Eastern Kansas, early June 2023

Well, it’s been almost another year since my last blog post. I spent this last year at a small college in northwestern Pennsylvania. I got back to Kansas two weeks ago after our choir tour. A day after I got back I was suddenly thought I should really get a birding trip in this summer and the sooner the better to maybe catch a few late migrants. So two days later Anthony, Michael, Franklin and I left our house at 3 am headed for Konza Prairie and two days running around eastern Kansas. I had a number of targets with the main ones (all possible lifers) being Eastern Whip-poor-will, Henslow’s Sparrow, and three flycatchers: Yellow-bellied, Alder, and Acadian. I also hoped for Black Vultures which would be state bird and maybe some surprise late warbler or other migrant.

At 5 am after our two hour drive we pulled off on a little dead end road where we hoped to hear several nocturnal species with Whip-poor-wills being the main draw. Right away we had multiple Common Nighthawks (quite common in Kansas) flying over giving their buzzy nasal calls and a few doing their booming display. Several Chuck-wills-widows called loudly down by the creek bottom. Then after we pulled forward just a little farther we heard our first Eastern Whip-poor-will calling away (recording here)! This was a lifer for me and a state lifer for all of us, so we were pretty excited. What a fantastic way to the start the day. We spent another 10 to 15 minutes listening at different spots along the road, and heard a few more chucks and whips, but no Common Poorwills.

We then drove a few minutes to Konza Prairie and ate a bit in the parking lot as we waited for it to get a bit closer to dawn before heading out on the trails. A few other vehicles were in the parking lot including two guys talking loudly about the elk hunting they hope to do this next fall. They headed out on the trail with big packs so I guess they were trying to get in shape for hunting in Colorado. The dawn chorus was really starting to warm up by now. Many Dickcissels, a Lark Sparrow or two, and a few Eastern Meadowlarks were singing from the fields and a Red-eyed Vireo, Great Crested Flycatcher, Tufted Titmouse, Indigo Buntings and other common woodland species sang from the wooded area. At least two separate Wild Turkeys were gobbling. An early highlight as we headed through the wooded area toward the prairie was a nice singing Kentucky Warbler which we all heard, but it remained skulking in the underbrush and only Franklin really saw it. As we got to the top of the hill we were greeted with a gorgeous sunrise. The Flint Hills are one of the best parts of Kansas and a lovely sunrise only makes it better.

Our main target in this rolling prairie on the flint hills is Henslow’s Sparrow. They have an odd, short buzzy insect like song that would be pretty easy to miss, but we had all listened to recordings of of it beforehand so we’d hopefully pick it out. Henslow’s Sparrows are an uncommon breeding species in the eastern third of Kansas in the right habitat. Konza Prairie is one of the more well known consistently reliable spots for them so we figured we should find at least one or two. There are 3 loops of trail roughly 2, 4, and 6 miles respectively. I noticed that most eBird lists with Henslow’s Sparrows had a distance of just over 4 miles so I figured that was the loop to take. The first mile seemed like relatively good habitat for Henslow’s but we didn’t hear any Henslow’s or the more common breeding Grasshopper Sparrows. About a quarter mile after the first and second trails split we heard our first Grasshopper Sparrow and then a few hundred yards farther on a sparrow flushed giving a quick “tink” call as it flew. Anthony and I immediately said Henslow’s! The others had heard it but none of us had good looks as it quickly dropped over the side of a hill and disappeared. After waiting a bit we moved on and about half a mile farther on we had one consistently singing. Unfortunately it insisted on staying buried in the low vegetation and we never got good looks. But we were all quite glad to have gotten a lifer even with less than satisfactory views.

Other than the Henslow’s Sparrows, the prairie birds were fairly standard with no surprises. Many meadowlarks and dickcissels sang throughout and numerous Northern Bobwhites were calling. Early on one bobwhite popped out into the open for a bit and Franklin and I both took a few photos, but mine did not turn out in the low light.
(I’ll be including some of Franklin’s photos throughout this post as he took more and some better photos than I did. Any of his photos will be credited in the image caption.)

After we got the Henslow’s Sparrow the trail soon moved into a lovely wooded area again, but before we move along with it here are a few flower pics from the prairie. There were a good number of different flowering species right along the trail. I’m sure they’re common prairie species and nothing too rare but I still enjoyed them. Identifications (courtesy of iNat so you know what to blame for misIDs) are in the image captions.

