Winter has finally hit the wetlands!  The areas around Cheyenne Bottoms received 8-10” of snow during the weekend of January 4-5 along with cold temperatures.  Consequently, the wetlands have frozen over eliminating any open water.  This has pushed most waterfowl out of the area.  Cheyenne Bottoms went from holding 250,000 snow geese during mid-December, down to very few waterfowl at all today.  The lack of waterfowl will continue until the wetlands thaw out some, when many waterfowl will return. 

Unfortunately, Cheyenne Bottoms is still quite limited in available water when it does thaw out.  Pool 1a and Pool 3a are the only pools holding water.  Most other pools are dry or may have very limited, isolated sheet water.

Until the water opens up, birders are limited to other winter resident birds in the area not dependent on open water, such as raptors, sparrows, and other winter songbirds.  These bird groups remain quite plentiful.

Quivira NWR will have similar conditions with the cold weather.  Check out http://fws.gov/refuge/Quivira or call the Quivira NWR Headquarters at 620-410-4011 for updated conditions.

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
• Ross’s Goose
• Cackling Goose
• Canada Goose
• Mallard
• Common Goldeneye
• Common Merganser
• Northern Bobwhite
• Wild Turkey
• Ring-necked Pheasant
• Eurasian Collared-Dove
• Ring-billed Gull
• American Herring Gull
• Great Blue Heron
• Northern Harrier
• Bald Eagle
• Red-tailed Hawk
• Great Horned Owl
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Downy Woodpecker
• Hairy Woodpecker
• Northern Flicker
• American Kestrel
• Merlin
• Loggerhead Shrike
• Blue Jay
• American Crow
• Marsh Wren
• European Starling
• American Robin
• House Sparrow
• House Finch
• American Goldfinch
• American Tree Sparrow
• Dark-eyed Junco
• White-crowned Sparrow
• Harris’s Sparrow
• Song Sparrow
• Meadowlark sp.
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Northern Cardinal