This Month on the Chicken Dance Trail
National Recreation Trail is designated in Funk WPA
The endangered Whooping Crane is among
avian visitors to Funk WPA
One of the nation’s newest National Recreation Trails is also one of the favorite stops on the Chicken Dance Trail in southwest and south central Nebraska.
The Funk Peterson Wildlife Trail was one of 24 trails in 16 states designated as National Recreation Trails by Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne on the 40th Anniversary of the National Trails System in June. The Funk Peterson Wildlife Trail, which loops through the Funk Waterfowl Production Area, is a birdwatcher’s paradise. The three-mile loop trail takes visitors into habitat for millions of birds, including endangered whooping cranes and least terns that migrate biannually through the area.
The Rainwater Basin Wetland Management District of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the 1995-acre area, began enhancements to the trail and facilities in 2005. The Funk WPA (Waterfowl Production Area) now includes a six-mile system of walking trails, atop a new series of dikes to control the water. An existing blind was repaired and improved to be more accessible to children and the disabled, interpretive signage has been added along the trail, and three new parking areas make it convenient to enter the trail system at different points.
New interpretive signage is part of recent
improvements to the popular site
The Funk Lagoon is described as part of the Rainwater Basin Adventure on the this Web site. Each year, some ten million waterfowl and other birds of all types drop down into this area to feed and restore their depleted reserves in preparation for the next leg of their migration north.
Especially in April and May, the Funk Lagoon is home to many shorebirds, including American avocets, Wilson’s phalaropes and upland sandpipers. It’s also especially attractive to geese, including the snow goose, white-fronted goose and Canada goose during the migratory season. It’s a more permanent home to red-winged blackbirds, assorted hawks, mourning and rock doves, a number of different sparrows, larks and even some finches. The Funk WPA attracts visitors from across the nation and around the world who come to central Nebraska to experience our unique bird watching habitat.
Special Thanks to:
Nebraska Game and Parks, Birds of Nebraska
www.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/guides/birds/findbirds.asp
"This Month on the Chicken Dance Trail" archives:
- Summer is the perfect time to look for highly decorated Ornate Box Turtles (July 2008)
- May bird watching is a spectrum of color, a symphony of sound (May 2008)
- It's chicken dancing time on the Chicken Dance Trail (April 2008)
- March Madness...Nebraska style (March 2008)
- Who-o-o should you look for in the dead of winter? How about owls? (February 2008)
- Wintertime is the best time for bald eagle watching in Nebraska (January 2008)
- Big increase of Northern and mountain birds possible at Nebraska bird feeders (December 2007)
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