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Cheyenne Bottoms Christmas Bird Count Results
new vlc  courtesy Snow-Geese-vs-Rosss-Goose by birdspix
Over 65,000 geese, most of which were snow geese, were counted during the Dec. 29th Christmas Bird Count at Cheyenne Bottoms. - photo by Courtesy birdspix

Dec 29, 2014
Cheyenne Bottoms Christmas Bird Count


87 species
Greater White-fronted Goose  251
Snow Goose  63,000
Ross’s Goose  3
Cackling Goose  383
Canada Goose  2,052
Tundra Swann  4
Wood Duck  1     
Gadwall 2
American Wigeon  10
Mallard  3,128
Blue-winged Teal  3
Northern Shoveler  18
Northern Pintail  463
Green-winged Teal  36
Canvasback  3
Redhead  84
Ring-necked Duck  11
Bufflehead  24
Common Goldeneye  69
Hooded Merganser  5
Common Merganser 2
Ruddy Duck  2
Ring-necked Pheasant  28
Wild Turkey  23
Pied-billed Grebe  3
Great Blue Heron  13
Black-crowned Night Heron 2
Bald Eagle  57
Northern Harrier  80    
Cooper’s Hawk  2
Red-tailed Hawk  98
Ferruginous Hawk  2
Rough-legged Hawk  8
American Coot  31
Ring-billed Gull  94
Herring Gull  28
Rock Pigeon  80
Eurasian Collared-Dove  131
White-winged Dove  8
Mourning Dove 8
Barn Owl  14
Great Horned Owl  2
Red-bellied Woodpecker  11
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  1
Downy Woodpecker  9
Hairy Woodpecker  4
Northern Flicker  63
American Kestrel  9
Peregrine Falcon  2
Prairie Falcon  2
Loggerhead Shrike  2
Blue Jay  8
American Crow  1
Horned Lark  477
Black-capped Chickadee  1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 4
White-breasted Nuthatch  15     
Brown Creeper  2
Winter Wren  2
Marsh Wren  1
Carolina Wren  4
Golden-crowned Kinglet  3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
Eastern Bluebird  7
American Robin  112
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling  1,620
Cedar Waxwing  15
Lapland Longspur  83
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Spotted Towhee  2
American Tree Sparrow  347
Field Sparrow  3
Song Sparrow  13
Lincoln’s Sparrow  1
Swamp Sparrow 1
Harris’s Sparrow  117
White-crowned Sparrow  4
Dark-eyed Junco  217
Northern Cardinal  14
Red-winged Blackbird  100,471
Western Meadowlark  44
Meadowlark sp.  429
Common Grackle 9
Great-tailed Grackle 100
House Finch  25
Pine Siskin  8
American Goldfinch  79
House Sparrow  368

Nineteen observers conducted the Cheyenne Bottoms CBC on Monday, December 29th.  A chilly but clear and still morning provided good birding conditions; however, a weather front came in early in the afternoon, which brought falling temperatures and wind making conditions less than favorable.  Much of Cheyenne Bottoms’s pools had open water providing good conditions for viewing waterfowl. The Cheyenne Bottoms Christmas Bird Count encompasses a 15-mile diameter count circle that includes Cheyenne Bottoms as well as other parts of Barton County, including parts of Great Bend, Hoisington, and Ellinwood.  Participants were divided into small groups and assigned a certain section of the count circle to identify and count as many birds as could be found.
In all, we tallied 87 species and a total of 203,246 individuals with the following notes of interest:   over 65,000 geese (most of which were Snow Geese), 4 Tundra Swans, 15 duck species (most of which were Mallards), 28 Ring-necked Pheasants, 13 Great Blue Herons, 57 Bald Eagles (which is an all-time high count for the Cheyenne Bottoms CBC), 80 Northern Harriers, 98 Red-tailed Hawks, 2 Ferruginous Hawks, 8 White-winged Doves, 14 Barn Owls, 63 Northern Flickers (which is the 2nd most recorded on this count), 15 White-breasted Nuthatches, 2 Winter Wrens, 1 Marsh Wren, 4 Carolina Wrens, 347 American Tree Sparrows, as well as 8 other Sparrow species, 473 Meadowlarks, and over 100,000 Red-winged Blackbirds.