And now, back to the woodlands we were just entering. The trail wound through the woods and then along the side of the woods and meadows. It looked like a perfect area for warblers and other migrating species, but as it was the second of June the birds mainly consisted of resident species. There were decent numbers of common woodland species Tufted Titmice, Red-bellied, Downy, and Hairy Woodpeckers, a White-breasted Nuthatch, Summer Tanagers, Indigo Buntings, Eastern Wood-Pewees and 2 singing Northern Parulas. As we were nearing the end of the trail a flycatcher flew across the trail so Franklin went to check it out. It ended up just being another wood-pewee but then Franklin called out that he had a male Magnolia Warbler. Unfortunately it disappeared and the rest of us only got brief views of it in flight, but that was a solid add for this late in migration. Here are a few photos of the woodland because we didn’t get any pics of the warbler.

Having finished the loop at Konza Prairie with 46 species we started heading toward KC with our first main planned stop being Baker Wetlands. One of the joys of birding (for me at least) is lists and numbers and part of that is county listing. Basically you try to get as many species as possible for each county. Kansas has 105 counties (more than the average state) so there’s plenty of opportunity, but a lot of hard work if you’re a serious county lister. I’m not super serious about county listing but enjoy dabbling with it. To put it into perspective my total county ticks was around 2500 at the start of the trip, whereas Henry Armknect who has the most for Kansas is at somewhere north of 19,000! Anyway, along our way to Baker wetlands we did some quick stops just off the highway in Wabaunsee and Shawnee county to boost our very slim lists for those counties. A few highlights from a quick stop by a creek in Wabaunsee were 2 Red-shouldered Hawks, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and a singing Louisiana Waterthrush. Our stop in Shawnee county was at a road that dead ended at private property just off the highway. As soon as we pulled up Michael said “this looks like Painted Bunting habitat”. About a minute later a Painted Bunting flew across the road and landed in a tree. Needless to say, Michael brought that up a few times throughout the remainder of the trip 🙂

Baker Wetlands has nice habitat for wetland species with a few good targets there being Common Gallinule, Little Blue Heron, and Least Bittern. Unfortunately we got there about 10 AM when it was nearing 90 degrees (32 C) and you can only walk on the paved roads through the wetlands. We drove around the edge and picked up a handful of species like American Wigeon, Blue-winged Teal, Green Heron, and Bell’s Vireo but decided it was too hot to walk the trails and try for better wetland species.

A Limpkin had been seen fairly regularly at Gardner lake. It would be a year bird for all of us and a state bird for Anthony as he was gone last year when Kansas’s first five or so records of Limpkin showed up. We figured that was a decent bet for the heat of the day. We got there around 11:30 and drove the very residential streets around this little cove where the Limpkin had been seen but no luck.

From Gardner we headed to Clinton Lake. Things were fairly quiet in the heat of the day, but we birded several spots around the edge of the lake and added a number of new species for the day like Double-crested Cormorant, Spotted Sandpiper, Fish Crow, Least Flycatcher and Prothonotary Warbler. An immature Black-crowned Night-Heron tripped the eBird filters and was a solid add for the list, but the highlight for me was getting an Acadian Flycatcher. They’re relatively common in Eastern Kansas but it was a lifer for me and the first of my three possible lifer flycatchers for the trip.

After Clinton we headed back to Gardner as it was roughly en route to our next stops in KC. Again we meandered the residential streets checking the edge of the lake for the limpkin but still no luck. I tried to contact the homeowner who other birders had contacted. He had very generously been hosting people and even taking them out on his boat to get better looks at the Limpkin. Unfortunately he didn’t see my message until the next day, but I’m still very appreciative of how generous he was with his time to many birders who got to see the bird! From Gardner we headed to Killcreek Park. By then it was 3 pm, hot, and we were tired. By now the others all slept anytime we drove more than 10 minutes between locations. Killcreek was pretty dead. We had one unidentified warbler that sang snatches of it’s song twice, but managed to disappear before any of us got on it. Summer Tanagers were pleasantly common throughout the day including at Killcreek.

As we left Killcreek Park Franklin saw a report of a Black-billed Cuckoo a few miles away. We went to where it had been reported and spent about an hour walking a half mile of trail on both sides of the intersection it was reported near but unfortunately we couldn’t find it. We did add a few new day birds though including Yellow-throated Vireo and Willow Flycatcher.

