Quivera National Wildlife Refuge

More birding today, this time at Quivera National Wildlife Refuge.  Like Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands, which we visited yesterday, QNWR is one of the top 500 birding spots in the world.  You wouldn't ordinarily think of Kansas as having wetlands, but in reality this area was once an ocean.  While Cheyenne Bottoms is a freshwater wetland, QNWR is a saltwater wetland.  We wondered how you could have a saline wetland so far from the ocean, but saw an explanation which we hope the photo will explain.  If not, comment and we'll tell you in another blog!

This was actually the second time we'd been to QNWR.  The first time was on September 18, 1999 when we had a free day in our deputation schedule for the Division of Overseas Ministries.  Kansas was our Global Mission Partner; so, we came to Kansas to talk after completing our first term as missionaries.  There were birders in the Park Place Christian Church in Hutchinson, KS where we'd given a talk.  The birders offered to take us to QNWR.  You wonder how do we know this.  Well, it's because we make a notation in our bird guidebook where and when we see a bird for the first time (a lifer).  There are many notations from that first visit and today we logged another lifer!!!

In our blog yesterday, we listed sights of the countryside.  But we left out one---oil wells.  They dot the fields and waft petroleum smell in the air all over central Kansas.  Today we saw a well and its nearby storage tank painted orange, almost camouflaged by the sorghum field!  We mused if there was a Big Orange (U of TN) fan here, but it's more likely the company which drills uses orange, rather than the black of most of them, just to be distinctive. 

Tomorrow we head for the town of Kirwin, KS where there is yet another of the top 500 birding spots, the Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge.  Quite a distinction for Kansas to have three top birding spots.  

Our original plan from Great Bend had us going to Colorado Springs, CO, and the Air Force Academy Family Camp and then on to Arches National Park in southern Utah.  As Ann looked for construction along the highways we were traveling, she noted that Colorado DOT had posted a "chains required" notice to truckers traveling I70.  So we adjusted and decided to go north on I25 through Denver to Cheyenne Wyoming and pick up I80 west.  Wellllllll-then the floods happened and parts of I25 were washed away. So we have abandoned Colorado entirely for this trip.