Spring bird migration has been pretty exceptional this year.  Numbers and diversity of shorebirds at Cheyenne Bottoms has been great for the last month.  We suspect that the migration will begin to diminish over the next week as Spring migrants head on north.  But until then, get out and enjoy the birds. 

Water levels are extremely low at Cheyenne Bottoms.  Pools 1a, 1b, 1c, and 2 are basically the only pools with water, and even that water is very shallow.  The silver lining to the low water is that all the areas that have water at Cheyenne Bottoms are prime habitat for the shorebirds.  There is also good shallow water in one of the marshes on The Nature Conservancy Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve.

Shorebirds are the thing to see right now.  Most of the species that could be seen at Cheyenne Bottoms have been observed this spring.

Other common birds being seen right now include Great Blue Herons, Gulls, Terns, a few Cormorants, a few Pelicans, and good numbers of summer resident songbirds in and around the Bottoms.

Great birding should be available at Quivira NWR as well.  Check out http://fws.gov/refuge/Quivira.

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:

• Snow Goose
• Canada Goose
• Blue-winged Teal
• Cinnamon Teal
• Northern Shoveler
• Gadwall
• American Wigeon
• Mallard
• Northern Pintail
• Green-winged Teal
• Redhead
• Lesser Scaup
• Hooded Merganser
• Ruddy Duck
• Northern Bobwhite
• Wild Turkey
• Ring-necked Pheasant
• Pied-billed Grebe
• Eurasian Collared-Dove
• Mourning Dove
• Common Nighthawk
• Virginia Rail
• Sora
• American Coot
• Black-necked Stilt
• American Avocet
• Black-bellied Plover
• American Golden-Plover
• Snowy Plover
• Semipalmated Plover
• Piping Plover
• Killdeer
• Upland Sandpiper
• Whimbrel
• Hudsonian Godwit
• Marbled Godwit
• Ruddy Turnstone
• Red Knot
• Stilt Sandpiper
• Sanderling
• Dunlin
• Baird’s Sandpiper
• Least Sandpiper
• White-rumped Sandpiper
• Pectoral Sandpiper
• Semipalmated Sandpiper
• Western Sandpiper
• Short-billed Dowitcher
• Long-billed Dowitcher
• Wilson’s Snipe
• Wilson’s Phalarope
• Red-necked Phalarope
• Spotted Sandpiper
• Solitary Sandpiper
• Greater Yellowlegs
• Willet
• Lesser Yellowlegs
• Franklin’s Gull
• Ring-billed Gull
• Lesser Black-backed Gull
• Least Tern
• Black Tern
• Common Tern
• Forster’s Tern
• Double-crested Cormorant
• American White Pelican
• American Bittern
• Great Blue Heron
• Great Egret
• Snowy Egret
• Little Blue Heron
• Cattle Egret
• Green Heron
• Black-crowned Night Heron
• Glossy Ibis
• White-faced Ibis
• Turkey Vulture
• Northern Harrier
• Cooper’s Hawk
• Bald Eagle
• Red-tailed Hawk
• Barn Owl
• Great Horned Owl
• Red-headed Woodpecker
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Downy Woodpecker
• Northern Flicker
• American Kestrel
• Peregrine Falcon
• Eastern Wood-Pewee
• Eastern Phoebe
• Say’s Phoebe
• Great-crested Flycatcher
• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
• Bell’s Vireo
• Warbling Vireo
• Horned Lark
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow
• Tree Swallow
• Bank Swallow
• Barn Swallow
• Cliff Swallow
• House Wren
• Marsh Wren
• European Starling
• Gray Catbird
• Brown Thrasher
• Northern Mockingbird
• American Robin
• House Sparrow
• American Pipit
• Grasshopper Sparrow
• Lark Sparrow
• White-crowned Sparrow
• Harris’s Sparrow
• Vesper Sparrow
• Savannah Sparrow
• Yellow-headed Blackbird
• Western Meadowlark
• Eastern Meadowlark
• Orchard Oriole
• Baltimore Oriole
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Common Grackle
• Great-tailed Grackle
• Common Yellowthroat
• Yellow Warbler
• Summer Tanager
• Northern Cardinal
• Rose-breasted Grosbeak
• Dickcissel