Quivira on April 17

When our birding friends Wayne and Lois Hochstetler, who now live in Illinois, invited Andrew and I to accompany them on an excursion to Quivira on Friday, we were more than thrilled.  Wayne and Lois lived in this area for fifteen years in the 80's and 90's.  They were active in the birding community, and Wayne helped found Friends of Quivira and served as its founding president for five years before they moved away.  They were eager to revisit their old haunts and we were delighted to join them.

We arrived at the refuge at around 10:30 a.m. and after a brief stop at the headquarters, we headed on around the Little Salt Marsh.  The numbers of American Coots on the water was impressive, and we also enjoyed scoping the variety of ducks and other water birds including Eared Grebes and American White Pelicans.  The drainage canals on the north side of the marsh produced this beautiful Horned Grebe and Belted Kingfisher at close range.

Belted Kingfisher: photo by Andrew.

Horned Grebe: photo by Andrew

On our way up to the Big Salt Marsh at the north end of the refuge, we stopped at Park Smith Lake where we picked up Cinnamon Teal.  It was a year bird for Andrew and me, and quite a beautiful one indeed.  This gorgeous drake was swimming among the reeds near the edge with other teal before we disturbed it.

Cinnamon Teal with two Blue-winged Teal: photo by Bryant

As we continued north from Park Smith Lake, we stopped to scan a large flock of Franklin's Gulls standing in a body of water beside the road.  Andrew, who was the first one to put up his binoculars, informed the rest of us of the presence of a very large tern among the gulls.  We all hurried to get a look at the Caspian Tern (A Kansas lifer for Andrew and I!) before it headed off north.  Andrew managed to snap off this picture before it took off.

Caspian Tern with Franklin's Gull for size comparison: photo by Andrew

We also turned up six American Golden Plovers in a burned field a short while later.  This was a year bird for Andrew and me.  In non-breeding birds, the most definitive field mark that separates American Golden Plovers from their close relative the Black-bellied Plover is the lack of black axillaries (or wingpits), which the Black-bellied have.

American Golden Plover: photo by Andrew

American Golden Plover showing distinctive white underwing coverts differentiating it from the similar Black-bellied plover: photo by Andrew

The Big Salt Marsh proved to be its usual hot spot.  First of season (FOS) birds included three Marbled Godwits, an unusual twenty Hudsonian Godwits, Black-necked Stilts, White-faced Ibis, seven Forster's Terns, five Snowy Plovers, and about a dozen Long-billed Dowitchers.

On our way home, a flock of several hundred Yellow-headed Blackbirds near the roadside brought us to a screeching halt with our cameras protruding from  the windows.

Yellow-headed Blackbird: photo by Bryant

When I got home, I picked up a few extra species around our place, bringing my day total to 100.  Not bad for the middle of April.

Bryant