By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The birds that stop in at Cheyenne Bottoms are usually just visitors flying to and from bigger stops. That's not the case for many of the small animals living in the area. Earlier this month, Tom Bidrowski, migratory game bird program manager for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, went to the skies for his annual survey of waterfowl around the state. Kansas Wetlands Education Center Curtis Wolf said Bidrowski's aerial photos paint a grim portrait of Cheyenne Bottoms.
"We all know the severity of the drought right now and what its effect has been on Cheyenne Bottoms, but I think it's always nice to get a visual confirmation of that," Wolf said. "I think for myself, if nothing else, seeing just how brown and dry the area surrounding the whole area is was a little bit surprising to me. Looking at the fields and the grasses that, in April, should have some green in them definitely are not that way."
U.S. Drought Monitor updated its website last Thursday. The "exceptional drought" area - the worst on the drought chart - now covers all of southwest and south central Kansas, extending to a line midway into Russell County and into the corner of Ellsworth County. A band of storms Friday caught only the edge of the line.
Many bird species have selected other migratory patterns this year due to the conditions, but many of the less-mobile animals, like turtles and reptiles, at the Bottoms are simply stuck with the dry conditions. The aerial photos provide the scope of how far those animals need to go to find water.
"They definitely have some challenges just surviving the conditions we have here," Wolf said. "Obviously, some of those things can somewhat go a little bit dormant while we don't have water, and at least for a time period, can survive just by not being out and about. Other things might be able to leave the area and find some water depending on their ability to move."
More than 43 percent of Kansas is listed in the "exceptional drought" category now, compared to just two percent a year ago.