Date: 11/14/24 7:14 pm From: <sselt...> Subject: Quivira NWR / Big Salt Marsh / 14 November
Hi all. I spent about 4 hours birding the Big Salt Marsh on Thursday, 14 November. About 2 PM I saw three WHOOPING CRANES off to the SW of the viewing pad on the Wildlife Drive. They all appeared to be adults. They were feeding with several hundred Sandhill Cranes and were quite difficult to see.
There was a huge drop off in shorebird numbers since my last visit on 2 November. Back then I saw perhaps 1500 shorebirds, but today 14 November I saw just 7: Killdeer 1, Dunlin 1, Greater Yellowlegs 3, and peep sp 2 (likely Semipalmated Sandpipers). Other notables included Franklin's Gull 1, Bonaparte's Gull 1, and Tundra (I think) Swan 1. Northern Pintail was the most conspicuous duck species and Snows were the most conspicuous goose, although most geese heard calling overhead were Greater White-fronted. One very drab Sedge Wren was scolding me from the road ditch along 170th road.
Our resident Greater Roadrunner continues here at our house NW of Larned, Pawnee County. It is so crazy to think about all the time and effort it took to see my first roadrunner in Kansas and now I can see one from my recliner. One morning it was catching moths on the front porch. It scampered up the brick walls and flew up to the eaves and flailed against the front door and a couple times was SOOOO close to ringing the doorbell. Now wouldn't that have been something?
