Another local park birdwalk was held, led by Kevin Groeneweg and again in Chisholm Creek Park. It was quite cold, but decent numbers of sparrows were seen, including Fox, Savannah, Song, White-throated, American Tree, and Harris's.
The winter birding field trip started at the Sedgwick County Park and then moved on to Oldsquaw lake and Cheney State Park. The most notable find was a Swamp Sparrow at the County park.
Eddie Stegall spotted a juvenile Harris' Hawk just north of Chaplin Nature Center in Cowley County. It stayed into December, so lots of people got to see it.
The speaker for the November program was Mike Everhart, local paleontologist. Mike talked about the prehistoric birds of Kansas and described his adventures finding fossils from the times when Kansas was a shallow inland sea.
This was an exceptionally cold December, so Christmas Bird Counts were a challenge. But all were held as scheduled, and attendance was good. In Wichita, 22 hardy souls braved winds gusting to 50 mph and temperatures that didn't rise above 20 degrees. Eighty-four species were found, including Pied-billed Grebes, Prairie Falcon, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, LeConte's Sparrow and Orange-crowned Warbler.
The Arkansas City Count also found 84 species with 8 observers. The best birds were raptors: a record Red-shouldered Hawk, Ferruginous, Rough-legged, Prairie Falcon, 30 adult Bald Eagles and 27 juveniles.
For the El Dorado Christmas Count 8 observers came up with 59 species, including 15 Greater Prairie Chickens, 15 Rough-legged Hawks, a Yellow-headed Blackbird and a Brown Thrasher.
Wichita members also helped with the Quivira, Winfield, Slate Creek Marsh, and Harvey County Christmas Counts.
A Roadrunner took up residence at the Payless Cashways store on 29th Street North. Many people went to see it, bringing gifts like cat food and mice. Speculation about it's origins included a theory that it had come to town by train.
About thirty people joined Pete Janzen for the Barber County Christmas Count. Eighty-nine total species were seen, for a new record.
Eight people attended the field trip to El Dorado Lake. Birds were hard to find as the lake was frozen solid, but the group did find 2 Barred Owls and 7 White Pelicans.
Lowell Wilder amazed us with another great video program at the January meeting. It was about his experiences with an Earthwatch group in Florida. He helped study Sandhill Cranes for a program trying to establish a nonmigratory flock of Whooping Cranes.
The annual Eagle Watch at Chaplin Nature Center gave many a chance to see several perching and flying eagles and one immature bird.
