Mary Jo Veskrna of Blair, Neb., enjoys taking her grandchildren, 2-year-old Henry and 4-year-old Olivia, to DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge.
Just before the new year, they checked out the visitor’s center.
"It's so kid friendly. I don't ever have to worry about them getting into trouble or breaking anything," Veskrna said.
During their visits, they like seeing the creatures found in almost 8,400 acres full of trees, prairie and wetlands. But this time around, something was missing.
“I really thought that the lake would be filled with birds because it's all open. It's not frozen," Veskrna said. "And in the past, the count usually depended on how much open water there was.”
The refuge saw fewer waterfowl in the fall and early winter. Manager Tom Cox estimates about half as many as normal seasons. Some finally showed up in December.
“Birds tend to follow the habitat, and with this kind of region-wide drought, they're probably skirting around where they're finding better habitat during their migration," Cox said.
Because it was so dry, the refuge couldn’t flood as much land as usual to attract ducks, geese and swans on their way to warmer spots south.
“Conditions are a little bit harder this year, but it'll bounce back," Cox said. "And this drought will give us conditions that will actually make our habitat better in the future.”
Cox says that with part of the preserve's wetlands all dried up, crews could get rid of vegetation undesirable for attracting migrating birds by discing them away with equipment.
“Wetlands evolve over time, and they become full of perennial plants, and perennials don't produce a lot of food. So, you have to set back succession," Cox said. "And once you do that, they start producing annual plants. And that's the food producers; they produce a lot of seed.”
With more to eat and the potential for better weather, Cox isn’t overly worried about the future.
“We've been through droughts before, and we've seen these numbers drop before," he said. "Next year, we could be right back in a wet cycle and see our numbers go through the roof.”
And even though birdwatching wasn’t ideal during this visit, Mary Jo Veskrna still plans to make regular trips with the family to DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge.
“I guess we hope for more moisture next year, and maybe we'll have more birds," she said.
