By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Late rains have been good for a lot of things, including mosquito populations and farmers. The precipitation has also turned Cheyenne Bottoms into a thriving hub for birds. Kansas Wetlands Education Center Director Curtis Wolf noted winter hours are now in place at the KWEC, which means the facility is closed on Sundays and Mondays until April, but conditions have been great across K-156 Highway at the Bottoms.
“With the rains we’ve gotten over the last couple of weeks, any water that has been coming into the Bottoms is all going into Pool 2, which is the largest pool,” he said. “It has a good amount of water, which is great. Everything looks wonderful out there, and it’s functioning very well in terms of fall migration habitat for birds coming through.”
It has been an up-and-down season at the Bottoms, with several big rains hitting the area just before the heat of summer hit. That helped maintain some level of water at the Bottoms throughout the peak months of summer.
“We’re thankful for the way water is managed there, and the ability to store water,” Wolf said. “The rains we did have back in June provided a great amount of storage water for the Bottoms. That water has been used, though. The initial flooding of the pools that were dry, and the with the heat of the summer, that water didn’t go probably as far as what we would have liked.”
The fall migration is now underway, and Wolf reports a healthy number of ducks of various species at the Bottoms. The geese are beginning to arrive, though later than in previous seasons. Fall can be a time of good diversity among bird species though no out-of-the ordinary reports have come in. Whooping cranes are typically spotted at the Bottoms around the third week of October, through there have been no reported sightings so far this year. There are a significant number of pelicans at the Bottoms, and sandhill cranes started passing through. The annual Kansas Crane Festival is scheduled today through Nov. 8 at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in Stafford County.