by prairie dogs, coyotes or badgers. It is most active in the morning and evening, hunting for insects during the day and mammals at night. Look for it especially in the Sandsage Prairie and Loess Canyons of the Chicken Dance Trail.

Getting to know our other on-the-wing critters

Monarch Butterfly July can be a pretty good month to watch birds. We still have our resident breeders; “fall” shorebird migration is underway as early migrating shorebirds head south; and “vagrant” birds may show up from breeding ranges far from Nebraska. But summer is also a great time of year to observe some other critters that spend their lives “on the wing”.

Nebraska has a great diversity of insect life and some of the most showy butterflies, moths, dragonflies and damselflies are flying around the Chicken Dance Trail region of southwest and south central Nebraska this month.

Butterflies

Nebraska’s diversity of butterflies ranges from tiny skippers, coppers and blues, to the much larger monarchs and swallowtails. The eastern tiger swallowtail is a familiar yellow and black beauty with artistic touches of blue and orange that can be found across the state. Other, equally stunning butterflies include the familiar monarch which gather in some places in such large numbers that they make trees look as if they had moving orange leaves, and the viceroy – a smaller mimic of the monarch which actually gains protection against birds because of its resemblance to monarchs. Monarchs are poisonous to birds, due to toxins that build up in them from their habit of feeding on milkweeds. Although the viceroy is not toxic, birds can’t tell the two apart, so the viceroy is rarely preyed upon.

You don’t have to go far to find butterflies — where there are flowers, there will be butterflies. Some of our prairies are the best places to look and with this summer’s rainy weather, the butterfly food crops are doing very well in our rangelands. Of Nebraska’s many butterflies, my favorites are probably the common buckeye, juniper hairstreak and Melissa blue. The Butterfly Site is a great online resource for information on Nebraska butterflies.

Moths

We aren’t lacking in moths either, although many are considered pests due to their habit of being attracted to lights, including those inside our homes. However, there are some very neat and beautiful moths in Nebraska, the most showy of which include the Secropia, Polyphemus and the long-tailed and green Luna moths. These three beautiful creatures are not commonly encountered, but when you do find one, you will be amazed that they are in fact a moth and not a butterfly because they are so beautiful.

Buckmoths are another neat species, but my favorite group of moths would probably have to be the Sphinx moths, which look like hummingbirds as they feed on flowers. There are about 35 species in this group in Nebraska, but my choice would have to be one of the smallest ones, the snowberry clearwing which looks a lot like a bumblebee and has see through wings. A good website for information on moths is Butterflies and Moths of North America . The best places to look for moths are near or around bright lights at night and for sphinx moths – keep your eyes on the nearest flower garden or patch of wildflowers.

Dragonflies

From darners to skimmers to meadowhawks, these aerial predators can be found flying over nearly every body of water and even in open prairie and woodland at times of the year, with July being about the best. It is very entertaining to watch them chase each other around, then perch on a bulrush or sedge, and then the chase is on again. Some of my favorites include the helicopter of the bunch, the common green darner, along with others with great names like black saddlebags, widow skimmer, and white-faced meadowhawk (which is NOT a bird).

Damselflies

While they are smaller than their dragonfly cousins, damselflies are just as beautiful and diverse. Most people have seen various members of the bluet damselflies, which are typically dainty insects that you have to look hard to see, despite their brilliant blue coloration. My favorites in this group would definitely have to be the ebony jewelwing, which sports a brilliant metallic green body with black wings, and the American rubyspot, which have a spot on their wings that literally looks like a ruby. Both species tend to be found along flowing streams.

You can find dragonflies and damselflies at literally every lake, pond, reservoir, creek, canal and even at large puddles after a rainstorm. And each body of water can have something different from the last. For more information on dragonflies and damselflies in Nebraska, visit the Northern Prairies Wildlife Research Center website.

If you go looking for these neat insects, take photos of any you happen to find and check them against the listed web pages — you may come up with a new county record for one or more of the species.

Just head out to your favorite outdoor location and spend some time enjoying some of the bugs around you...and wear bug spray for those you won’t enjoy.

T. J. Walker
Wildlife Biologist
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
North Platte

Special Thanks to:
Nebraska Game and Parks, Birds of Nebraska
www.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/guides/birds/findbirds.asp

"This Month on the Chicken Dance Trail" archives:

A different point of view on development (June, 2010)
An insignificant patch of woods (May, 2010)
Look at that big nest! (March, 2010)
The Great Back Yard Bird Count (February, 2010)
New online gallery helps Nebraska birders know what to look for (January, 2010)
Birding in a Winter Wonderland (December, 2009)
From chirps and cheeps to Twitter and “tweets” (November, 2009)
Pockets and Puddles (October, 2009)
Shorebirds in Nebraska: the invisible migration (September, 2009)
From frailty to flight, the healing of a bald eagle (August, 2009)
Some other “on the wing” critters… (July, 2009)
Birding Day (June, 2009)

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