Spring bird migration has been excellent this year.  We seem to be on the downside of the peak of migration, but there are still plenty of opportunities for great birding over the next couple of weeks.  Typically, by June, bird activity in the wetlands slows down, as most of the migrants have made their way through.  Even then, summer residents can be fun to see.

For the time being, there is still a great diversity of all birds present at Cheyenne Bottoms right now, including ducks, rails, stilts, avocets, plovers, sandpipers, gulls, terns, cormorants, pelicans, herons, ibis, and songbirds

Shorebird habitat is not great this year at Cheyenne Bottoms, but plenty of shorebirds have been finding shorelines and pockets of habitat, but we do not have expansive mudflats to see huge congregations of shorebirds this year. 

We are very glad to have water this year at Cheyenne Bottoms after a few years of drought and less than significant water available.  Cheyenne Bottoms has received very little rain so far this Spring, so water levels have already declined over the last month.  Most pools have at least some isolated pools of water in the dugout channels.  Pools 1a, 1b, 1c , 2, and 3a have more surface water available than other pools and are where most of the bird activity has been.  There is also water available in the permanent marshes on TNC’s Preserve.

Quivira NWR water levels remain very good as well, and bird activity has been great, but water levels have begun to dry up some in the past couple weeks.  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 of birds that have been reported over the last couple weeks:

• Black-bellied Whistling Duck
• Snow Goose
• Ross’s Goose
• Canada Goose
• Wood Duck
• Blue-winged Teal
• Cinnamon Teal
• Norther Shoveler
• Gadwall
• Mallard
• Green-winged Teal
• Redhead
• Lesser Scaup
• Bufflehead
• Hooded Merganser
• Ruddy Duck
• Northern Bobwhite
• Wild Turkey
• Ring-necked Pheasant
• Rock Pigeon
• Eurasian Collared-Dove
• Mourning Dove
• Common Nighthawk
• Virginia Rail
• Sora
• Common Gallinule
• American Coot
• Black-necked Stilt
• American Avocet
• Black-bellied Plover
• American Golden Plover
• Killdeer
• Semipalmated Plover
• Piping Plover
• Snowy Plover
• Upland Sandpiper
• Hudsonian Whimbrel
• Long-billed Curlew
• Hudsonian Godwit
• Marbled Godwit
• Short-billed Dowitcher
• Long-billed Dowitcher
• Wilson’s Phalarope
• Red-necked Phalarope
• Spotted Sandpiper
• Solitary Sandpiper
• Lesser Yellowlegs
• Willet
• Greater Yellowlegs
• Ruddy Turnstone
• Stilt Sandpiper
• Sanderling
• Dunlin
• Baird’s Sandpiper
• White-rumped Sandpiper
• Least Sandpiper
• Pectoral Sandpiper
• Western Sandpiper
• Semipalmated Sandpiper
• Franklin’s Gull
• Ring-billed Gull
• American Herring Gull
• Least Tern
• Black Tern
• Forster’s Tern
• Common Tern
• Pied-billed Grebe
• Eared Grebe
• Western Grebe
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Neotropic Cormorant
• Glossy Ibis
• White-faced Ibis
• American Bittern
• Yelow-crowned Night Heron
• Black-crowned Night Heron
• Little Blue Heron
• Snowy Egret
• Western Cattle Egret
• Great Egret
• Great Blue Heron
• American White Pelican
• Turkey Vulture
• Osprey
• Northern Harrier
• Bald Eagle
• Swainson’s Hawk
• Red-tailed Hawk
• American Barn Owl
• Great Horned Owl
• Burrowing Owl
• Barred Owl
• Belted Kingfisher
• Red-headed Woodpecker
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Downy Woodpecker
• Northern Flicker
• American Kestrel
• Peregrine Falcon
• Least Flycatcher
• Eastern Phoebe
• Say’s Phoebe
• Great-crested Flycatcher
• Western Kingbird
• Eastern Kingbird
• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
• Bell’s Vireo
• Eastern Warbling Vireo
• Blue Jay
• American Crow
• Horned Lark
• Bank Swallow
• Tree Swallow
• Purple Martin
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow
• Barn Swallow
• Cliff Swallow
• White-breasted Nuthatch
• Northern House Wren
• Sedge Wren
• Marsh Wren
• European Starling
• Gray Catbird
• Brown Thrasher
• Northern Mockingbird
• Eastern Bluebird
• American Robin
• Cedar Waxwing
• House Sparrow
• House Finch
• American Goldfinch
• Grasshopper Sparrow
• Lark Sparrow
• White-crowned Sparrow
• Savannah Sparrow
• Song Sparrow
• Swamp Sparrow
• Yellow-headed Blackbird
• Western Meadowlark
• Eastern Meadowlark
• Orchard Oriole
• Baltimore Oriole
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Brewer’s Blackbird
• Common Grackle
• Great-tailed Grackle
• Common Yellowthroat
• Northern Yellow Warbler
• Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Northern Cardinal