Big Day (Bird Race)

26 February 2000

by Chet Gresham

Big Day Statistics:

• 101 species
• 0545 to 1900 hours
• Visiting:  Slate Creek Marsh, Oxford Mill, Pawnee Prairie Park, Harbor Isle Lake, Oldsquaw Pond, Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, Cheyenne Bottoms.  
  
• Species of Note: Horned Grebe (Early), Tundra Swans (Rare, Staked Out),  Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs (Early), Blue-winged Teal (Early), Eastern Phoebe (Early), and Inca Dove (Rare, Staked Out).
  

We started pre-dawn by navigating the flooded roads to Slate Creek Marsh, which delayed us slightly, but we still had no problem rousing Virginia Rails, while Common Snipe buzzed our head.  From the marsh we headed to higher ground and spotted a couple Short-eared Owls skimming the grassland.  We had hoped for a few early migrants and were rewarded with a pair of Blue-winged Teal on a small cattle pond, and a Greater Yellowlegs “tu-tu-tuing”.  We also came up with some species that wintered in this southern Kansas wetland, such as Lincoln's, Savannah, and Field Sparrows.  From then headed north to a staked-out Inca Dove, as well as early Eastern Phoebes at the Oxford Mill in Oxford.  We needed to be in Wichita in less than an hour, so we left the cooing Inca Dove and hot-footed it up to Pawnee Prairie Park in Wichita, where we needed to pick up most of our eastern woodland birds before the forecast increase in wind.

All the usual suspects were there;  White-throated Sparrow, Cedar Waxwing, Spotted Towhee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and a few unexpected birds like Cooper's Hawk, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and Fox Sparrow.  After the obligatory stop at the now semi-famous Oldsquaw Pond, where we found Greater Scaup, we headed to Quivira.  At this time the wind was gusting from 30 to 40 mph, and we were heading straight into it.  When we made it to Quivira we still found the birds we needed, although they were a little wind blown.  The family of Tundra Swans we had staked out were still present, along with a Lesser Yellowlegs walking next to a Greater. We then headed to Cheyenne Bottoms to find a few missing species such as Common Merganser and White Pelican, and maybe a few raptors.  We weren't disappointed, finding a hunkered Ferruginous Hawk by a prairie dog town, and a Merlin.  As we rode the wind back toward Wichita we thought about going after Eastern Screech and Barred Owl, but thought better of it, and went instead to a bar for a sandwich and a beer.

Species List: