Kansas and western Missouri are astonishingly rich in birdlife.
Located in the very center of the North American continent, the
area is home to most of the eastern bird fauna and many of the
western species, and even hosts occasional visitors from the far
north. Over 400 species of birds have been recorded in Kansas
alone, an abundance that places it among the top five birding
states in the country.
"A Guide to Bird Finding in Kansas and Western Missouri" is a
guide to this rich mosaic of birdlife. Written for both resident
and visiting birders, the book begins with an introduction to the
region's avian diversity and to its eleven major biotic
communities. Illustrated with 17 line drawings by renowned artist
and ornithologist Robert Mengel, A Guide to Bird Finding also
features 26 detailed maps, a checklist of birds of the region, and
an annotated list of "Specialty Species." The book's main focus,
though is on birding tours--75 of them. Meticulously described and
thoroughly "road-tested," these tours lead down paved highways,
dirt roads, and paths, past old cemeteries, around lakes, along
creeks, into cities, and out onto the prairie, winding through the
birding hotspots of Kansas and western Missouri.
With this new guide in hand, birders can tailor their
expeditions to focus on the big picture, taking advantage of all
the birding possibilities a particular location has to offer, or
the small picture, searching out one or two especially challenging
species. Zimmerman and Patti have provided information on road
conditions and tour routes, and have also zeroed in on a few
birding surprises--like Bobolinks next to saline marshes in central
Kansas.
Among the many birding possibilities the book suggests are: a
trip to the tallgrass prairie of the Flint Hills where Greater
Prairie-chickens and Henslow's Sparrows can be seen; a tour of the
Cimarron National Grassland, the best place in the U.S, to see
Lesser Prairie-chickens; a tour of Missouri's Squaw Creek National
Wildlife Refuge, the spectacular staging area for over 500,000
geese and other waterfowl; and a trip to Quivira National Wildlife
Refuge and Cheyenne Bottoms, internationally significant wetlands
that are an essential migration stopover for hundreds of species,
particularly waterfowl and shorebirds, and even Whooping
Cranes.
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