Where did you take this picture? Is there much of a shorebird migration that goes down (or up) through Kansas? I don't know much about the flyways of the Midwest.
Where did you take this picture? Is there much of a shorebird migration that goes down (or up) through Kansas? I don't know much about the flyways of the Midwest.
This actually Isn't as hard as it appears...other than the phalaropes, about 80% of the birds are one species. The other three are in there, in smaller numbers.
Kansas gets a surprising amount of shorebirds. I spent dozens of hours on mudlfats this fall identifying different sandpipers. I got 32 species in KS this year, and the only miss is ruddy turnstone. On the eastern side of Kansas (where I live) we have the Mississippi flyway. The Central Flyway runs through the middle of the state. Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira are two vastly important wetlands in the center of the state. 90% of the world's Wilson's phalarope population migrates through there, as well as high percentages of other shorebirds. There was even a red-necked stint there this summer (I missed it by a day).
For those of you not familiar with American bird migration, birds coming from their wintering grounds in the loosly Caribbean follow 4 flyways: two coastal ones (Atlantic and Pacific) and two indland ones (Mississippi and Central) to their northern breeding grounds.
Shorebirds seen in Kansas this year (ones I've seen have a *):
Black-bellied Plover*
American Golden-plover*
Snowy Plover*
Wilson's Plover (rarity)
Semipalmated Plover*
Piping Plover*
Killdeer*
Mountain Plover
Black-necked Stilt*
American Avocet*
Spotted Sandpiper*
Solitary Sandpiper*
Greater Yellowlegs*
Willet*
Lesser Yellowlegs*
Upland Sandpiper*
Whimbrel*
Long-billed Curlew
Hudsonian Godwit*
Marbled Godwit*
Ruddy Turnstone
Red Knot (rarity)
Sanderling*
Semipalmated Sandpiper*
Western Sandpiper*
Red-necked Stint(rarity)
Least Sandpiper*
White-rumped Sandpiper*
Baird's Sandpiper*
Pectoral Sandpiper*
Dunlin*
Stilt Sandpiper*
Buff-breasted Sandpiper*
Short-billed Dowitcher*
Long-billed Dowitcher*
Wilson's Snipe*
American Woodcock*
Wilson's Phalarope*
Red-necked Phalarope
Sorry for all the info...I am bored so though a Kansas shorebird explination would fill the tme.
Are those Wilson's phalaropes in there? They are nice-lookin' waders. Better than all those other stinky brown ones.
