Volunteers and staff at this year’s Cheyenne Bottoms Christmas Bird Count came away with an all-time high species count, according to Curtis Wolf, executive director of the Kansas Wetlands Education Center.

Wolf finished compiling the data last Tuesday and said it was a “Pretty great year!”

One hundred different species were counted on Monday, Dec. 15, with one additional species recorded for the count week. The previous high was 97 in 2020.

“This was the 51st Cheyenne Bottoms/Great Bend/Ellinwood/Barton Co. Christmas Bird Count,” Wolf said. “We had 24 volunteers that helped this year. The count circle comprises a 15-mile diameter area centered around Cheyenne Bottoms. So, all of Cheyenne Bottoms is included in the count area, as well as some of Great Bend, Hoisington, Ellinwood, and rural parts of the county in between.” 

Highlights

“There were six species that were new to our count,” Wolf said:

• Black-bellied Whistling Duck

• Pectoral Sandpiper

• Greater Scaup

Red-breasted Merganser

Bonaparte’s Gull

Nine additional species had all-time high counts:

Blue-winged Teal 78

Redhead 314

Lesser Scaup 250

Bufflehead 257

Ruddy Duck 150

Double-crested Cormorant 63

White-faced Ibis 27

Bald Eagle 88

Short-eared Owl 27

There were only a few “misses,” as some species seen in previous years were not seen. These included Loggerhead Shrike, Marsh Wren and Spotted Towhee. “Sparrow numbers continue to be relatively low, but we had decent diversity. European Starlings and Red-winged Blackbirds were quite low in number with only 1,042 and 383, respectively. In total, 70,599 individual birds were counted.”

Quivira Wildlife Refuge

Quivira National Wildlife Refuge conducted its bird count on Dec. 16. Mike Rader at the refuge said 14 observers worked on foot and by car. They viewed 98 species and 261,597 individual birds, including six whooping cranes. The most-represented species was the Snow Goose, with 25,425 counted.

Of note were the six Whooping Cranes, four American Bittern and 82 white-faced ibis.

Here are the numbers at Cheyenne Bottoms:

Black-bellied Whistling Duck - 1

Snow Goose - 55,230

Ross’s Goose - 10

Greater White-fronted Goose - 984

Cackling Goose - 26

Canada Goose - 755

Blue-winged Teal - 78

Norther Shoveler - 42

Gadwall - 3

American Wigeon - 2

Mallard - 1,766

Northern Pintail - 5,074

Green-winged Teal - 23

Canvasback - 13

Redhead -314

Ring-necked Duck - 15

Greater Scaup - 1

Lesser Scaup - 250

Bufflehead - 257

Common Goldeneye - 75

Hooded Merganser - 1

Common Merganser - 77

Red-breasted Merganser - 1

Ruddy Duck - 150

Northern Bobwhite - 20

Wild Turkey - 1

Ring-necked Pheasant - 16

White-winged Dove - 10

Eurasian Collared Dove - 90

Mourning Dove - 23

Rock Pigeon - 74

American Coot - 696

Sandhill Crane - 50

Killdeer - 3

Least Sandpiper - 3

Wilson’s Snipe - 3

Pectoral Sandpiper - 1

Bonaparte’s Gull - 1

Ring-billed Gull - 91

American Herring Gull - 8

Gull Species - 6

Pied-billed Grebe - 3

Double-crested Cormorant - 63

White-faced Ibis - 27

Black-crowned Night Heron - 1

Great Egret - 1

Great Blue Heron - 52

American White Pelican - 3

Sharp-shinned Hawk - 4

Cooper’s Hawk - 4

Northern Harrier - 76

Bald Eagle - 88

Red-tailed Hawk - 62

Rough-legged Hawk - 4

American Barn Owl - 4

Great Horned Owl - 2

Short-eared Owl - 27

Belted Kingfisher - 4

Red-bellied Woodpecker - 12

Downy Woodpecker - 4

Hairy Woodpecker - 1

Northern Flicker - 87

American Kestrel - 24

Merlin - 2

Prairie Falcon - 3

Blue Jay - 3

American Crow - 3

Black-capped Chickadee - 4

Horned Lark - 317

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 2

Golden-crowned Kinglet - 1

Cedar Waxwing - 58

Red-breasted Nuthatch - 7

White-breasted Nuthatch - 1

Carolina Wren - 1

European Starling - 1,042

Eastern Bluebird - 2

American Robin - 89

House Sparrow - 140

House Finch - 88

American Goldfinch - 15

Lapland Longspur - 220

Field Sparrow - 26

Fox Sparrow - 2

American Tree Sparrow - 76

Dark-eyed Junco - 121

White-crowned Sparrow - 7

Harris’s Sparrow - 57

Savannah Sparrow - 3

Song Sparrow - 3

Lincoln’s Sparrow - 1

Yellow-headed Blackbird - 4

Meadowlark Species - 882

Red-winged Blackbird - 383

Brown-headed Cowbird - 1

Brewer’s Blackbird - 1

Common Grackle - 51

Great-tailed Grackle - 5

Orange-crowned Warbler - 1

Yellow-rumped Warbler - 7

Northern Cardinal - 13