By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
GREAT BEND — The ducks know what they want. This year, it was not the dry conditions in and around Cheyenne Bottoms.
That was evidenced during the National Audobon Society's Christmas Bird Count centered around the Bottoms. KWEC Director Curtis Wolf said around 16 people participated in this year's count on Dec. 19.
"It's always a fun event to get people out," he said. "I always say it's not a typical time you think about going out to see birds and spend some time out in nature, but it's a great opportunity to get together with some other bird watchers, go out for a day, and try to observe and count all the birds we see within a certain area."
The local count is one of about 40 in Kansas scheduled between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5. Wolf and volunteers separated into groups to cover a 15-mile-in-diameter circle with the Bottoms at its center. The count creates a snapshot in time so bird experts can track trends. A dry 2022 made for a peculiar year.
"It's interesting because of years like this," Wolf said. "We typically, during our Christmas bird count, have 75 to maybe even 85 species we document. This year, with the conditions we have, we only had 61 species we documented."
But the count also had its treasures. Wolf's group spotted a black scoter duck at Stone Lake in Great Bend, part of the observation area. Scoters are found more often at sea, so bird watchers converged on the lake to see the bird.
"We had put it out there that there was a black scoter there," said Wolf. "There were several people that traveled in from surrounding areas to go see it the next day, and it was still there the next day."
The Christmas Bird Count is nearing its 50th anniversary for the area, and the 123rd count overall. See current and historical data compiled from the counts by CLICKING HERE.