The University of Nebraska Lincoln’s School of Natural Resources will host “Cranes, Ducks and Prairie Chickens: An Evening with Conservation Biologists and Birds from the Madson Collection,” an event celebrating the spring migration of birds across the Great Plains and Central flyways, from 7 to 9 p.m. March 7 at Hardin Hall.

Great Plains waterfowl, grouse and cranes – all birds that migrate along the flyways over Nebraska – will be on display, as will pieces by well-known conservation photographer Michael Forsberg.

Experts will be on hand, bridging biology, conservation and art through discussion. Doors open at 7 p.m., and “gallery” talks begin at 7:30 p.m. Parking is free.

The waterfowl and grouse galleries will feature museum mounts from the Madson collection, donated to the University of Nebraska State Museum in 2014 and permanently housed at Hardin Hall. Although fewer than 35 mounts in the collection are Great Plains species, they have not been assembled and featured separately in a single show.

Sandhill and Whooping crane mounts will be on loan from the State Museum for the event, and Shelly Burge’s “Crane River Morning,” a 26-foot-by-6-foot quilt on permanent display in Hardin Hall, will serve as the backdrop for the gallery and discussion.

This outreach activity at Hardin Hall is in cooperation with the weeklong residency of Heather Henson, of IBEX Puppetry, with the Lied Center of Performing Arts. Henson, the daughter of Jim Henson who created Kermit the Frog and Elmo, has spent time in Nebraska over the last five years visiting Audubon Centers, meeting artists, connecting with indigenous tradition bearers, and learning from ecological experts about cranes, their habits and their behaviors. Out of that came the production “Crane: On Earth, In Sky,” a play on crane migration and the cultures with which it interacts. That performance will be at 7 p.m. March 9 at the Lied Center.