From there we moved on to Mill Creek Streamway. Franklin and I had good success there last spring with Andrew. Early June is a different story though. The woods were pretty quiet and we were considering giving up. At 5 pm it had been 12 hours since we started birding and 14 hours since we had left our house. The heat and humidity were taking their toll, but as we sat and rested beside the trail for a bit we suddenly heard and then saw a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher! A somewhat late migrant although not too unexpected and I was now 2 for 3 on my targeted flycatchers for the trip with only Alder left. This gave us new energy and we continued the 3.5 mile loop but without any birds of real further interest besides another Acadian Flycatcher.

A few other highlights though at this park were a number of butterflies and a lovely painted rock on a stump. Also, a biker was passing us on our left and his friendly greeting was interrupted with a sudden four letter exclamation! The four of us were quite confused until we saw the Copperhead lying in the road which he had just swerved around! I tried to get some nice eye-level shots (from a safe distance with my zoom lens) but unfortunately the snake was scared into the underbrush as a few more bikers zipped past so I had to be satisfied with a blurry cellphone pic.

By the time we reached the end of the trail it was 6:45 so we decided to do a quick stop at Walmart to grab some food (tortillas and 2 rotisserie chickens to go with ranch, lettuce and shredded cheese we had along. This is a quick cost effective meal) and then headed on to Marais des Cygnes about 50 minutes away. Marais des Cygnes is a nice bottomland hardwood forest obviously with swampy areas. We got there late enough that we couldn’t do much birding but we added a few trip birds like Pileated Woodpecker and Wood Thrush along with another Louisiana Waterthrush, several Summer Tanagers and another Least Flycatcher. We ended the day with a lovely sunset over Unit G of the wildlife area.

We now headed back to several camping sites Anthony knew about. Along the way we stopped several times to examine snakes in the road. They were all water snakes with one Diamondback Watersnake and the other 3 or 4 all being Plain-bellied Waternsakes.

Unfortunately all the camp sites were taken so we just stopped at a gravel pull off and camped out there for the night. About 10 minutes after lying down Franklin and I decided the mosquitoes were a bit too much to handle (there were a lot and you had to completely cover yourself in your sleeping bag to avoid them which got quite hot) so we staked out the car for the night (which was also blitzing hot for awhile despite running the AC a time or two). Anthony and Michael were left alone to brave the mosquitoes and thankfully were still alive in the morning although none of us were very rested.

We made a slow loop around Unit G. Our two big adds were Yellow-crowned Night-Heron and White-eyed Vireo. A few other trip birds include Yellow-breasted Chat, several Wood Ducks, and a Barred Owl (Anthony heard one at Konza Prairie but none of the rest of us had). The night-heron was in the exact pond Logan Kahle had Kansas’s first record of Limpkin last summer, but no limpkin luck for us here either.

Marais des Cygnes was one of my favorite stops just for the natural beauty and some local character on the little railroad bridge 🙂

Our next big stop was at Neosho WA area but again we did some county listing along the way in Bourbon and Crawford counties. A stop at a little creek in Bourbon county netted about 18 species including common woodland species like Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Great Crested Flycatcher, Carolina Wren, and Northern Parula. A quick flyover cuckoo a little farther along made us stop as we wondered about Black-billed. But we were unable to refind it. We did add a few more species for our county lists like Red-eyed Vireo, Loggerhead Shrike, Black-capped Chickadee, and Northern Mockingbird. We ended up with 32 species in Bourbon and 25 in Crawford.

We pulled into Neosho around 9:20 and drove the loop around the wildlife area. We added Carolina Chickadees and Wild Turkeys to our trip list along with many other repeat woodland species before reaching the swampy area.

This swampy area seemed dead at first but once we started scanning the birds started appearing. First it was just American Coots, Wood Ducks, and Great Blue Herons but then Anthony suddenly called out a Common Gallinule! We ended up with three different individuals and had great scope views although not great photos as they were 150+ yards out. Then someone picked out the long staying Trumpeter Swan way out across the marsh. This swan has been here for several years now which is odd because Trumpeter Swans are usually only in Kansas during the winter.

We continued the loop without finding many other birds of interest. Still we had gotten two of our targets for Neosho and had nearly 50 species in a bit over an hour. Definitely a successful stop I also enjoyed the butterflies and dragonflies along the drive at Neosho.

From Neosho we decided to start slowly looping back toward home adding a number of counties and hopefully picking up Black Vulture yet. Black Vultures are basically only found in the very southeastern tier of counties in Kansas and Franklin was the only one of us who had them for the state. We decided to hit a few spots like Elk City SP and Sedan in hopes of picking them up but opted against going farther east to Cherokee county where they are more common. The only other real target that remained for me was Alder Flycatcher, but it seemed unlikely at this point given our schedule and the habitat remaining.

