Cheyenne Bottoms

Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:

CHEYENNE BOTTOMS

I’ve probably driven through Cheyenne Bottoms a couple dozen times in my life. This wetlands area is in Barton County, about 20 miles from my childhood home.

But I’m not an outdoorsman or a biologist, and to be honest, my bird identification skills are a little weak, so I don’t suppose that I ever quite “got” Cheyenne Bottoms.

Cheyenne Bottoms is a 64-square mile wetlands basin and has been called “the most important migration point for shorebirds in North America.” It is estimated that 45 percent of North American shorebirds stop at Cheyenne Bottoms during spring migration to rest and refuel.

Recently, while in Great Bend, Dave and I took my dad and stepmother on a drive to this wetlands area. It was late March, the air was full of wind and rain and it was in the mid-40s, not a pleasant day to be outside.

So it seemed like a perfect opportunity to tour the Kansas Wetlands Education Center. The center, located on K-156 between Claflin and Great Bend opened about a year ago and is a branch of Fort Hays State University’s Sternberg Museum of Natural History.

Jason Black, a graduate student from FHSU, was working at the center that day and through the building’s viewing window, he pointed out a blue-winged teal, and a couple of magnificent white and black birds – American avocets. The avocets have long legs and long, upturned bills.

“Avocets are readily identifiable, and they are beautiful in flight,” Black said, adding that the avocet is on their logo. So, yay, I can now identify a shorebird.

The Kansas Wetlands Education Center provides an impressive introduction to Cheyenne Bottoms. The value and benefits of wetlands are explained and a timeline tells about changes to Cheyenne Bottoms over the years.

The center has samples of bird eggs and nests and general information – including this fascinating fact: “At night, the birds navigate using the stars and earth’s magnetic field. By sensing the magnetic fields, birds detect north and orient their direction of flight to the patterns of the stars.”

Isn’t that incredible?

Cheyenne Bottoms is along the Wetlands and Wildlife National Scenic Byway, which is also one of the nine state byways in Kansas.

This particular byway has produced a helpful (and free) traveling brochure and a CD to listen to as you drive the 77-mile route.

As we puttered along the causeways, watching ducks bob on the waves, seeing a flock take off in massive flight, we listened to the CD and heard local experts and residents speak about migrating birds, bloodworms, conservation, and the splendor of Cheyenne Bottoms.

Carl Grover, a hunter, told about sitting in the cattails with his son one day when a muskrat swam up and groomed itself, just three feet away. “That made the day,” Grover said. “It didn’t matter if we didn’t shoot a duck, didn’t matter if we didn’t see a duck. We were in the marsh; we experienced what goes on out there.”

Bob Matthews, Chief of Information and Education with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, put into words what I was experiencing that day. “Until you get to know somebody,” he said, “they’re just a stranger. But once you get to know them, you find out all these things about them that are intriguing and fascinating, and things that you would never have known otherwise without personal interaction with that person.

“It’s sort of like that when you go out on the marsh… and you encounter an individual bird or an individual critter and maybe you’ve seen a picture of it before but have never seen it in person… and all of the sudden you have a little more common ground there with that critter, a little more interest, a little more appreciation for it, and a little more commitment to it as well.”

Yes, absolutely. I gained some knowledge of the wetlands, and I can now identify the American avocet and several other winged creatures. By discovering that birds use stars and magnetic fields to navigate, by learning just how much these migrating birds depend on Cheyenne Bottoms for their survival, I get it. I do have more interest, more appreciation, and more commitment to the wetlands and to Cheyenne Bottoms.

For more information, go to www.kansaswetlandsandwildlifescenicbyway.com.

Copyright 2010 ~ Cheryl Unruh

The KWEC’s curved backside with a man-made pool for birdwatching.  Brent Bowman (a Pawnee Rock native), of Bowman, Bowman, Novak in Manhattan, was the architect for the center.