Kansas Wetlands Education Center
GREAT BEND — Cheyenne Bottoms is located on the Central Flyway, a bird migration route that connects Canada to South America.
Seventy percent of all the different shorebird species in North America have been recorded at Cheyenne Bottoms; late April is prime time to view the birds using our wetlands for rest and fuel.
Join Kansas Wetlands Education Center on April 21 to see this migration in person. We will be offering two guided birding tours around Cheyenne Bottoms. Our van seats 11 birdwatchers, and extra vehicles can caravan behind our bird van which will stop at several locations to view wildlife.
2-3 p.m. – We will show Flyways, a Nature episode that previously aired on PBS, in our auditorium. This documentary follows the shorebirds that fly thousands of miles each year along flyways.
More than 200 species, such as Long-billed Curlews, Lesser Yellowlegs, Red Knots, and Hudsonian Godwits, travel from feeding grounds in the southern hemisphere to breeding grounds in the Arctic and back again, flying up to nine days non-stop without food or water. But their populations are crashing amidst climate change and urban development.
Follow a conservation movement of bird-loving experts and citizen scientists as they mobilize to the challenge of understanding and saving shorebirds. Many of the birds featured in the documentary can be spotted at Cheyenne Bottoms on April 21.
2-3 p.m. – As the 53-minute documentary may be too long for young audiences, this tour will be designed for families with young children. We will stop at our observation tower, learn to use binoculars, identify different birds, look for aquatic invertebrates, and play a migration game.
3-4 p.m. – Those who enjoy the Flyways documentary will go on a birding tour around Cheyenne Bottoms. This is a free program. No registration is required.
Kansas Wetlands Education Center, affiliated with FHSU’s Werth College of Science, Technology and Mathematics, is located 10 miles northeast of Great Bend at the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area.
More information can be found at 877-243-9268 or visit wetlandscenter.fhsu.edu.