The fall migration is one of the best times for the Bottoms. New birds are arriving in droves! The white-faced ibis are so striking with their huge beak, the avocets are really washed out and pale as opposed to the spring when their colors are so vibrant. The yellow legs are busy working the shallow water. Ducks of different varieties are showing up. 

Kenny Smith, who hunts at the Miller Duck Club out by the Bottoms, saw some pin-tails along with some white-fronted geese. I haven’t seen any Whooping Cranes or sandhills, but I know they are coming! The back-headed Franklin gulls are just beautiful. It is a special time in our marsh.

I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of the Accione solar panel folks on Tuesday. We had a very productive visit and they were impressed with our marsh. Curtis Wolf at Kansas Wetlands Education Center gave a formidable tour of the facility and explained the geology and geography of the Bottoms. They also got to meet Kim on her way to work digging with that huge machine. It was a very good meeting.  

The weather is changing. It will probably freeze this next week. I have to take out my cucumbers and tomato plants and get ready for spring planting. I grew some different cucumbers this year and they were really good. I will try another type next year. Armenian and Lime Crisp were this years all-stars. I’m getting a round, lemon cucumber next year. Fun to try new stuff!!

Deer season is also upon us. As expected, one of the Prosser boys got a huge buck—his mom will have to work some to beat this one. She usually does just that. We all cheer for her!!!

One of my department chairs at the Osteopathic College in Wichita where I teach most Wednesdays and Thursdays with Dr. Robin Durrett and some other awesome folks drive up from east Texas each week to run our department. She is “off-the-chart” smart and amazed me when she wanted deer meat to make a kosher soup and she cans it. I’m putting up a pop-up this weekend to try to fill her order. Can’t wait to try that soup! 

I hope we get some rain pretty soon. It is getting dry again. It is getting hard to find snipe to hunt. They like a little more water than we have in most places.

This is my time of year! The weather is changing, and there will be frost on the pumpkins before very long.

I love this fall light for photography—slanted and beautiful. Hope it kills off some mosquitoes pretty soon!

Go to the Bottoms and see these birds! They are amazing!

Doc

Doctor Dan Witt is a retired physician and nature enthusiast. He can be reached at danwitt01@gmail.com.