By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
As the song suggests, many dream of a white Christmas. That was hardly the case in 2025 as temperatures around the big holiday hovered in and around the 70s. Temperatures were also mild for the Cheyenne Bottoms Christmas Bird Count on Dec. 15. Kansas Wetlands Education Center Director Curtis Wolf said the weather made an impact on the 51st count of its kind in the area.
"With it being as mild as it was, and there right before Christmas it was about as mild as you can get, there were a lot of birds here, and it showed in our data," Wolf said. "We actually came up with 100 species we observed on that day. That's an all-time high count."
The previous high was 97 species in 2020. Two dozen volunteers spent the day checking out a 15-mile radius around the Bottoms that included areas in Great Bend, Hoisington, and Ellinwood. Six species were included in the local count for the first time: black-bellied whistling duck, pectoral sandpiper, greater scaup, red-breasted merganser, Bonaparte's gull, and great egret. Nine more saw record numbers, including 78 blue-winged teal, 257 bufflehead ducks, 63 double-crested cormorant, 27 short-eared owl, and 27 white-faced ibis. Eighty-eight bald eagles was also a new high.
"Their story is such a cool one," said Wolf. "Over the last 20 years, for sure, their numbers have just really exploded all over the U.S. It's a huge success story for endangered species and protected species."
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. The National Audubon Society and Kansas Ornithological Society use the data to track bird behavior.