Mountain Plover Search in Pawnee Grasslands

On April 11th Kristy and Dee went on a trip to search for the Mountain Plover in Pawnee National Grasslands. This bird is a species of concern and is becoming more rare to see. The wind was blowing and the temperature was frigid but the birds didn't care. We had a wonderful day and had a total of 56 species for the trip. Other stops along the way were Drake Lake and Tinmath Reservoir. We did see the Mountain Plover, in fact three of them. Following is the complete bird list: 1) Snow Goose, 2) American Kestrel, 3) Mourning Dove, 4) American Robin, 5) Golden Eagle, 6) Northern Harrier, 7) Western Meadowlark, 8) Black-billed Magpie, 9) Ring-billed Gull, 10) Great Blue Heron, 11) Rock Pigeon, 12) Canada Geese, 13) Red-tailed Hawk, 14) European Starling, 15) Eurasian Collored-Dove, 16) Burrowing Owl, 17) Horned Lark, 18) Mountain Plover, 19) Northern Flicker, 20) Barn Owl (Crow Valley Campground had 3!), 21) Red-winged Blackbird, 22) Double-crested Cormorant, 23) McCown's Longspur, 24) American Coot, 25) Pied-billed Grebe, 26) Yellow-headed Blackbird, 27) Northern Shoveler, 28) Blue-winged Teal, 29) Lesser Scaup, 30) Gadwall, 31) Franklin's Gull, 32) Ring-necked Duck, 33) Cinnamon Teal, 34) California Gull, 35) Common Grackle, 36) Mallard, 37) Swainson's Hawk, 38) American Wigeon, 39) House Sparrow, 40) Great-tailed Grackle, 41) American White Pelican, 42) Dark-eyed Junco, 43) Ring-necked Pheasant, 44) Bufflehead, 45) Canvasback, 46) Redhead, 47) Killdeer, 48) Greater Yellowlegs, 49) Greater White-fronted Goose, 50) Common Goldeneye, 51) Prairie Falcon, 52) Common Merganser, 53) Red-breasted Merganser, 54) Ruddy Duck, 55) Horned Grebe, 56) Western Grebe.