Note: The Kansas Wetlands Education Center is open again to the public as of June 3.  Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area and Preserve are open to the public as normal.

Spring migration is mostly over.  June typically sees a large reduction in bird activity.  Coupled with the hot, dry days and several pools at Cheyenne Bottoms being dry, bird activity is relatively slow.  We are in the summer birding mode right now, with the common summer residents being herons, egrets, killdeer, blackbirds, gulls, pelicans, coots, swallows, meadowlarks, and orioles.

Many of Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area’s pools have been drained for work later this Summer.  Pools 3a, 4a, 4b, and 5 are all basically dry at this time.  All storage pools (Pool 1 complex) are full, and Pools 2 and 3b have water.  All roads are currently open and driveable, but may be rough in spots due to some of the dirt work and large machinery traveling over them recently.

Give us your reports.  We rely heavily on other birders to know what is being seen at Cheyenne Bottoms.  Submit reports to Ebird, or email your observations to wetlandscenter@fhsu.edu.

Here is a list birds that have been reported over the last couple weeks:

• Canada Goose
• Wood Duck–a spot in Pool 2 often has several pairs
• Gadwall
• American Wigeon
• Mallard
• Blue-winged Teal
• Northern Shoveler
• Northern Pintail
• Redhead
• Lesser Scaup
• Ruddy Duck
• Northern Bobwhite
• Ring-necked Pheasant
• Wild Turkey
• Pied-billed Grebe
• Clark’s Grebe
• Neotropic Cormorant
• Double-crested Cormorant
• American White Pelican
• Great Blue Heron
• Least Bittern
• American Bittern
• Great Egret
• Snowy Egret
• Cattle Egret
• Little Blue Heron
• Black-crowned Night Heron
• White-faced Ibis
• Turkey Vulture
• Bald Eagle
• Mississippi Kite
• Red-tailed Hawk
• Swainson’s Hawk
• American Coot
• Black-necked Stilt
• American Avocet
• Snowy Plover
• Killdeer
• Upland Sandpiper
• Lesser Yellowlegs
• White-rumped Sandpiper
• Semipalmated Sandpiper
• Spotted Sandpiper
• Franklin’s Gull
• Ring-billed Gull
• Black Tern
• Forster’s Tern
• Eurasian Collared Dove
• Mourning Dove
• Great Horned Owl
• Common Nighthawk
• Red-headed Woodpecker
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Downy Woodpecker
• Northern Flicker
• Eastern Phoebe
• Great-crested Flycatcher
• Western Kingbird
• Eastern Kingbird
• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
• Bell’s Vireo
• Warbling Vireo
• Bluejay
• Horned Lark
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow
• Tree Swallow
• Barn Swallow
• Bank Swallow
• Cliff Swallow
• House Wren
• Marsh Wren
• American Robin
• Gray Catbird
• Northern Mockingbird
• Brown Thrasher
• European Starling
• Grasshopper Sparrow
• Lark Sparrow
• Northern Cardinal
• Dickcissel
• Yellow-headed Blackbird
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Eastern Meadowlark
• Western Meadowlark
• Orchard Oriole
• Baltimore Oriole
• Great-tailed Grackle
• Common Grackle
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Common Yellowthroat
• Yellow Warbler
• House Sparrow