Cimarron National Grasslands

A windmill on the background of the yucca and sage steppe of the Cimarron National Grasslands.


An American Kestrel perches on a yucca stalk. I made the trip to these national grasslands Tuesday afternoon. I had a couple hours to spend before sundown, which is no where near enough time to bird/explore the area in the way it deserves. CNG is in the extreme southwest corner of Kansas, abutting Colorado and Oklahoma. This area was very hard hit during the dust bowl, after which, the government started buying the devastated land and setting it aside for conservation. Now it is one area of short-grass prairie and steppe that has some natural character in the area.


A Badger looks up from his business in a wheat field. He wasn't sure what to make of me, and kept smelling the air, before waddling off and continuing his hunt.


Another windmill in the distance obscured by heat distortion. I know it is an old effect, but I love the impressionist painting look it has.


I decided that my goal at CNG was going to be the Lesser Prairie Chicken lek. I couldn't work out any way to visit the lek in the morning, so evening was going to have to do. The National Forest Service had set up a blind, and the log book had been reporting at least a couple Lesser Prairie Chicken displaying for the last couple mornings. I hiked/birded around for a couple hours before the sun got low. The birds were occasionally supposed to display on the lek in the evening, approximately one hour before sunset. Sunset happened to be about 8:20 central time. A very nice British couple and I got in the blind a little before seven o'clock. The weather was warm (mid 50's) and sunny, but the wind was brisk. I appreciated the windbreak of the blind. We kept our eyes and ears peeled, but the prairie chickens never showed. It was by far an unpleasant time, though. There was a prairie dog town with a pair of Burrowing Owls on guard. A Kestrel was hunting the steppe. Western Meadowlarks and Horned Larks (pictured above) sang to us. Jackrabbits and White-tailed Deer wandered past.


Slowly, the sun set, and I had to leave. Almost as soon as the sun dipped below the cloud layer on the horizon, a pack of coyotes just over the hill broke out into chorus of yaps and howls. It was quite a magical experience. I hope the Lesser Prairie Chickens can hold on against the coyotes and habitat destruction. If I ever get the chance again, I'll have to come back and try again, and look for the other specialties there like Scaled Quail, Mountain Plover, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Curve-billed Thrasher, Black-headed Grosbeak, Cassin's Sparrow, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Clay-colored Sparrow, McCown's Longspur, and Chestnut-collared Longspur.

Great Basin Birds

Red-breasted Nuthatches were very common and friendly in the forest above 10,000 feet on Sunday morning. Several landed right next to me as they passed through the area feeding.

Yellow-headed Blackbirds got to Comins Lake just a little before I did this year. Here the sunset lights up a male near the lake.

Bushtits act like and hang out with Ruby-crowned Kinglets, combing the shrubs along Cleve Creek. It is very hard to get one to sit still for a photo.

Nestling Horned Larks beg for food out in the valley.

Again this year I spotted an Osprey in Spring Valley. Must be passing on through...

A Pied-billed Grebe patrols his part of the marsh at Comins Lake.

Marsh Wrens will sing incessantly from deep inside the bulrushes. This guy stepped out into the open for a brief second.

Western Meadowlarks didn't seem to prefer the open valley, instead they were usually on the edge of the valley where there were scattered trees.

Great Basin Birds part 1

Here is an assorted collection of bird photos from my travels in Nevada (and just across the border in Utah).

Ruby-crowned Kinglet
I hold kinglet pictures to a different standard than other bird pictures. Kinglets are shy, but they never sit still on an exposed perch. I was very happy to get one that actually captured its ruby crown.

Horned Lark
Horned Larks might be the most common bird in the valley right now. They certainly had that distinction in March and April. Now Brewer's Sparrows might have edged them out. This lark posed for me with the mountains for a backdrop.

Western Kingbird
This guy was sitting on the fence that marked the border between Nevada and Utah. I still haven't seen a kingbird entirely in Nevada. There were several in Garrison, UT, on the way back.

Western Grebe
I managed to get pretty close to a flotilla of grebes on Pruess Lake, south of Garrison, UT.

Long-billed Curlew
This was one bird species I really wanted to see while out in Nevada. One flew overhead on my first trip out, but I did not get good looks until this trip. Many were feeding in a cattle pasture near Ruby Lake. This lone bird was feeding in an upland field just outside of the national park.

Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs

I rode my bike today out near the airport to see a flock of Snow Buntings. I found a large flock, where it had been reported, along 500N, just west of 700W. It was a large flock in a no-till corn field. They had a remarkable knack for blending into the cornhusks and snow (last photo). Then I found another flock at the corner of 500N & 500W (top two photos). This flock had Horned Larks and some Lapland Longspurs mixed in (middle photo). This is the first time that I had seen this lovely birds near home. It would be great to see them in breeding plumage sometime.

Horned Lark

Horned Larks are amazing birds that spend all winter with us, are very common, sing a beautiful song (one of my favorites), are distinctively marked, and manage to live completely unnoticed. They are a member of the true lark family, unlike the meadowlark, a member of the blackbird family. The top photo gives an explanation for why they are overlooked. They are almost impossible to pick out in corn or soybean stubble. They spend almost all their time in agricultural fields and rarely perch on an exposed spot. You can see their "horns" in the bottom photo.