March 2013

By Joel Sartore

If you’ve driven I-80 along the Platte River in March, you must have seen them. Mile after mile they stand there, gray sentinels too numerous to count. Lining both sides of the Interstate between Kearney and Grand Island, they’ve been waiting to put on a show … just for you.

And what a show it is. After all, they’ve been rehearsing in Nebraska for at least 10,000 years. 

By Brian Reetz

Water is wonderful! Sit back and think about it—water is everywhere. It’s hard to do anything without water being involved in some way—from the food that is on our table to the coffee that we stop and grab at the drive-through; when we need to get our clothes clean and when we need to wash our dishes after a great home-cooked meal. But what do we know about water? Do you ever wonder about it?

By Paul A. Johnsgard

Of all the birds of the Great Plains, probably none is more widely recognized by the general public than is the American white pelican. Its almost cartoon-like profile, with a impossibly long pouched bill and a waddling gait on land that reminds one of an overweight uncle, is impossible to mistake. Yet, when swimming, a group of pelicans has the appearance of a slow but regal procession, with each bird maintaining a decorous distance behind the leader. In flight the birds produce a mesmerizing slow-motion aerial ballet. With their great wing areas providing lift for their relatively heavy bodies, pelicans can soar effortlessly in the slightest updraft, and during normal flight nearly a third of their time is spent in restful gliding. To maximize flying efficiency, the birds often assume an echelon formation, with the lead bird setting the flap-glide rhythm. As it shifts from flapping to gliding, the bird just behind does the same, and the rest follow in rapid progression. The result is a wave-like, almost hypnotizing, visual effect, which reduces the energy cost of flying for all of the birds using the slipstream of the one just ahead.

By Laurence L. Falk, Ph.D., and Susan P. Quinn

Nebraska City is located beside the Missouri River in Otoe County along the Missouri River flyway. Its rolling hills and abundant trees provide a mixed habitat for resident and migratory birds. In 1804 Wm. Clark comments about this site: “This prospect was So Sudden & entertaining that I forgot the object of my prosute and turned my attention to the Variety which presented themselves to my view” (Clark’s spelling). The creeks observed by Clark (North and South Table creeks) continue to flow, and now there are more trees along the creeks and river. The area surrounding Nebraska City was altered by recent weather extremes with constant summer flooding of the Missouri River in 2011 and drought in 2012. The flooding affected wetland areas in both Otoe County and Fremont County in Iowa lying opposite Nebraska City on the east side of the Missouri River. The wildlife effects of dike moving and repair are yet to be fully determined.

The spring dance of the greater prairie chickens is an intriguing courtship display characterized by stomping feet, towering leaps and resonant booming noises from inflated yellow-orange air sacs along the sides of their necks.

By Paul A. Johnsgard

For many decades I have tried to photograph sandhill cranes flying in front of the moon, but during the era of relatively slow color films, this proved to be impossible—the light was never great enough to produce an image worth saving. Digital cameras now often have ISO speeds of 1000 or more, rapid autofocus lenses and rapid-burst exposures, making it feasible to obtain fine moon/crane images.

By Jack Phillips

My cold morning walk in a wooded ravine drew insults from local crows. They began with the multiphonic croak-whistle, a sound made possible by unique avian anatomy that equips birds for producing multiple tones simultaneously. The first calls seemed to be a taunt and a test to see if I could somehow understand that the interval between the pitches was actually an opening into a primordial reality, something we call “nature.” I didn’t know what these crazy corvids expected me to do. They quickly added my lack of response to the mounting evidence for human ignorance and proceeded to demonstrate their vocal prowess with an impressive display of ridicule and rudeness.

By Tamar Jacoby

No one knows who invented the term, but sometime in 2003 lawmakers and advocates in Washington began talking about what they called “comprehensive immigration reform.” The first bills were sketchy—more concept papers than workable legislation. Then in late 2004 staffers from four Hill offices—Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AZ), Reps. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL)—went into a back room and emerged six months later with the legislation that became known as McCain-Kennedy: in many ways the blueprint for all comprehensive reform bills that have been considered since.

What exactly was included in a comprehensive package went through innumerable changes as version after version was proposed in Congress between 2005 and 2010. As with any legislation, the details were critically important: a few small choices could make or break a measure politically—and also make the difference between a bill that worked to solve the problem and one that did not, as the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act had not solved it two decades before. But the essence of comprehensive reform—what supporters sometimes call the architecture—remained largely consistent through the years, and it is still the starting point for any serious discussion of what would constitute a meaningful immigration overhaul.

This architecture consisted of three pillars: enforcement, legalization and worker visas. In the eyes of most reformers, these were three moving parts of a single engine—each indispensable to the functioning of the others and of the machine as a whole.