[TN-Bird] Trip report--KS, NE & SD
- From: "K.D. Breault" <KBreault@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "tn-bird" <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 17:26:20 -0500
Tn-birders,
The following is an abbreviated trip report to Kansas, Nebraska & South Dakota
with short extensions to Iowa and Missouri. Please DELETE if you are not
interested. Let me know if anyone wants more specific information.
Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, May 2007
Traveling Tennessee birders are likely to go to Arizona, California, Texas and
even Alaska (among other places), but this country (and the ABA area in
general), is full of exciting birding experiences some relatively close to
home. Of course, I am mainly a "total tickers" these days (in general we add
up all the birds in all of the states and provinces with the exception of
Hawaii) and it just doesn't take much for me to go to ANY birding locale, yet
Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota have some of the most special places for
birders.
The trip began at the Eagle Bluff area in Columbia, MO (my first stop about 450
miles from Nashville). Eagle Bluff is known as an excellent shorebird place
and though the water level was high (a problem throughout the entire trip),
Pectoral, Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers, both Yellowlegs, Wilson's Phalarope,
most of the peeps, a rather late Snow Goose, a Sora, and a White-faced Ibis in
addition to ducks and sparrows were among the birds to be seen.
Missouri is a "drive-thru" state for me, as are all those adjacent to TN and
KY, which means that I don't spend too much time with them, leaving them for
when I am older and less able to bird. But Kansas was a "virgin" state, one
that I had not birded before so I was very excited when my first KS bird was a
Rock Pigeon! Yes, Ivory-billed Woodpeckers may be in FL or AR but total
tickers get off on what some people use to call "trash birds," especially when
they can be seen in more than 60 states and provinces! Incidentally, KS was
my second to last virgin state in the ABA area (AK will be the last), although
I have seven other Canadian provinces without birds.
My first destination in Kansas was the Konza Prairie area in Manhattan. My
reason for picking Konza was that Zimmerman & Patti in their, "A Guide to Bird
Finding in Kansas and Western Missouri," suggest that Konza has a Greater
Prairie-Chicken lek that continues into May, and prairie-chicken was likely to
be my only life bird for the trip. It turns out that Konza has guided trips to
their lek but only through April. However, the Konza people were very helpful
to me and suggested that one of their birding docents would be a very useful
guide even if I didn't see the life chicken. Well, I got the bird quickly
(all told several individuals) in addition to some other good KS birds: Upland
Sandpiper (abundant), Poorwill, Amer. Woodcock, Common Nighthawk,
Chuck-will's-widow, Whip-poor-will, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, and a variety of
sparrows: Clay-colored, Lark, Henslow's, Harris', White-crowned, Field,
Chipping & Savannah. All in all, with few ducks, shorebirds and warblers, I
left Manhattan will close to 100 birds (KS has a list of 465 birds, a rank of
13 of the 64 states and provinces in the ABA Area, and a rank of 5 among
eastern states).
The next stop was Great Bend, KS, and Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira National
Wildlife Refuge (NWR), the most important places for shorebird migration in the
interior of the country and one of the most important in the entire hemisphere.
Lots and lots of birds: 150 and more are possible in a day. Beyond ducks (I
had everything that was expected in addition to Cinnamon Teal and Western
Grebe), and shorebirds (and I had all but four of the regulars--water level
problems), Quivira had Black Rail (which is regular there and a Yellow was
identified just before I went), and King and Virginia Rail and Sora. Cheyenne
had Barn Owl (at the headquarters), both had Burrowing and Quivira had
Great-horned. A nesting Say's Phoebe was at Cheyenne. Finally, I birder told
me of a lek for a Lesser Prairie-Chicken a short drive west of Quivira (near
Nekoma) and so I was able to add a second (and last) life bird for the trip.
Also note that in addition to Cheyenne Bottoms and adjacent to it is the Nature
Conservancy's Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve (going west take 4 to left/south at NE
50 Ave and follow the road as it turns right/west--Sprague's Pipits have been
seen south of this road). (And let me add one other thing as I go over this.
At Cheyenne Bottoms adjacent to the headquarters and running north is a road
that was excellent for shorebirds despite the high water, and continuing on
that road to the second or third road to the west is a prairie dog town with
owls).
