The view from the top
The scene had thousands of acres of water hosting tens of thousands of fowl. Birds on the water included pelicans with pouched bills big enough to hold at least 10 of the tiny green-winged teal that swam nearby.
Where the thin water met mud, small armies of assorted shorebirds scurried and twirled on toothpick legs, heads bobbing as they thrust long bills into the mud as in search of invertebrates. Squadrons holding hundreds of their like flew low over the water following serpentine flight courses, the undersides of their wings flashing like diamonds when they banked away from the sun.
At one of the world’s top wetlands, the setting was probably similar to when people first walked in what is now called Kansas.
One well-known current Kansan hopes more people come to see such sights in the future.
“This is such a beautiful place, a major, major asset to Kansas,” Gov. Sam Brownback said as he toured the wetland Tuesday morning. “We need to promote more of our outdoor activities that we have in this state. We need to get more people to come and see this.”
Brownback was in the area to help establish a stronger eco-tourism industry in the state, something he’s helped with several times. He’s hosted several summits designed to promote the Flint Hills, and was part of a sizable flotilla of canoes and kayaks traveling down the Kansas River to draw attention to the float trip opportunities on the stream.
Meeting of the eco-minds
Monday evening Brownback met with about 40 people with outdoors connections at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center to discuss a variety of non-consumptive pastimes. Brownback said he’d like to see bicycling opportunities increase, and add to the 1,000-plus miles of hiking/biking trails in the state, and promote floating trips on the Arkansas River.
Finding ways to improve and promote the wildlife watching at Cheyenne Bottoms and the nearby Quivira National Wildlife Refuge was the main topic of conversations. Talk of paving roads and building more viewing towers and trails was common. How to fund any projects, however, is always a sticking point, at least to some in attendance. So is co-existing with others already using the places.
Robin Jennison, Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism secretary, said care must be taken in both deciding on improvements and getting the money to fund them.
Currently Cheyenne Bottoms is funded by license fees from hunters, and federal excise taxes placed on outdoors equipment. Federal law, Jennison said, strictly prohibits such funds for being used for anything that does not benefit hunting or the game hunters are after. Even talk of a special permit to be sold to non-consumptive users, he said, could lead to problems because it would mean reduced money from federal excise taxes.
As well as expensive, he cautioned against paving roads through the wetlands.
“As sure as we’d get asphalt roads in place we’d get the rains and The Bottoms would fill completely up,” he said. “After that, all those roads would be under water and gone.”
Still, Jennison said his crew will look for ways to improve Cheyenne Bottoms that benefit both hunters and non-consumptive users, the latter of which are increasing in numbers.
“I”d really like to promote the opportunities we have for watching the spring migrations, which can be spectacular,” he said, noting spring birds are usually bedecked in their finest breeding plumage. “If we focused on that in the spring, and hunters in the fall, I think the two groups can co-exist without any problems. It can be done.”
Seeing is believing
Daylight found Brownback at Cheyenne Bottoms with Mike Rader, Wildlife and Park’s wildlife education coordinator, and an accomplished birder. They used Rader’s favorite wildlife viewing “blind.”
“You’re usually best to just stay in a vehicle and go slow,” Rader said. “They’re used to seeing vehicles on the roads. When you get out and start walking around things start getting nervous and spooking.”
As they left headquarters, Rader explained that marshes are at the mercy of nature. Early spring and summer rains had fueled intense jungles of cattails. No sizable rain for several weeks had greatly lowered water levels. Many days of high winds had also contributed to many areas being dry or just mud where water had been a few days before.
Using borrowed binoculars and Rader’s spotting scope, Brownback got about a three-hour tutorial from Rader on wetland dynamics, bird identification and an education on what makes some birds special.
Minutes into the tour the caravan stopped and Rader pointed out several species of shorebirds working the shallows. Rader described the differences between avocets, sandpipers and other birds. He really got Brownback’s attention with talk of migrations, and how a tiny sandpiper might have spend its summer in the Arctic and its winter in South America, then reverse the trip in the spring, probably coming through Cheyenne Bottoms both times.
“Amazing” came commonly from the governor when Rader spoke of things like young shorebirds instinctively knowing exactly where and when to fly in migration, and that about 90 percent of the members of some shorebird species pass through Cheyenne Bottoms during their annual migrations.
“This is such a fabulous place, and being out here is just such peaceful experience,” Brownback said. “You see thousands of these little birds that fly thousands of miles to get here. It’s all just a miracle of nature. Amazing.”
This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 3:44 PM with the headline "The view from the top."