Date: 12/15/25 3:28 pm From: Matt Shurtliff via groups.io <mmscornhusker...> Subject: Re: [NEBirds] My Nebraska #300 experience - Caracara road trip (long)
I didn’t even bring it. Partner had one.
The hawk … was most likely Swainson’s. But not 100% sure.
Matt Shurtliff
<mmscornhusker...>
On Mon, Dec 15, 2025 at 5:26 PM greg hartel via groups.io <gregjhartel=
<gmail.com...> wrote:
> Where was your camera?
>
> On Mon, Dec 15, 2025 at 12:56 PM Matt Shurtliff via groups.io
> <mmscornhusker...> wrote:
>
>> Checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S288423016 >>
>> I had the incredible thrill of having my 300th Nebraska bird be the
>> Crested caracara. I think many of us like listing, and memorable
>> experiences, and good birding partners, and milestones. I had all of that
>> tied together in this one sighting.
>>
>> So ... Tobin hooks me up with the Discord chat to follow the latest on
>> the Caracara. I can't go until Saturday work wise. In the chat Em is
>> looking to hitchhike along if anyone is passing through Lancaster County.
>> So, we connect. We agree if there's a sighting Friday it's on. There is, so
>> I pick Em up at 6 am in Lincoln.
>>
>> The conversation along the drive was wide, varied, and epic. I'll just
>> tell you, Em does a great Richard Burton from Who's Afraid of Virginia
>> Woolf.
>>
>> It's getting icy on this drive. There's a time where we're considering
>> bailing. At a gas station we talk to a group of farmers on their morning
>> "solve the world's problems" coffee meeting. I ask about the roads. One
>> assured me the route would be ok. I took that as a sign. :)
>>
>> Eventually we get to Keith County, cross the dam, and head down 92. At 20
>> miles out, we lock in. No more wide and varied conversation. All we're
>> talking about is how we find this bird. We have the "your eyes on the road,
>> mine on the birds" conversation.
>>
>> We get lucky. We see the bird immediately. But ... it's flying about 300
>> yards away, just in front of the beige building on the NW corner of 92 and
>> 207. We get a 20-ish second view as it crosses 92 to the North, with trees
>> impeding view.
>>
>> So, there we sit, and ID a silhouette of a large flying raptor where we
>> can't see the famous face/head characteristics. We can see a flash of
>> light/dark color, and we can see wing shape, wing style, tail angle, and
>> flight characteristics. We start ruling out possibles. Buteos were out.
>> Bald eagle - out. The last DQ was Harrier. We asked each other if we were
>> certain, and we agreed.
>>
>> You wouldn't know this about me, but the thing I enjoy the most is what I
>> call "good birding" - when you need to go deep into your toollbox to ID a
>> bird. You don't have the visual you need for the full set of field marks.
>> You don't have vocalization. You have things like silhouette, posture, wing
>> appearance, etc. I'm not as good as many here in that process, but it's
>> my favorite thing about birding.
>>
>> So, I got Nebraska #300, collaborating with a fine young birder who's
>> going to become better than me if they haven't already, by ID-ing my
>> favorite way. The only way it could be better is if JRR Tolkien and Tom
>> Osborne were with us. I don't know if Em caught this or not, but I had
>> tears well up at the whole thing.
>>
>> Less than 5 minutes after we agree, there's a flash from Ebird, Mark
>> Brogie reported it. So we get the Appeal to Authority :).
>>
>> Em is on the phone telling their mother, who is just learning birding,
>> and is chasing a Prothonotary warbler in California at the same time. I
>> told Em to tell their mother that their partner says that they are a
>> great birder.
>>
>> We try and relocate the CC. We eventually end up with a 30-minute
>> spotting scope view about 200 yards out in the same field, as it tore apart
>> and ate a Canada goose. You could see blood on the goose's feather, and
>> pieces of flesh. That's how good the scope view was. The best picture we
>> have is old school digiscoping - Em shooting a phone picture through the
>> scope eyepiece. That's in the checklist.
>>
>> Em later shares that picture to the Discord chat. With a caption that
>> says "A digiscopic observation of rapid caracarogenic metamorphosis in *Branta
>> canadensis*." We worked on that a bit on the drive home. Em provided
>> "rapid." I served up "caracara-induced," then Em improved it. You get the
>> idea.
>>
>> Other cool things happened. In addition to 300, we saw Kestrel, Merlin,
>> and Prairie falcon. So, we're in the club of those who have had a Nebraska
>> 4-falcon day without a Peregrine. Em wanted to see a Townsend's
>> solitaire while we were there. Tobin recommended Lake Ogallala, and I went
>> straight to a tree grove where I'd seen one years before. Tick. At the
>> Caracara field, a Merlin blasted over a mass of Starlings on the ground,
>> causing Starling Mayhem. It was just that kind of day.
>>
>> And ... a mysterious Buteo that flew directly overhead at 20 feet. We
>> watched through binoculars as it approached, flew straight over our heads,
>> and flew away. Neither of us had a camera. We couldn't tell what it was.
>> And we tried hard, went through Sibleys. We left it at the genus level on
>> the checklist.
>>
>> There's even more to the story, but that's probably enough.
>>
>> --
>> Matt Shurtliff
>> Sarpy County
>> <mmscornhusker...>
>>
>>
>
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