Toddler Tour Guide by Kinley Marie

Hello! It's Kinley Marie again - your tour guide for toddler activities in South Central Kansas. Yesterday, I told you about our trip to a pumpkin patch.

Today, we move on to the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, which is only a few miles from my Grandma and Grandpa Fritzemeier's house. We followed the arrows to the Quivira headquarters.

The Quivira National Wildlife Refuge consists of 22,135 acres in Stafford, Rice and Reno Counties. I am working on counting, but I can't count that high.

Once inside the headquarters building, I was greeted by some rather large birds. I figured if I didn't look at the turkey, maybe he wouldn't look at me either.

The place was a little confusing. they told me not to touch the sandhill crane.

And then Grandpa told me I could touch a bunch of other stuff, like a deer skeleton and some furs.

I hear that it's almost time for the whooping cranes to come through Quivira. They must not have known I was coming or they would have made it a point to be there when I was. But, even though I didn't meet any whooping cranes in person, I discovered they are taller than me. So maybe it's just as well that our visits didn't coincide.(I guess Grandpa would have protected me, though, since he is taller than a whooping crane.)

Even though I couldn't meet any whooping cranes in person, I could hear how they sounded. I pushed the buttons a lot of times. I did NOT like how the bullfrogs sounded. But I kept pushing the button so I could run away.

Grandpa helped me find the pelicans out on the marsh. I watched some fly away.

We didn't drive around the refuge this time. It was kind of cold and windy, and I probably couldn't have seen much from the backseat anyway. It will give me something to do the next time I'm at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Until next time,
Kinley Marie