Nebraska birders aflutter about first-ever limpkin spotted in the state

OMAHA — Photographer Karen Kader walked proper by the fowl at first, pondering it was an awesome blue heron.

“Then it dawned on me that it had spots,” she mentioned.

What Kader truly found final week at a wetlands mitigation pond in Chalco Hills Recreation Space close to Gretna was a limpkin, a fowl by no means earlier than seen in Nebraska. One other limpkin was noticed for the primary time the identical day in Iowa.

The tropical shorebird’s typical vary is in south Florida and central America. It has a protracted invoice, is brown with white spots, has a wing span of 39 to 42 inches and has a haunting cry.

“I used to be shaking from pleasure,” Kader mentioned. “I believed, ‘This fowl is so removed from house.’”

She instantly contacted Joel Jorgensen, the nongame fowl program supervisor from Nebraska Recreation and Parks.

He acquired in contact with Mark Brogie, the data committee chairperson for the Nebraska Ornithologists Union. Brogie, who lives in Creighton, and his brother Ed, who lives in Wayne, drove that afternoon to see the fowl for themselves.

“That is fairly unprecedented,” Mark Brogie mentioned.

It turns into the 467th state file verified in Nebraska, and individuals are flocking to see it.

Kader mentioned birders had been hugging her and thanking her for sharing the information in regards to the limpkin.

“I’ve by no means seen a lot site visitors there after I discovered it,” she mentioned

Kader mentioned it wasn’t elevating younger, so she thought it could be OK to reveal its location. However she’s hoping individuals shall be cautious of the inexperienced herons nesting there.

Jorgensen went out the subsequent day to see it. He mentioned two or three years in the past it could have been loopy to see a limpkin in Nebraska. Final 12 months, it was seen in Texas, Minnesota and Kansas.

Its vary and inhabitants have expanded as individuals have dumped its main supply of meals, the enormous apple snail, from aquariums into the nation’s waterways.

He mentioned it’s feeding in Nebraska on one other invasive species, the Chinese language thriller snail, which could be present in abundance on the pond.

“The species is present process some superb adjustments in inhabitants and vary,” Jorgensen mentioned. “You don’t see fowl ranges change this rapidly.”

It was the 423rd fowl species that Brogie has seen in Nebraska. He mentioned Jorgensen is true behind him at 417. 

Kader mentioned she doesn’t hold a listing; it’s only a leisure pursuit. However to now personal a state file is fairly cool.

“It makes me unhappy as a result of he’s on their own,” she mentioned. “However he might not be the one one in Nebraska.”