Kansas 1

I'm staying in Cottonwood Falls, KS tonight, en route to meet my friend Mike Rich tomorrow.  Mike is the manager of the Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge.  He and I worked together in Iowa in 2001 and 2002.  Just north of Cottonwood Falls is the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.  Notice the word "National" in the title this time.  The land is mostly owned by TNC, but is managed by the National Park Service.  I took a late afternoon walk around the TPNP and saw some good stuff.  I saw a bigger variety of birds than I saw in OK.  I heard Henslow's and grasshopper sparrows, saw upland sandpipers and common nighthawks displaying, and I even heard a barred owl calling.  I also saw some cool herps - an ornate box turtle (I think), an eastern collared lizard, and a texas horned lizard (see the Kansas Herpetofaunal Atlas for more detail about all three http://webcat.fhsu.edu/ksfauna/herps/index.asp).