After experiencing the Cowboy Trail in Valentine we decided to head southward through Sandhill Country.
Remember the beautiful, long trestle bridge that we crossed while riding on the Cowboy Trail?
We got a great view of it from the highway as we headed south.
There are 19,600 square miles of Sandhills in Nebraska. That makes them the largest sand dune formation in the United States.
You may have seen sand dunes before and are thinking to yourself, "Why aren't they showing photos of sand dunes?"
Oh, but we are!
The sand dunes of the Nebraska Sandhills are unique though in that 95% of them are covered in native mixed-grass prairie.
We spotted some Ring-necked Pheasant hanging out in the grass covered hills.
As we were driving along with plans to drive further we spotted a sign that said Wildlife Management Area.
Sometimes these areas permit camping so we pulled in and low and behold they did. Here's Annie hanging out in our beautiful and spontaneous WMA camping spot.
We had it all to ourselves so we decided to spend a few days in this wonderful location.
Each day we stretched our legs walking around and taking in the sights and the critters. One of the first things we saw was so cool that we took a video of it.
Hit the play button and check it out!
We have seen this swarm pattern behavior with birds but never with insects. From what we have gathered these are midges - mostly males showing off as the females sit outside the group until they fly in to find a mate. Research has indicated that these midges change direction so rapidly that they face g forces of up to a 10 (the equivalent of a stunt plane pilot). However, insects brains do not move inside their skull so the g's do not affect them.
To give you an idea of size.... The larger insect is a dragonfly enjoying a midge buffet.
One of the other things we caught sight of was hundreds of migrating Monarch Butterflies.
Did you know... The Monarch is the only butterfly that migrates like birds do. They gather in large groups to stay warm. Also, the butterflies you see when you see a big group migrating will never finish the journey that they started. It will take 3-4 generations to complete one direction of the migration.
When each generation of monarch caterpillars becomes a butterfly they somehow instinctively know which direction their parents were traveling and continue in that direction once ready to fly. Each generation uses the same trees as generations before. There are many reasons why we should not continue to take down trees but this seems to be a pretty compelling one. What would happen to the Monarch Butterflies if we started taking down the trees on their migration paths?
On one of our walks the next morning we spotted the tufty Milkweed Tussock Caterpillar.
This location was loaded with butterflies including Checkerspots,
Eastern Tailed Blues,
Melissa Blues,
Sulphurs,
Red Admirals
and the Reakirt's Blue.
Cats were crawlin'...
Dragonflies were hitching rides...
Birds like this immature Red-headed Woodpecker were busy doing bird things...
Do you see the turkey in the tree? We had a family of about 10 that came through the campground each evening.
Sometime during our second afternoon at this location a police officer showed up. When we went out to speak to him he told us that someone had called to say that they had seen our vehicle there for over a week but hadn't seen anyone around. When we informed him that we had only been there two days (not a week) and that we had been outside walking several times a day and taking care of tasks like washing clothes - which were clearly hanging on a line tied to the trees - he seemed somewhat dismayed. Not that he wanted something to have been wrong but it was quite a long drive out to this location for a call that was so obviously inaccurate. We all had a chuckle and (as we always do) we thanked him for checking on us and told him how much we appreciate him driving all the way out to make sure that we were o.k.
On one of our walks, we were fortunate to catch sight of a few of these (pictured below) crazy critters as they live almost entirely below ground.
Meet the Mole Cricket!
Despite their below the surface residence Mole Cricket males create quite a loud song - which you've probably heard and thought you were hearing a frog.
One afternoon we spotted several of these cuties attempting to cross the road.
We are pretty sure that these are Blanding's Turtles. Blanding's are considered to be endangered in much of their range but have found a happy home in the Sand Hills of Nebraska.
Backstroke!
With that...
the sun set...
on our time at this beautiful spot in Nebraska.
