Birding Kansas (and OK and AR): Selected pictures of the trip birds.
Participants: Eva (author of this report) and Herman.
April 21 was spent flying from Boston->Wichita, renting a car, and driving to Great Bend, KS, where we spent three nights, devoting a full day each to Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivera. Every evening there I enjoyed the Best Western's pool and hot tub. Thursday April 24 we drove to the Massey Farm Bed & Breakfast in Dexter KS via The Great Salt Plain National Wildlife Refuge in North Central Oklahoma.
Friday Morning April 25 Bob Massey drove us out to the Greater Prairie Chicken blind at 5:45 am. It was pitch dark. At 6:10 we started hearing the chickens booming. For the next two hours we had ringside seats to ten chickens lekking. It all stopped fairly abruptly about 8:10. By 8:30 we were having breakfast in the Massey kitchen.
We spent the day driving to Wakefield KS where we stayed for two nights at The Sportsman's Inn ($40/night for a double and worth the price. Pick up your key at the Suzie-Q bar.), participating in a birding Festival. We drove to Wakefield via The Tall Grass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge, which was a disappointment because the only way through it is hiking or a bus tour. We would have preferred an auto-loop.
In Wakefield we went on three field trips, partook of the buffet Friday evening, a barbeque at noon on Saturday with the birding crowd at the home of the local taxidermist, and a banquet Saturday night. The banquet speaker was a professor from Kansas State University in nearby Manhattan KS (“The Little Apple”). He talked fascinatingly of birding Utah, a topic that interested us because now that Herman has birded KS, OK and AR, there are only two states left he hasn't visited, and they are Utah and Hawaii. Breakfast was served in the church hall from 5-6 am Saturday and Sunday.
We told the locals I wanted to see a Red-headed Woodpecker. They are listed as "common" in Spring on the the KS list, yet in five days birding KS we'd not seen one. The local birders told us they are not in yet. Then on Sunday April 27 we saw one. I photographed it. We never saw another.
Sunday afternoon May 27 we visited my cousin Jean Drumm who is a Suzuki piano teacher in Lawrence KS. We loved Lawrence, Jean's house, our walk on the levee, and our visit over an Indian meal. I asked Jeannie to demonstrate her grand piano. Herman requested Fur Elise, so Jeannie played that. She's got an electronic piano too, that can simulate, among other instruments, a harpsichord, so she played us some Bach on that.
Sunday night we stayed at LaCynge KS. The next morning we birded Marais de Cynge and La Cynge lake. We spent Monday night in Tallaqueh Oklahoma.
Tuesday morning between Stillwell OK and the Arkansas State line we had a thrill: We saw and photographed a bobcat!
We spent more hours than we planned at the Holla Bend NWR in Arkansas, a wonderful place. We had some trip birds there: Chat, Hummingbirds, Bobolinks, and Black vultures. I photographed a Blue Grossbeak. Although we did not get a Roadrunner the ranger had assured us Roadrunners are in the refuge. We hiked the levee where the ranger told us he had seen one. After we emerged from the endless tree-shaded levee into a meadow with cavorting butterflies, Herman asked me to go back and get the car and drive around and pick him up. I was afraid I'd get lost, and, infinitely worse, lose Herman. The refuge was a maize of unpaved tracks. But just as I was reluctantly turning to follow Herman's directive, the only other car we'd seen in the refuge cane along. It passed us but then backed up. The passenger called out, “Do you guys need a ride?” Did I mention that Herman's rather bent over? That plus the fact that Herman was holding his leg by this time attracted her attention. So we got a ride back to our car with this nice couple from Tennessee. They had forgotten their birdbook so they were very appreciative of Herman identifying Dickcissels, Bobolinks, shorebirds, and a Scissor-tailed flycatcher, and spotting Bobwhite in the grass. We saw a couple of Armadillos with Judy and Charlie too.
Wednesday April 30 we flew home to Boston.
Trip List
“P” means identifiably photographed. “H” means heard only. “(Herman) ” means I, Eva, missed it, which is not surprising since I'm not really a birder. I do regret not seeing and photographing the Rose-breasted Grossbeak. The lens had just popped out of my glasses and I was fooling with that at the time, and we never had another one.
P Pied-billed Grebe
P American White Pelican
P Double-crested Cormorant
H Least Bittern
P Great Blue Heron
P Great Egret
P Snowy Egret
P Little Blue Heron
P Cattle Egret
P White-faced Ibis
Black Vulture
P Turkey Vulture
P Osprey
Swallow-tailed Kite
Mississippi Kite
P Bald Eagle
P Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
P Red-shouldered Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
P Red-tailed Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
P American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
P Prairie Falcon
P Canada Goose
P Wood Duck
Gadwall
P Mallard
P Blue-winged Teal
P Northern Shoveler
P Green-winged teal
P Canvasback
Redhead (Herman)
P Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
P Ruddy Duck
P Ring-necked Pheasant
P Greater Prairie Chicken
P Wild Turkey
P Northern Bobwhite
P American Coot
Snowy Plover
P Semipalmated Plover
P Killdeer
P American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
P Lesser Yellowlegs
P Solitary Sandpiper
P Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
P Upland Sandpiper
Hudsonian Godwit
P Sanderling
P Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Baird's Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
P Long-billed Dowitcher
P Wilson's Phalarope
P Franklin's Gull
P Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
P Foster's Tern
Rock Pigeon
P Mourning Dove
P Great-horned Owl
Barred Owl
H Long-eared Owl
P Ruby-throated Hummingbird
P Belted Kingfisher
P Red-headed Woodpecker
P Red-bellied Woodpecker
P Downey Woodpecker
P Northern Flicker
H Olive-sided Flycatcher (Herman)
H Least Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
H Great-crested Flycatcher (Herman)
P Western Kingbird
P Eastern Kingbird
P Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
P Loggerhead Shrike
H White-eyed Vireo
H Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
H Red-eyed Vireo
H Blue Jay
P American Crow
H Fish Crow
Horned Lark (Herman)
Purple Martin (Herman)
P Tree Swallow
P Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Cliff Swallow
P Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
P Black-capped Chickadee
P Tufted Titmouse
P White-breasted Nuthatch
H Carolina Wren
H House Wren
Sedge Wren
H Ruby-crowned Kinglet
P Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
P Eastern Bluebird
H Wood Thrush
P American Robin
Gray Catbird
P Northern Mockingbird
P Brown Thrasher
P European Starling
American Pipet (Herman)
Orange-crowned Warbler (Herman)
H Yellow Warbler (Herman)
P Yellow-rumped (Myrtle)Warbler
H Pine Warbler
H Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler
Prothonatary Warbler
H Ovenbird (Herman)
Common Yellowthroat
H Yellow-breasted Chat
P Chipping Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow
P Field Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
P Lark Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow (Herman)
H White-throated Sparrow (Herman)
P Harris's Sparrow
P White-crowned Sparrow
P Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grossbeak (Herman)
P Blue Grossbeak
P Indigo Bunting
P Dickcissel
P Bobolink
P Red-winged Blackbird
P Eastern Meadowlark
P Western Meadowlark
P Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
P Common Grackle
Great-tailed Grackle
P Brown-headed Cowbird
P Baltimore Oriole
H House Finch (Herman)
P American Goldfinch
P House Sparrow
Grand Totals: Herman “got” 154 trip birds.
Eva missed 13 of these.
Eva saw (as opposed to just heard) 129 avian species.
Eva took recognizable photos of 90 species, 70% of what she saw.
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Birding Kansas (and OK and AR): Selected pictures of the trip birds.
Eva's Home Page
Last revised: June 22, 2008