An unusual bird survey effort occurred on Sunday, August 12 at several wetlands in the vicinity of Goose Lake, WMA in southeast Holt county. Jason Thiele visited the wildlife management area, Detters Lake to the west and also kept notes of occurrence for wetlands present at the headwaters of Clearwater Creek (which eventually empty into the Elkhorn River) along county road 846.
What is notable is that the largest extent of waterfowl were at the small wetlands rather than at Goose Lake. The results are also valuable for indicating songbirds of the later part of the breeding season. This is a list of the 39 species recorded — with most of the songbirds from the wildlife area — according to records available at ebird.org:
| Proper Name - Indicated Number |
- Canada Goose - 55
- Wood Duck - 20
- Blue-winged Teal - 120; 70 at one spot and 50 at another
- Northern Shoveler - 4
- Mallard - 10
These five species of waterfowl were at a wetland complex which is a portion of the headwaters area of Clearwater creek, a waterway hydrologically connected to the Elkhorn River which then connects to the Platte River that has a known designation as "waters of the United States"
- Northern Bobwhite - 2
- Pied-billed Grebe - 1; also at a Clearwater Creek headwaters wetland
- Great Blue Heron - 3; seen only at the Clearwater wetlands
- Turkey Vulture - 1
- Red-tailed Hawk - 1
- Killdeer - 6; only at the Clearwater wetlands
- Spotted Sandpiper - 1
- Solitary Sandpiper - 1
- Franklin's Gull - 1 at the WMA lake where there is a fisheries resource
- Belted Kingfisher - 1
- Eurasian Collared Dove - 1
- Mourning Dove - 9; either at the WMA or one of the Clearwater Creek wetlands surveyed
|
- Downy Woodpecker - 1
- Northern Flicker - 4
- American Kestrel - 1
- Eastern Kingbird - 16; a dozen at Clearwater wetlands
- Warbling Vireo - 1
- Blue Jay - 1
- American Crow - 6
- Black-capped Chickadee - 2
- Barn Swallow - 6
- House Wren - 1
- Grey Catbird - 1
- Common Starling - 5
- American Robin - 8
- American Goldfinch - 9
- Common Yellowthroat - 1
- American Yellow Warbler - 1
- Western Meadowlark - 8
- Baltimore Oriole - 1
- Red-winged Blackbird - 49
- Song Sparrow - 2
- Field Sparrow - 2; actively breeding at the WMA
- Northern Cardinal - 2
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Notably missing is any indication of the Eastern Meadowlark, which is typically a regular resident in the extensive wetland meadow habitat in the area.
The proposed r-project industrial powerline would be placed along county road 846, and which would basically create an artificial skyline barrier between Goose Lake WMA and important marshland southward along the county road that includes habitats in northern Wheeler county.
There are historic records for this region available from August 1990 and 1993, as well as a some additional results from July and more in September in different years.