Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge

Transcription

Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Kansas is a little like the credits at the end of a movie: few bother to look. Mostly due to its out-of-the-way location on highway 9 near Phillipsburg, it’s not a place that travelers casually pass. But it is a wildlife treasure in the state of Kansas, nearly 11,000 acres, that harbors an abundance of upland birds, deer, and waterfowl. Especially for Canada geese, Kirwin is a primary stopover. That has earned it the traditional reputation of “G oose capital of Kansas” even though snows and whitefronts, migrating from the Canadian prairie regions more northerly of Kansas, reach greater numbers farther east. Craig Mowry is a Kansas-born native who manages Kirwin for the USFWS. He tells about this unique public land: “The refuge was established in 1954, prior to the reservoir being built. And it was established as a refuge for migratory birds with an emphasis on waterfowl. We’ve got over 234 types of migratory birds that come through the refuge. Right now, it’s in the fall of the year, and we’ve got a lot of ducks in the refuge – over 150,000. We’ve got well over 60,000 Canada geese, and 65,000 or more snow geese. Snow geese is one species that we didn’t use to have a lot of, but over the last five or ten years, they’ve been migrating to the west, and we get quite a few in every year. “The refuge encompasses almost 11,000 acres, it’s got two wooded stream corridors that fill the reservoir, and then of course the reservoir itself, and we’ve got a lot of native prairie on the refuge, so have quite a diverse type of habitat here on the refuge. “The refuge is also known for good-quality whitetail deer, with several of them being in the state record books. We get quite a few birds that move through the area in the spring and fall on their north-south migration, with quite a few shorebirds, grassland birds, and neo-tropical migrants also coming through the area. “As far as hunting goes, we get hunters coming here to upland bird hunt, to waterfowl hunt, and to archery deer hunt. We have had visitors from 49 of the 50 states. A lot of folks come into the refuge just to look at birds, go look at other wildlife on the refuge. “We also get quite a few of the birders, as I was saying, coming to look at birds such as whooping cranes and white-faced ibis, and a couple of years ago, we had some trumpeter swans come through the area. “We have whoopers here every spring and every fall. Depending on the water levels and the habitat in the reservoir and the surrounding area, that really determines how long they stay. A couple of years ago we had a family of four whooping cranes, a pair with twins, they stayed 28 days, which was the second longest recorded stay for whooping cranes ever in the state of Kansas.” Waterfowl utilize the flooded trees in Kirwin for winter cover, and in good years, several hundred thousand geese and ducks stay in the area. Bald eagles are also common winter residents. Take a drive to the mixed-grass prairie of northwestern Kansas and enjoy the wildlife of this important public land. It’s a credit to our state, and to a conservation ethic that ensures future generations the right to see nature at its finest. I’m Mike Blair for Kansas Wildlife and Parks