Today, for the first time in our RV camping experience, we broke camp in the moonlight. It doesn't get fully light until near 7:30 and we were on the road then. We wanted to get to Kirwin by mid-morning to have a full afternoon of birding at the Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge. We had nice straight roads without wind!!!! Delightful driving. In Kansas the north/south roads are avenues and east/west roads are streets/roads. Most are in north/south, east/west orientation. As we drove to Kirwin, population 171 in 2010 census, we began to see more hills and "mountainous" terrain typical of eastern Colorado and Wyoming.
The campground we finally found after calling the manager is what we would call "primitive" in that it's an open field, but there are four sets of full hook-ups (sewer, water, electric) in a grassy area. There doesn't appear to be any restroom facility which is no problem for us with a toilet and full-sized shower in Jay, our travel trailer. There's a connection for an antenna but we haven't bothered with TV thus far on our trip. Per instructions of the manager, we put our $15 fee in a mailbox on the end of one of the hookup sites! Crime doesn't appear to be a major issue in Kirwin, KS.
We got to Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge about 10:45 and birded for a while until we stopped along the reservoir for a picnic lunch. The ranger told us the water level is so low that they will institute an early closure for boating and fishing on the reservoir. This area of Kansas has definitely not recovered from the severe drought of the past several years and the refuge water is also used for irrigation. The birding was not very good, either. We are early for the most intense migration, but the low water levels are hampering even the early migrators. We did have a great find in the afternoon, however. We saw a bird swoop across and it looked initially like a raptor (hawk), but then it lit and it had ears!! It was a great horned owl which we'd disturbed from its tree perch. Ann got a photo, blurry, of it through the spotting scope!
As we returned to camp, David was fascinated by a farmer moving large round straw bales, four at a time to a roadside station. He thinks the farmer is getting ready for winter. Ann, who grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, couldn't tell him much about the process because such large bales were not made when she was growing up. She remembers rectangular bales of hay bound with twine, which she handled using hooks, slinging them off the baler onto the stack of the wagon behind the baler. Sometimes those bales weighed 75 pounds! (Dave, although a city boy, slung hay bales at his granddad's farm as a teen, Ann now knows. When the dust gets down one's T-shirt, it itches like mad!!)
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| Harvest Moon over Kansas |
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| Campsite at Fort Kirwin Campground. To the left of our rig is a stone building which has a date of Jan 1, 1876!! |
At Kirwin NWR they have the goose supporting their mailbox!
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| Using the spotting scope at the Reservoir of Kirwin NWR |
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| Great horned owl through the spotting scope |
parking spots are in the middle of the street, too.
Dusty job placing straw bales all in a row!
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