I left Great Bend a day early because the weather report was iffy and I thought
I might have problems driving north to Nebraska the following day. That
night, 60 miles to the southwest Greensburg, KS was flattened and the entire
Great Bend area was flooded for several days. I was in Kearney, NE at the time
and the storm reports were such that I decided to bird very locally in the
Rainwater Basin area south of Kearney and Grand Island (especially Funk--note
that Funk is only now coming back from having almost no water--Gleason, Harvard
and Prairie Dog Waterfowl Production Areas). One area that was decidedly not
productive was the Rowe Sanctuary in Gibbon (known for their Sandhill Crane
blinds), although the personnel at Rowe were among the most helpful.
As it turns out I left the Kearney area just before an extended patch a rain
rolled in leaving more than 7" of the stuff. For the next four days I was in
an area of three productive NWRs--Valentine, Fort Niobrara (both in NE) and
Lacreek (in SD). Among the many birds I saw were Trumpeter Swan, American
Bittern (I had never seen so many Am. Bitterns as on this trip, ten at Quivira
alone), Western and Clark's Grebe, Greater Prairie-Chicken, Sharp-tailed
Grouse, Long-billed Curlew, American Pelican, Bald Eagle, Say's Phoebe, Caspian
and Common Tern, Spotted Towhee, Eastern and Western Meadowlark (Lacreek is the
best place in SD for the Eastern), and Great-tailed Grackle now in SD. At
Valentine, one productive route that I traveled several times begins at 83 and
goes west about 8 miles to Hackberry and Watts Lakes (another road you should
only travel with 4-wheel drive and only if you know what you are doing and
there is no chance of rain is the road from Duck Lake to Calf Camp Marsh). A
short drive west of Valentine NWR is Merritt Reservoir which had 200+ Western
Grebe. At Fort Niobrara NWR the best birding (quite excellent) is at the Fort
Falls Nature Trail (the waterfalls are great too). Another good area that is
more dry is just west of the canoe launch area (e.g., Chat, Blue and Black
Grosbeak, Orchard Oriole). In addition to the areas you will see at Lacreek
NWR, an adjacent area (on the northern boundary) known as Little White River
Rec. Area was very good for shorebirds with extensive mudflats (one group had
eight Stilt Sandpipers). Those interested in Long-billed Curlews will see
them in grassy areas south of the extreme southeast corner of the Auto Tour
Route. Note that a shortcut from the town of Valentine (good Holiday Inn) to
Lacreek is to take a right (north) from 20 in NE to a left at the small town of
Tuthill in SD.
From the Valentine, NE area I went east, driving through Lake Andes NWR in SD
and ended up in Yankton, SD (a better place would have been Vermillion, SD but
all the hotels in town were booked for a graduation ceremony). This part of SE
SD is known for two parks that are great for wood birds, Union Grove and Newton
Hills State Park (exit 38 and 56 respectively on I-29 north). Several days in
these parks in the middle of May will give you a very good list (Newton Hills
is the better of the two and note that they are very buggy). Another good
area is Ponca State Pk in NE a short drive from the SD border.
At this point the best way to go back to eastern Kansas is I-29 through Iowa
and Missouri. I was not expecting to bird in IA but I ended up with several
ticks at Sioux Dam Wildlife Area and Loess Hill State Forest. Not thinking
about birding in IA? You will want to know that a small population of
Black-headed Gull (a code 3 bird) has been in the Spirit Lake area on the
Iowa/Minnesota line for several years.
I had left one of the best places for last--Weston Bend Bottoms on Fort
Leavenworth in Kansas. The Bottoms is probably the best area for passerines
in all of the five states of the trip Unfortunately, after having gone through
the trouble of having my car searched (this is a military installation) the
road (Chief Joseph Loop) to the Bottoms was closed because of the extraordinary
flooding on the Missouri River. Among the common birds that got away: Eastern
Wood-Pewee, White-breasted Nuthatch, Wood Thrush and, of course, lots of
warblers. Painful! But note that Fort Leavenworth is only about 550 miles
from Nashville.
So how did I do and would I do anything different? With regard to total
species I had 224 species in the five states, 2 life birds and 492 new ticks
which gives me 7029 on the Total Ticks list. The record ABA Big Day Reports
for KS, NE & SD are a total of 603 (between 42.1-48.4% over the three states)
so there is obviously a great deal of room for improvement (with time and good
weather 600 ticks and more would be a useful target for the second and third
week of May). With regard to doing the trip differently, in a
non-storm/rain/flood period additional days at the major sites and additional
areas in SE NE would have been helpful (especially, Indian Cave State Park, NE).
Kevin Breault
Brentwood, TN
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