By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The melodic song of several sandhill cranes made its way down from high above Eagle Radio at 12th Street and Baker Avenue Wednesday morning in Great Bend. Kansas Wetlands Education Center Director Curtis Wolf said sandhill sightings have been numerous over the past two weeks as the birds head toward their staging ground near the Platte River in Nebraska.
"About two and a half weeks ago, they had their first count," Wolf said. "The biologists will do counts, and hey already about 38,000 sandhill cranes up there. That's a lot for that early, thinking it's still a month before they reach their peak."
Locally, spring migration is underway a little earlier than usual at Cheyenne Bottoms. Phenology is the study of natural cycles, and the arrival of killdeer at the Bottoms is one of the first signs of spring migration each year.
"The first date of killdeer arriving, we try to keep track of that," said Wolf. "Wildlife and Parks has a pretty long list, well over 40 years of data they've kept track of the first sightings of some bird species in the area. For killdeer in the springtime, their average first date is Feb. 28. This year, it was at least two or three weeks early."
Many ducks are also present at the Bottoms, including one of the largest populations of Northern Pintails in Kansas. Many other species are present in smaller numbers.
"They're so gorgeous," Wolf said. "The drakes, or male ducks, are so colorful right now. It's so phenomenal to watch them. A lot of them, they're pairing up with mates and they have courtship displays. It's such a fun time to see ducks and you can see some huge congregations."
Many of the ducks will end up in the Prairie Pothole Region, a series of thousands of shallow wetlands spread across central Iowa and western Minnesota, throughout the Dakotas, and into Canada.