Cheyenne Bottoms NWR and Quivira NWR, Kansas 11/26-11/27, 2009

We headed west to east through Kansas, with a destination of Great Bend, Kansas on November 26.  Along the way, Alex recorded the number of raptors we saw.  In western KS, we said goodbye to numerous rough-legged hawks, and pretty soon the majority of what we saw were red-tailed hawks.  We also saw our first meadowlark of the trip. 

Great Bend is a great location, because it is within an hour of both Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Refuge and Quivira NWR.  Both of these places are natural sinkholes that have created an excellent stop-over for migrating waterfowl and shorebirds (Cheyenne Bottoms is a freshwater marsh, while Quivira NWR is a saline marsh).   When I was in these places about a month ago, I saw many more ducks and geese, and also shorebirds, but neither place disappointed a little later in the season.  We saw most of the same waterfowl species as I did earlier, just in smaller numbers.  The only shorebirds left were avocets at Quivira NWR.  I don't have many photos at Cheyenne Bottoms due to my camera temporarily malfunctioning, but I did snap a quick pic of this green-winged teal and also a red-tailed hawk.

green-winged teal

red-tailed hawk

We spent the night in Great Bend, after "enjoying" a Thanksgiving meal at Perkins.  In the morning on 11/27, we heard there was a raptor center in town, and found it at a small city park/zoo.  They currently didn't have any raptors being re-habbed, but did have a bald eagle, red-tail, and great-horned owl, all injured and living in cages.  The zoo also had a few small ponds, that were full of wild/injured wildlife.  It was hard to tell what was there permanently and what was wild, but either way we got some good photos.  There were wood-ducks, greater-white fronted geese, canada geese, cackling geese, a trumpeter swan, wood ducks, and hooded mergansers.

                                           

                                                                        hooded merganser

   

trumpeter swan and hooded merganser

 

canada and cackling goose

greater-white fronted geese

Next we headed for Quivira NWR.  On our way there, we saw numerous flocks of geese (mainly snow, canada, and greater-white fronted) headed for the marshes.    We started at the Big Salt Marsh, and were able to get great photos of all the geese as they flew to the marsh.  There were more this time, than there was a month ago when I originally passed through.

snow and blue geese, and greater-white fronted geese

snow geese being led by a greater-white fronted goose

and more geese

american avocet

thousands of geese flushed by something...

thousands of snow geese

red-winged black bird

After walking a quick trail on the refuge, we picked up common grackle for the trip, and saw another rough-legged hawk.  It was warm enough to walk around in a t-shirt.  We got very lucky on the trip, with no major snow or rain storms.  It was really the last warm weather of the year for us, unfortunately!  There was also whooping cranes on the refuge, but we couldn't find them this time.

Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area

Today the sun finally came out and dried up most of the muddy Kansas roads.  There are still roads that are impassable, though.  I took half the day off and headed for Cheyenne Bottoms NWR, another great stopover for migratory waterfowl and shorebirds.  Quivira seemed to have more ducks, but Cheyenne Bottoms was the place for shorebirds.  I saw least sandpipers, long and short billed dowitchers, greater and lesser yellow legs, semi-palmated plover, and two life birds, stilt and buff breasted sandpipers.  I also saw a Wilson's snipe in a farm pond on my way there. The place also had tons of harriers and red tail hawks, in addition to thousands of migratory ducks and geese.  Here are some highlights.

Wilson's Snipe

Red-tailed Hawk on a kill

Stilt Sandpiper

Stilt and Least sandpiper size comparison

Yellow-headed Blackbird

dowitchers. and Buff Breasted Sandpipers

Red-tailed Hawk and Northenr harrier in background