By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The weather outside is getting frightful. For the birds that pass through Cheyenne Bottoms and Central Kansas, however, it's just another week. But the holiday and cold season means it's time for another National Audubon Society Bird Count. Cheyenne Bottoms got involved in the count in 1974, and Kansas Wetlands Education Center Director Curtis Wolf said the next count is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 15, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
"We're out pretty much all day," he said. "We get into small groups, and each group covers a little area of our circle that we count birds in. It includes Cheyenne Bottoms, but people will be out of the area. It covers part of Ellinwood, part of Great Bend, and part of Hoisington. A lot of it's birding by vehicle, but this is a great opportunity to get out with some people who have some know-how."
Pre-registration for volunteers is requested so KWEC staff can begin putting together groups of counters. Lunch is provided for the volunteers. The Cheyenne Bottoms count is one of approximately 40 around the state of Kansas, and one of hundreds around the nation held between mid-December and January each year.
"It's basically counting all the birds in a certain area within a 24-hour period," Wolf said. "I'm the compiler of it, so I get all the information from our count and have to submit that to National Audubon. The Kansas Ornithological Society also keeps track of all the Kansas counts and puts out a publication each year for that. It's very important information to get baseline population data for these bird species across the state."
Temperatures and other conditions have caused a wide fluctuation in numbers over the years. As few as 61 species were documented in the Cheyenne Bottoms count in 2013, and 97 species were counted in 2020. Last year's count featured all-time highs of snow geese (269,077), green-winged teal (15,145), mourning doves (199), and white-crowned sparrows (182).