By AMY RICKER
Great Bend Post
Cheyenne Bottoms has eased into the winter birding season as the shorebirds have moved out towards warmer climates.
Kansas Wetlands Education Center Director Curtis Wolf says the waterfowl, geese, ducks are still there, but as is typical for this time of year, hawks and sparrows have returned to the Bottoms as well.
“We get a nice diversity of both. Sparrows can be a real challenge as they are these little brown birds that don’t stay still, and trying to identify those can be a fun puzzle. It’s kind of fun to come out and see close to a dozen different types of species during the wintertime,” says Wolf.
While some sparrows live here year-round, other varieties breed up north during the summer and migrate to Kansas during the winter.
Wolf says when it comes to the hawks, various raptors winter in this area. There are also many bald eagles flying around that people have reported seeing, and snow geese are showing up in high numbers.
“Typically, if you go out there, one of the Pool 1 areas that’s in the center of Cheyenne Bottoms. Usually, we are holding a few thousand geese out there. If you get out there between 11 am, and noon, they will be there sitting on the water, just loafing around, until about 3:30 or 4 pm. You’ll see a huge cloud of them come up, and they will go out to the fields to feed for the evening,” explained Wolf.
Wolf says this year has seen an unusually high number of unique, rare birds showing up in Kansas, including Yellow-billed Loons at Wilson Lake and Yellow-eyed Junco at Scott Lake. The reason for these strange birds showing up in our area remains a mystery.