*A Wonderful Morning, Outdoors Among Birds*
*29 April 2014*
*Andrew H. Williams*
Rebecca and I just dashed out to southwestern Kansas in hopes of seeing
lesser prairie chickens on their lek and on farther to central Colorado for
Gunnison sage grouse on their lek. We had first wanted to make this trip
in 2012, but did not, then again in 2013, but did not. Fearing I or these
rare grouse would go extinct before we met, we just squeezed in a fast trip
at this busy time of year.
On April 25, we arrived at the Cimarron National Grassland near Elkhart,
Kansas, with time to check out the east blind and the west blind, before
our dawn vigil the following day. We saw a spotted ground-squirrel on the
road, and then a horned lizard, the first horned lizard Rebecca had ever
seen. We saw two loggerhead shrikes.
On April 26, we had a wonderful morning, outdoors among birds. Our day
started early, as we were in the west blind before dawn. We saw several
black-tailed jackrabbits as we drove in to the site, and many Ord’s
kangaroo rats, which were very winsome with their wee size, huge heads,
long tails, and ricochetal motion. No grouse. But we saw several Cassin’s
sparrows here, a species I had never seen. These make a lovely song in a
short display flight. They pop up out of the sand prairie vegetation, sing
their hearts out, and plop down again. These are drab, small brown birds,
but their behavior and song fill these open plains with real vibrancy. The
prairie chickens are drab, large brown birds that do much the same, and we
look forward to seeking them out again, and soon. The USFWS has belatedly
declared this a “Threatened” species, of a sort. Apparently no business
interest is to be negatively impacted by any effort to prevent this
species’ extinction.
We then drove north on Highway 27, and discovered the Cottonwood
Picnic Area where the road crosses the Cimarron River. This shows up as
Cimmaron River Campground on Google Maps. Not yet quite realizing how far
we had to drive that day, we stopped and spent two hours walking around and
around in this small picnic area, finding fabulous birding within easy
grasp. The cottonwoods are not very tall out here where the river scarcely
runs, if it runs it all, much of the year, and they had not yet leafed out
but were in early catkin stage. This meant birds couldn’t hide. There
were some globular junipers and short-needled pines of similar proportions
not more than nine feet tall. The early morning sun shone. We were the
only people there.
We heard turkey and bobwhite, redwing and western meadowlark. We
saw cliff and barn swallows flying around the bridge over the river.
Eurasian collared doves and mourning doves both were singing and flying
around. We saw a skulking catbird and an extroverted mockingbird. We saw
lark sparrow and white-crowned sparrows, the former singing to mark his
territory and the latter migrants still lingering. We saw a red-tailed
hawk and then a Swainson’s hawk, a flicker, a hermit thrush, a blue-gray
gnatcatcher, one ruby-crowned kinglet. Two male lark buntings were here,
flying off to the northwest together when we disturbed them. Two spotted
towhees were in the brushy patch behind the outhouse, and a green-tailed
towhee was with them. This last was unusual here. We saw a western
kingbird and an ash-throated flycatcher, which was also unusual here.
There were a few warblers. One male yellow and one male Wilson’s
were here, and one female yellow-rumped. We had a wonderful view of a male
black-throated gray, and later saw a female, too. These are unusual here.
A male Virginia’s warbler was also unusual here. Brown-headed cowbird and
a molting summer tanager filled out our list.
We keep a joint list, and these birds are species we both saw well
and recognized so we could include them. I alone saw brown thrasher, house
wren, American goldfinch, a male yellow-rumped warbler and two
orange-crowned warblers. The bird that truly got away was a large, lean
sparrow with a rusty crown. We encountered this active bird twice and
never could see it well enough to confirm it was a rufous-crowned sparrow,
which also would have been out of place here.
We did not take any of the trails down among the cottonwoods along
the very edge of the river, nor did we venture upslope farther into the
sandy prairie. Surely more birds were there around us, but we felt it was
time to move along, in search of coffee and breakfast. Each time we
thought we might have exhausted the birds in this small area, we’d see
something new, we’d see it easily and well, and like as not it was a bird
unusual for this place.
Nearby, we saw a burrowing owl at a black-tailed prairie-dog town
and the only pronghorn of the trip. We saw four mule deer here, too, and
they waggled their lovely ears and stotted away up the slope in the sage.
We must visit this place again, probably next spring!
We came home 0-for-2 for rare grouse. We had wet snow overnight before
visiting the sage grouse lek and saw none. “The grouse hate this kind of
weather,” the volunteer docent told us. “How far have you driven to visit
us here?” “We’ve come 1000 miles, but we’ll do it again to see these
birds.” And as we travel, every time we pay for a meal or register at a
motel, we explain our being there, so far from home, because we want to see
the local wildlife. One waiter in a restaurant told us that some people
travel to see their local prairie grouse. “That’s exactly why we are
here,” I said. If these rare birds are to avoid extinction, the local
people must appreciate them, and if that means only an economic
appreciation, then that will have to suffice for now.
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