Long-billed spiderhunter

Transcription

When the topic of shorebird migration comes up, a listing of famous Kansas marshes won’t be far behind. Cheyenne Bottoms, Quivira and Kirwin NWRs are well-known as stopovers for spring migrating shorebirds. Here, the birds feed heavily and put on fat for nesting season soon to follow. And birders from all over North America come to witness this annual event. But Kansas has another spectacular shorebird stopover in a most unexpected place – the sandhills alfalfa fields of Kearny and Finney counties near Deerfield. And this time, its star is the largest of all shorebirds, the long-billed curlew. Water is seldom involved: this is a dryland event where curlews travel short distances between cropfield roosting and feeding areas. A long-billed curlew, as its name implies, is striking because of a long, curved beak used to probe for food. Irrigated alfalfa, with moist sandy soil is an ideal feeding site as the birds probe deeply for earthworms. According to local farmers, they also feed heavily on alfalfa cutworms, offering welcome biological control for these pests. The curlew diet includes all kinds of invertebrates and insects found in the sandhills prairie and surrounding crops. They also eat small amphibians and vertebrate animals. And special nerves in their bill tips help them to find food items beneath the soil surface. One reason the spring Kansas curlew stopover is noteworthy is the rarity of the birds themselves. Only 15,000 to 20,000 long-billed curlews are thought to exist. The Great Plains population, which includes the Kansas birds, is a much smaller subset. And during the migration here, which lasts from the last week of March through mid-April, up to 20 percent of all long-billed curlews stop at the Kansas site. Recently, up to 1800 curlews have been observed there in one day. When they travel on, the Great Plains birds nest in the prairie lands of Montana and the Dakotas. Other long-billed curlews breed farther west. The Kansas population winters on the gulf coast of Texas. Curlews are perfectly camouflaged to nest in prairie grasslands. They fly in obtuse Vs when feeding and migrating. Usually, they fly in groups of only a few to several hundred. Though migration peak has just occurred, curlews should be visible for the next several weeks in western Kansas. Seeing them is a special thrill in the Kansas Outdoors. I’m Mike Blair for KDWPT.