Last week, I posted images from Capulin Volcano in New Mexico. The day before, I stopped for some birds in Kansas and Oklahoma. The first was Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve which is owned by the Nature Conservancy and is adjacent to lands managed by the Kansas Department of Wildlife & Ducks and the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge. The preserve was filled with shorebirds on their way down to Texas, perhaps visiting spots I saw last winter.
A favorite band in college was Kansas. From their song Cheyenne Anthem:
From the mountains to the sun, life has only just begun
We wed this land and pledge our souls to meet its end
Life has only just begun
Here my people roam the earth in the kingdom of our birth
Egrets and Herons, Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve, Kansas
. . . .
You have come to move me, take me from my ancient home
Land of my fathers, I can’t leave you now
We will share it with you, no man owns this earth we’re on
. . .
Lord, let me stay under the endless sky and the earth below.
Kansas, Cheyenne Anthem (When our oldest went to college, for a while I had his ringtone play another song from that album: Wayward Son.)
After stopping for some more birdwatching at Cimmaron National Wildlife Refuge also in Kansas, I headed into Oklahoma to camp at Black Kettle National Grasslands.
Say’s Phoebe
This little fellow would fly down into the grass to catch insects and return to his perch, but was too fast to get a picture of while eating. He was next to where I camped outside the small (pop. 77) town of Felt, Oklahoma near where OK, TX and NM meet. The National Grassland is named after Southern Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle.
On earlier on a trip to this area, I visited two national monuments connected with Chief Black Kettle. In November 1864, Black Kettle’s peaceful village at Sand Creek in Colorado was attacked by the 3rd Colorado Volunteer Cavalry and over 150 Cheyenne men, women and children were murdered. Black Kettle rescued his wife Medicine Woman Later who had been shot nine times. Inspired by my visit to Sand Creek National Historic Site, I posted some images with a poem by Cheyenne writer Suzan Shown Harjo.
Another sobering spot is Washita Battlefield National Historic Site a bit further east in Oklahoma. In 1868 Black Kettle returned to his village after an unsuccessful petition of peace to an Army post commander. The next day, another massacre killed both Black Kettle and Medicine Woman Later. Their spirits still fly there. I previously posted a bird singing at that site.
Northern Harrier
A larger bird that would also fly down into the grass for prey by the campsite was the magnificent Northern Harrier.
You have come to move me, take me from my ancient home
Land of my fathers, I can’t leave you now
We will share it with you, no man owns this earth we’re on
. . .
Lord, let me stay under the endless sky and the earth below.
