More from Quivira National Wildlife Refuge
Continuing Our Visit…
In a previous post, we shared some of the natural beauty that we enjoyed at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in Kansas. Here are some more photos, picking up where that last post left off.
If you have been a Burnsland reader for a while, you will know that I seem to like photos of wooden boardwalks like this one. For whatever reason, we keep running into them in different places. So add this one to the collection. This particular boardwalk took us over one of the wetland marsh areas. I like how the grassy plants grew right up next to the boardwalk here.
I also enjoy wilderness pathways like this one, although these kinds of photos do not show up quite as frequently as the boardwalk photos do. But our idea of a good day is wandering along a path like this one, seeing what there is to be seen wherever we are. However, this was near the end of this path. After this, we got into our car and drove to our next destination inside Quivira National Wildlife Refuge.
Where the Birds Are
Our next stop on our visit was to the Little Salt Marsh, which as you can see is a pretty big salt marsh. What you can’t see in this photo was the flock of birds that was resting in the water some distance away from us. But after they had rested for a while, the birds decided it was time to get up and do something…
The birds started circling in a very large group. And their circle was moving as it circled. They eventually were directly above us, circling all around. They were still a good distance above us, but we had an excellent view of them as they flew. I could be mistaken, but I believe these were some sort of gull, perhaps Franklin’s gull.
After most of the birds had flown on, Laura walked out to the edge of the water, and there she made a friend of the bird variety. This bird ran all around on the shallow water, but he did not seem to be afraid of us. He did not come right up to us, but he did not get too far away, either.
While we were there, I thought that this was a good place for a photo of Laura, so here she is. And her bird friend is still out there, just a little to her left, your right. He was still enjoying himself by running around in the shallow water out there.
There was a bird blind near the Little Salt Marsh, and here my Dad checks it out. Plus, you can also see my Mom in the background. We did not take an official family photo while we were there for whatever reason, but this does show that they were there with us.
Ending at the Beginning
And with that, we concluded our visit to Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. Yes, we saw this sign when we were leaving, as we drove past the welcome center. As it turns out, we might have gone through the whole thing backwards, which perfectly suits our style. And anyway, the visitor center was closed, so starting there would not have done us much good anyway. But thanks to our phones and their website, as well as signs with maps, we always knew where we were, so we were good.
Quivira was a fun place to visit and explore a little bit of God’s creation!
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” - Revelation 4:11
About the Photos
As with the previous Quivira photos, these did not take much work besides some brightening and some slight color correction and saturation. Otherwise, the natural beauty speaks for itself. I tried not to get in the way of it.
Photo: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Luminar AI. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS Lens
Date: October 4, 2021
Location: Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, Kansas
