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Title
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“Cut Off Lake”
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Date
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1901
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Creator
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Frank Shoemaker
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Description
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Frank Shoemaker - Omaha, Lincoln, and Nebraska Narratives
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Identifier
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321301-1901
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Transcription
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1 [[["1901", "Transcript", "", "Omaha area"], ["July 21"]]] Trostler and I delayed starting on our planned Cut-off Lake expedition until 2 p m, with the idea of escaping what we considered as presumably the hottest part of the day. Among the willows, which arrest all air movement, the heat is excessive. It was entertaining to find later, by the Omaha weather report, that at 4:30 p m, after we had already sweltered for about two hours, the temperature had reached its maximum for the day: 105 degrees. In places not shaded, where the water was eight inches or less in depth, it was unpleasantly hot to our ankles and shins, by reason of continuous action of the sun upon still water; there being in these “cut-offs” from the Missouri River no appreciable current, except of couse in periods of river rise. Our first visit was to the least bittern’s nest in the reeds which we had photographed with eggs during the last days of June. The nest was empty, and in a moment we might have gone on, but one of us chanced to see a young bittern squatting in sparse sedge, pretty well concealed, his neck rigid and his bill straight up. As we went nearer his effort to be inconspicuous was abandoned, and he understook instead to terrify us by sweeping strokes of his long neck in our direction. A moment of this, and his nerve failed; away he scrambled through the reeds, with surprising for speed for so young a bird. I went in pursuit and caught the bird; and shortly afterward we located and caught another. There had been four eggs in the nest, so we looked carefully for two more young birds, without success, so with
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Rights
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To inquire about usage, please contact Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. These images are for educational use only. Not all images are available for publication.
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Is Version Of
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image-224.jpg
“Cut Off Lake”