Quivira full of spectacular wildlife photo opportunities

Timothy Barksdale, famous for his avian videography, has photographed wildlife from the Arctic to the southern tip of South America. He has shot breathtaking footage in primitive jungles and scorching deserts around the world.

But he spent much of last November at the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, about 90 minutes northwest of Wichita near Stafford.

“It’s certainly one of my favorite places,” Barksdale said, waiting for the perfect scene for a video he was producing. “If I lived closer, I’d be here every day.”

Roughly from Nov. 1 until winter’s first major freeze, the 22,000-acre refuge offers some of the top wildlife photography opportunities in the nation. It’s not uncommon for avid photographers to shoot 500 to 1,000 or more frames in a day.

Quivira has been officially rated as one of the top wetlands in the world, and some years 1 million ducks, geese and sandhill cranes gather to feed while on their migrations. Whooping cranes make autumn stops, too. Where you have so much wildfowl, you will have bald eagles and a variety of raptors. Some strings of blackbirds coming and going from the marsh in crack-the-whip fashion may be a half-mile long and hold thousands of birds.

November also is the heart of the whitetail rut, when normally wary bucks are blinded by lust and on the move looking for does. Some years Quivira has one of the highest deer densities in the nation.

One thing you won’t find at Quivira is crowds. A dozen vehicles scattered amid the many miles of roads on a peak migration weekend would be a surprise. On a weekday last November when migrations and the rut were strong and one of the best sunsets of the year silhouetted passing geese and sandhill cranes, Barksdale shared the view with only two other people.

“Wow,” he said, looking at the empty road. “If something this special was about anyplace else, it could be bumper-to-bumper.”

Following are a few tips to know before making a photography trip to Quivira.

▪ Go early and/or stay late. Wildlife is usually most active the first and last two hours of daylight. If you’ve never been there, plan to arrive about noon, get a map at the visitors center and drive the roads to familiarize yourself with the area.

▪ Plan on being on Wildlife Drive near the northern end of the refuge at sunset. Most of the waterfowl are usually on the nearby Big Salt Marsh. Some amazing photos can be taken of silhouettes of huge flocks of waterfowl coming and going at sunset.

▪ Leave the smaller car at home if you have that option. A pickup or SUV is better suited for the gravel roads. More importantly, you will ride higher up, allowing you to see twice as much wildlife.

▪ Drive slowly. Don’t look for the entire shape of an animal, like deer. Look for the tip of an antler, the swish of a tail or the horizontal line of a buck’s back.

▪ The better the photo equipment you have, the better the photos you’ll get. Telephoto lenses are a huge plus, especially those in the 400mm to 600 mm range. If you have a shorter lens, you may want to invest in a multiplier that fits between the lens and the camera’s body. A sandbag or old sock stuffed with rice makes a nice rest on the vehicle’s window to help keep the lens steady. If you’re using a small point-and-shoot with high magnification, figure out the best way to keep the camera rock-solid for photos.

▪ Take binoculars and a spotting scope if you own or can borrow one. Both make it much easier to look at a distant object than trying to look through a camera.

▪ Be persistent. Some serious photographers may make six or more slow drives through the refuge in a day. Things can change in a few minutes.

▪ And remember that there are days when wildlife just doesn’t seem to be moving. If so, try Quivira another day. It may take a couple of trips to make sure you’re there when all of the conditions are right. When things are right at Quivira, though, the photography you bring home can be oh so very, very right.

This story was originally published September 15, 2014 at 11:33 AM with the headline "Quivira full of spectacular wildlife photo opportunities."