BOS Photo Albums
Photo albums submitted by BOS members are below. These albums feature BOS field trips, events, and special bird sightings that our members have seen. We hope you enjoy them! (BOS Members: you'll need to LOGIN, then find the link on your member homepage to add your photos.)
BOS goes to Kansas for Prairie-Chickens - 2026
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Six people joined Alec in traveling to Kansas to bird the prairies and wetlands and join the Audubon of Kansas Lek Treks Weekend. We enjoyed up close and personal encounters with both Lesser and Greater Prairie-Chickens from pop-up blinds set out along the edge of the leks. We based ourselves in Hays, Kansas and birded locations such as Castle Rock, Cheyenne Bottoms WA, Quivira NWR, and Globe Prairie. Our trip total numbered at 111 species and here is a link to the trip report…
https://ebird.org/tripreport/496771
The highlight of the trip was of course the Prairie-Chickens as they displayed on their leks. These leks are mostly located on private property as Kansas land is 98% privately-owned! Employees of Audubon of Kansas get access to these leks by cooperating and guiding landowners who are interested in preserving chickens as part of prairie heritage. The Lesser lek we visited had a male Greater and a hybrid Lesser x Greater Prairie-Chicken present offering great comparisons in sight and sound!
Other avian highlights included Rock Wren, Say’s Phoebe, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Cinnamon Teal, Hudsonian Godwit, Snowy Plover, Swainson’s Hawk, Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Franklin’s Gulls, Upland Sandpiper, and Grasshopper, Harris’s and Lark Sparrows! Enjoy the photos!
Our group at one of the evening programs offered through the festival with the prairie-chicken mascot!
Contributed by: Alec Humann
Castle Rock is an amazing geological anomaly set out in the short grass prairie of western Kansas.
Contributed by: Alec Humann
Group photo op in front of Castle Rock. This is where we saw a very cooperative Rock Wren!
Contributed by: Alec Humann
The Audubon of Kansas official vehicle.
Contributed by: Alec Humann
The beer offerings during Friday’s happy hour. Sandhills Brewing offered free beer tasting during the event.
Contributed by: Alec Humann
Wolf Pond hosts close to 200 Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks. We stopped here on our way to Quivira NWR. Quivira is an inland salt marsh and hosts several unique birds including a breeding colony of Snowy Plovers.
Contributed by: Alec Humann
Resting American Avocets and Long-billed Dowitchers along the Wildlife Drive at Quivira NWR.
Contributed by: Alec Humann
We saw hundreds of Wilson’s Phalaropes at several different locations, including Fossil Lake, which was just about 20 minutes east of Hays. The west side of the lake has nice mud flats where shorebirds drop in throughout the day.
Contributed by: Alec Humann
Peg and Marilyn scanning Cedar Bluffs reservoir.
Contributed by: Alec Humann
Yellow-headed Blackbirds were present at several stops along our birding route in Kansas. The males were on full display!
Contributed by: Alec Humann
We spotted this Gopher Snake on the Wildlife Drive at Cheyenne Bottoms!
Contributed by: Alec Humann
The outer edge of an intense thunderstorm that skirted to our east after dinner at the Blue Moose in Topeka.
Contributed by: Alec Humann
Two male Lesser Prairie-Chickens facing off during the lek displays.
Contributed by: Alec Humann
Three male Lesser Prairie-Chickens trying their hardest to impress this seemingly uninterested female.
Contributed by: Alec Humann
The endangered Lesser Prairie-Chicken delighting us during our 4-hour stay at the lek.
Contributed by: Alec Humann
Looking like a Star Wars saloon attendee, this male Lesser was just wrapping up his performance.
Contributed by: Alec Humann
Observing a lek up close requires pre-dawn arrival, setting up pop-up tents in the dark and then sitting in wait as the dawn arrives and the chickens begin to arrive at the lek.
Contributed by: Alec Humann
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