Fall Field Days at Harlan County Reservoir

The annual Fall Field Days were held on September 9–11, 2005, at the 4-H Camp near Alma. Field trip destinations included Harlan County Reservoir and various other points of interest in Furnas, Harlan, Franklin, Phelps, Kearney, and Adams Counties. The total tally was 119 species, including Snowy Egret, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Mississippi Kite, Prairie Falcon, and Olive-sided Flycatcher. Fifty-four members and guests attended. On Friday the group heard from Dr. Josef Kren on the topic of obligate brood parasites, species that have lost the ability to construct nests and incubate eggs and instead lay eggs in the nests of other species, and non-obligate brood parasites, species that lay eggs both in their own nests in the nests of other members of their own species. On Saturday, Joel Jorgensen talked about his research on the importance of the Rainwater Basin as a stopover site during the migration of Buff-breasted Sandpipers. The world population of Buff-breasted Sandpipers is declining and is currently estimated at only 15,000, many of which use agricultural fields of the Rainwater Basin as they pass through Nebraska