AFTER MIDNIGHT

A wintering flock of Canada geese rests along Blue Creek under a blanket of stars while a waxing moon casts its faint glow on the surrounding prairie. I had set up a tent blind along the creek at this location a couple days prior. When the birds would leave on their evening flight to feed, I would crawl into the blind and spend the night. They would come back at dusk each night to roost, then leave the roost again shortly after sunrise. Blue Creek starts as a series of powerful springs that well up from the Ogallala Aquifer and continually feed the stream on its journey to the North Platte River in the western Sandhills of Nebraska. The powerful spring sources keep water open even in the depths of winter. Combined with its remote location, it is an important sanctuary for wintering waterfowl.

SWANS ON ICE

In late January, a film crew for Nebraska Educational Television and I had spent a few days in the western Sandhills of Nebraska, hoping to photograph wintering trumpeter swans and other waterfowl for the documentary film based on the book Great Plains - America's Lingering Wild.  At 20 pounds or more with 8 foot wing spans, trumpeter swans are the largest flying bird by weight in North America. They also are a conservation success story in parts of the northern Great Plains, after having been hunted out of this country over a century ago.

We filmed lots of waterfowl but were unsuccessful trying to film trumpeter swans other than a few distant shots. On the way back to Lincoln, I drove along the north shore of Lake McConaughy on a hunch that maybe they would be holding in a bay fed by a spring fed creek where I had seen them many years ago. With a stroke of luck, there they were, three family groups mingling together on a balmy 50 degree day along the edge of an open channel in the ice. 

I called my wife Patty at high noon and told her I was going to stay for a few minutes and photograph, but she knew better. At sunset I called her back and said I was just leaving for home.

 

 

SQUIRREL SNOW

Sometimes a photograph is no further away than the city park you pass by while driving home from church on a Sunday. Here a fox squirrel feeds on the winter fruit of a crabapple tree during a heavy snow that dumped 8 inches of snow in 24 hours in Lincoln, Nebraska.  The snow had been falling for a couple hours and there were three fox squirrels each perched in three different trees, feeding side by side. I didn't think  they would be there after we dropped the kids off at home and came racing back with a camera, but they were. 

WELCOME to the GREAT PLAINS BLOG

This blog hopes to continue in the spirit of Great Plains – America’s Lingering Wild, published in late 2009. The book attempts to build appreciation for this often overlooked and misunderstood landscape, put a face to the wild and human inhabitants, spur honest discussion of the conservation challenges we face here today, and try to get to the heart of why it matters.

Often times these blog posts will be simply photo driven, sharing a new photo and maybe a story of something that happened in the field. Other times there may be longer ramblings, or links to other articles or images by others that in some way have something to say about the Great Plains. Whatever the case, I hope you will find the occasional posts interesting, or funny, or sad, or inspiring, or something, enough to spur thought and conversation.

To be honest, I’ve been leary of doing a blog, so here is the disclaimer: this is not meant to be about me. At its best, this blog will be interactive, and provides a forum to help connect people who each in their own way care about this land, its creatures, their life on the land, and to share their comments and stories.

As a conservation photographer working in this landscape for almost 20 years and having lived in the Plains most of my life, I have learned not to tell people what they ought to think but rather to be a witness and share with them what I have learned through the experiences I have had. Second, I have learned to simply listen. Sometimes it shifts viewpoints. Other times it solidifies them.

The Great Plains is a huge place in the heart of this continent, and personifies the soul of this great country. Its future challenges are complex both ecologically and economically. But have heart. The common threads that tie us all together over this landscape are much stronger than differences that may divide us. Conservation begins with conversation, and builds from the ground up. If this blog, a tiny ripple in a very big pond, helps in its own small way build community in this place we hold so dear, then it will have been worth the effort.

You can find the blog by clicking on the link below. I hope you enjoy it.

Sincerely,

Michael Forsberg