This is bird note.

For 20,000 years, spring rains and melting snow have filled the plaias of the rainwater basin of South Central Nebraska.

Carved by glacial winds at the end of the last ice age, the plaias are shallow depressions.

The warmth of spring fills with abundant life. As winter

ends 10 million waterfowl rests and feed here before continuing north. The seasonal wetlands of the rainwater basin

form a 150 mile wide funnel for water birds migrating from the Gulf Coast

and point south to Northern breeding grounds.

The basin is the narrowest neck of the great migratory route we call the Central Flyway.

In recent years, the number of snow geese stopping in the region during spring has risen dramatically to more than 3 million birds.

A third of North America's northern PIN-T-T- to more than 3 million birds.

A third of North America's northern pintales

rely on the food-rich habitat here.

Shorebirds of 27 species use the wetlands.

So do half a million sandhill cranes.

Fat reserves acquired during their stay here can mean the difference between success and failure in nesting.

No other stopover between wintering and nesting grounds can replace the combination of wetlands and grain fields found in the rainwater basin.

For Bird Note, I'm Michael Stein.