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City of Lincoln Natural Resources & Greenways Saline Wetlands

Birdlife of the Frank Shoemaker Marsh

Frank Shoemaker Marsh is a very diverse area of woodland, grassland, and wetland. Saline wetland represented is saltgrass in a saline meadow; bluestem and cordgrass also occur. There is also open water and cattail-sedge marsh. Seaside heliotrope was collected at the edge of one basin, on bare mud during low water, the only record of this western species from eastern Nebraska.

An area of grassland occurs on upland on the eastern edge of the site. There are native plants, including bluestem, gayfeather, and wild rose. This prairie is very disturbed and would require extensive rejuvenation. There are two areas of successional grassland. The upland site on the western edge is predominantly rough dropseed and little and big bluestems. The shrubby western snowberry is invading the area. On low land along the creek the successional area is mostly Kentucky bluegrass and smooth brome. Woody plants include ash, locust, hackberry, elm, and snowberry.

Remnant riparian woodland occurs along the eastern and western edges of the site. The grove on the east side is almost entirely of elm, with a few cottonwoods along the edge of the basin. The woodland on the west side of the basin has thickets of American plum, ash, locust, mulberry, willows, snowberry, and juniper. They are very dense in places and provide extensive cover for wildlife. There is a replanted warm-season grassland west of the wetland area, in which big bluestem and Indiangrass are planted.

Most of the flats along the creeks have been heavily disturbed, and apparently an attempt was made to cultivate the property early in the century, according to the landowner. As a result, the predominant plants are annuals, including ragweeds, sunflowers, thistles, and Japanese brome, but there are some native species where the ground is wet.

Water was formerly pumped from adjacent Little Salt Creek each year to raise water levels and improve conditions for hunting of waterfowl. This influx of freshwater may influence the salinity of the wetlands, reducing growth of salt-marsh plants, but the water attracts a large diversity of migratory and breeding birds.

There have been about 140 species of birds recorded at the area which is now Frank Shoemaker Marsh. Most records are from the 1980s when it was known as Federation Marsh, with fewer sightings since 2000. The site has a high diversity of breeding birds included in the species list, given here in taxonomic sequence.

Common Name
Pied-billed Grebe Horned Grebe Eared Grebe Double-crested Cormorant American Bittern Least Bittern Great Blue Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Cattle Egret Green Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron Greater White-fronted Goose Snow Goose Canada Goose Muscovy Duck Wood Duck Gadwall American Wigeon Mallard Blue-winged Teal Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Canvasback Redhead Ring-necked Duck Lesser Scaup Bufflehead Hooded Merganser Ruddy Duck Northern Harrier Sharp-shinned Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Ring-necked Pheasant Northern Bobwhite Black Rail Sora Common Moorhen American Coot Semipalmated Plover Killdeer Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Willet Spotted Sandpiper Upland Sandpiper Hudsonian Godwit Semipalmated Sandpiper Western Sandpiper	Least Sandpiper Baird's Sandpiper Pectoral Sandpiper Dunlin Long-billed Dowitcher Common Snipe Wilson's Phalarope Red-necked Phalarope Franklin's Gull Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Forster's Tern Black Tern Mourning Dove Black-billed Cuckoo Yellow-billed Cuckoo Great Horned Owl Long-eared Owl Common Nighthawk Chimney Swift Belted Kingfisher Red-headed Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Willow Flycatcher Least Flycatcher Eastern Phoebe Eastern Kingbird Bell's Vireo Warbling Vireo Philadelphia Vireo Blue Jay American Crow Tree Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Bank Swallow Barn Swallow Black-capped Chickadee White-breasted Nuthatch House Wren Sedge Wren Marsh Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet Veery Swainson's Thrush American Robin Gray Catbird Brown Thrasher European Starling Cedar Waxwing	Tennessee Warbler Nashville Warbler Yellow Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Blackpoll Warbler American Redstart Prothonotary Warbler Common Yellowthroat Eastern Towhee American Tree Sparrow Chipping Sparrow Clay-colored Sparrow Field Sparrow Savannah Sparrow Grasshopper Sparrow Le Conte's Sparrow Song Sparrow Lincoln's Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Harris's Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Northern Cardinal Rose-breasted Grosbeak Indigo Bunting Dickcissel Bobolink Red-winged Blackbird Eastern Meadowlark Western Meadowlark Yellow-headed Blackbird Rusty Blackbird Common Grackle Great-tailed Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Orchard Oriole Baltimore Oriole American Goldfinch House Sparrow

Birdlist compiled from database records maintained by J.E. Ducey, December 2003.

For additional information on saline wetlands, refer to these articles:
1985. Nebraska's salt basin: going, going, nearly gone. Nebraskaland 63: 20-25.
1987. Frank H. Shoemaker: turn-of-the-century naturalist, Missouri Valley and Salt Lake. Nebraskaland 65:12-17, 45-46.
1987. Biological features of saline wetlands in Lancaster County, Nebraska.
Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences 15: 5-14.

Shoemaker Marsh Bird Sightings 94Kpdf

For More Information about Saline Wetlands go to Publications.

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Natural Resources & Greenways