Migration time in Kansas: a beautiful sight

Across New England and the Great Lakes region, people are getting ready for one of nature’s finest displays. If they’re fortunate, they’ll have three or four days of peak fall foliage.

This fall, forget the trees.

Central Kansas has an equally impressive display that’s been going on since July and will continue well into the depths of winter. It’s the migrations of millions of shorebirds, waterfowl and other birds that have birders on both coasts positively envious. Some species spend several weeks here. Others spend the entire winter feeding and taking a well-deserved rest in central Kansas.

You can see them scattered in small numbers across the countryside, especially in the small, natural ponds north and west of Wichita. Or you often can find them in near mind-boggling numbers at major wetlands such as the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge near Stafford or the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area near Great Bend.

It begins in summer’s heat as flocks of shorebirds arrive from the north, feeding on invertebrates on exposed muddy shorelines. Many are best described as LBBs, or little brown birds, because the species are difficult to distinguish even with well-trained eyes. Others are not.

There have been black-necked stilts, with a robin-sized black and white body perched on pink legs longer but much thinner than soda straws. In late August, tiny blue-winged teal, easily identified by their minute size and blue shoulder patch, began arriving by the thousands. From there, the avian procession continues to build through September and well into October as more ducks and other birds arrive.

Later in October, the main attractions begin to arrive as huge flocks of sandhill cranes come south to escape northern snows. With them will be equally impressive flocks of white-fronted, snow and Canada geese of varying sizes.

As small ponds begin to freeze, the birds will be forced to bigger waters, such as at Quivira and Cheyenne Bottoms. At times there may be 50,000 or so of the birds in the air at once, settling into a marsh for an evening or landing in a nearby crop field for a day of feeding.

The real stars, endangered whooping cranes, usually stick to family flocks of a half-dozen or fewer. Once down to barely a dozen birds in the wild, the striking white birds, the tallest native to North America, now number in the hundreds. A sizable percentage pass through central Kansas, with a strong fondness for Quivira and Cheyenne Bottoms.

November at the world-renowned wetlands often sees cranes, geese and ducks easily totaling more than 1 million birds. There will also be the many species of hawks and bald eagles that follow them. Swarms of blackbirds, often numbering in the tens of thousands per flock, may stretch a half-mile or more, and they fly an avian ballet of dips, climbs and swirls.

The dawn and dusk flights can be stunning, with the birds rising in cyclone patterns as they come and go from the marshes.

But, unlike with New England’s fabled fall foliage, which draws people from all over the world, you can enjoy the fall migrations in relative solitude. To those who have seen the migrations at their best, the lack of people is almost as amazing as the abundance of birds.

Timothy Barksdale, a noted videographer, has filmed and photographed wildlife in many remote locations. His works have been good enough for National Geographic. His opinion of central Kansas in November?

“It’s certainly one of my favorite places,” Barksdale, of Montana, said as he watched huge flocks of birds at Quiriva a few Novembers back. “If I lived closer, I’d be here every day.”

This story was originally published September 13, 2015 at 10:42 AM with the headline "Migration time in Kansas: a beautiful sight."