We had a few stops in Wilson county including Neodesha WTP (WTP stands for Water Treatment Plant aka the town sewage ponds. Yeah, where birders go to find birds probably seems strange to some folks, but I don’t mind.) We totaled about 30 species for the county, but nothing of real interest. I always enjoy abandoned buildings for some reason and we saw a few cool ones, but I didn’t get any great pics.

We then headed on to Elk City State Park in Montgomery County. Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Loggerhead Shrikes were pleasantly common throughout these southern counties. At Elk City SP we scanned the 100+ Turkey Vultures circling all around the lake, but were unable to pick out any Black Vultures. Cedar Waxwings flying over were a nice add. We had several Lark Sparrows and more Warbling and Red-eyed Vireos, but again nothing too crazy. What did look crazy was the radar though. We were now headed toward Sedan in Chautauqua county but it looked like a pretty solid rainstorm was going to hit us a bit before we got there.

Sure enough a wall of rain hit us a few miles out from Sedan so we stopped at a Subway to grab some lunch and bide out the worst of the rain. While it was better than being out in the rain, let’s just say don’t bother going to Subway if you’re in Sedan. I’ve never had worse service at at a Subway. Enough said about that, the rain began slowing and we headed out again. Anthony recommended a stop at Sedan City Lake South which was right along our route. The lake itself had a Great Blue Heron and Great Egret, but the trees around it provided solid birding. We had an empid that proved to be the Alder Flycatcher I still needed! 3 for 3 on lifer flycatchers and 5 for 5 on all lifer targets for the trip! Numbers of birds wasn’t high but diversity was solid as we totaled 25 species including another Painted Bunting, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Carolina Chickadee, Summer Tanager, Indigo Bunting and more.

Almost as soon as we were back on the highway I slammed on the brakes then flipped around at the nearest possible spot. I had seen what I thought was an Upland Sandpiper and wanted to confirm. Sure enough, another county bird. It flew as soon as we stopped, but then came and landed on the fence not 20 feet from us!

We continued on our way after passing cars spooked the sandpiper. A few miles on down the road I slammed on the brakes again because I had seen what I was sure was a White-winged Dove on the powerline! I knew they would be uncommon this far east and when I checked I saw this was actually the first record for Chautauqua county! We also had Grasshopper Sparrow, Blue Grosbeak, Orchard Oriole, and Great-tailed Grackle at that pull off. Overall we totaled 42 species for Chautauqua with a somewhat bizarre combination of birds and between the lake and the highway. The birds combined with the lovely flint hills scenery made this one of my favorite counties for the day.

By now it was almost 3 pm and we planned to basically drive straight through Cowley and Sedgwick counties (clipping through the corner of Sumner along the way) as we headed to Cheney Reservoir to pick up some shorebirds for our trip list and hopefully the Ruddy Turnstones that had been reported off and on throughout the spring. Cheney is within 30 minutes of our area so that would be our last stop of the day. We picked up 32 species in Cowley without anything new for the trip. Then added 7 county ticks in Sumner in the 15 minutes we were in the county before driving straight through Sedgwick to Cheney.

We had Wilson’s Phalarope, Semipalmated, White-rumped, and Spotted Sandpipers at the east shore area at Cheney but no Ruddy Turnstone. Northern Shovelers and Franklin’s and Ring-billed Gulls were also new for the trip list. We quickly checked Christmas Tree Cove and got a nice Painted Bunting which was a county bird for Franklin and Michael (county birds for Reno, our home county, are a bigger deal than other counties). From there we went to Yoder Cove which has been excellent for shorebirds this year. Besides Semipalmated and White-rumped Sandpipers we added Snowy and Semipalmated Plovers, American White Pelicans, Black, Forster’s and Least Terns (county bird for me!) and a late Hudsonian Godwit. Part way into scanning the shorebirds a rain storm hit us so we sheltered under a tree and scoped from there. One distant tern made us wonder if it could be a Common Tern, but we ended up deciding it was likely just Forster’s.

We finally pulled in at my house a bit before 7 pm roughly 40 hours, 800+ miles, and a 126 species later! We were dead tired by the end of the trip, but all in all it was solid birding given it was early June and we came back with many of our target species acquired and a lot of good memories (the heat, exhaustion, and mosquitoes fade into the background with time…)

Here’s our eBird trip report for those interested. I hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride!

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