What to look for in nature in Kansas this April

April is when Kansas fills with birds. Shorebirds and pelicans crowd the pools at Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira, and the wetland staff expect the shorebird push to crest by the closing days of the month. Hummingbirds, hawks and the first warblers come in behind them, toads and cricket frogs start to sing after warm rains, and wild blue phlox, camas and prairie violets open in the east. The last of the Flint Hills burns blacken pastures that green up within weeks, bison calves arrive, and the last spring freeze falls in April at six of our seven stations. Days stretch by more than an hour, the Pink Moon rises full on the 20th, and tornado season picks up. A warm or cold spring can shift any bird or bloom by weeks, so each date here is a typical window tied to a named source.

Updated October 7, 2026. From Amphibian Publishing, a small press run by an atmospheric scientist with a PhD and a geographer and cartographer with a master’s in GIS. Dates are typical windows from the sources listed at the end; any one year runs early or late. How these pages are made.

Other months in Kansas: October, November, December, January, February, March.

Two Hudsonian godwits with long, slightly upturned bills standing in shallow water among long-billed dowitchers — Hudsonian godwits resting in a shallow pool with dowitchers at a Missouri bird sanctuary on April 30, the same kind of stopover these birds make at Cheyenne Bottoms. Photo: Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren, CC BY 2.0.

Start here

Daily field log plate from the Naturalist’s Field Journal, with lines for time, place, weather, what I saw today, a surprising thing, a question I have, and a sketch

Spend a morning at a shallow pool. Pick a day in the last two weeks of April, drive the roads around Cheyenne Bottoms or the auto tour at Quivira, and scan the muddy edges with binoculars for long-billed godwits, avocets and a dozen small sandpipers. Water level decides where the birds stand, so check the wetland center’s latest sightings post first.
Listen for a toad after a warm rain. On a mild evening after a soaking rain, stand beside a floodplain slough or a ditch full of water and listen for a long, low, nasal wail. That is a male Woodhouse’s toad, and the Kansas Herpetofaunal Atlas welcomes your record.
Find a wildflower on a woodland edge. In the eastern third of the state, walk a creek bank or the edge of the woods and look for clusters of blue wood phlox, with five notched lobes and a pale throat. Note the date of your first bloom and compare it with next year’s.

Write it down. “Birds I have seen” is the plate for every shorebird and the first hummingbird at your feeder, with the date and the pool’s water level. On “a map of sounds,” mark the evening the toads start and the temperature at dusk. “The same place twice” suits a burned pasture visited a week after the fire and again a month later. Following a single serviceberry from bud to leaf fits “a tree through the seasons,” while the “daily field log” can hold your town’s final freeze.

Regions used below: Northwest Kansas and the High Plains; Southwest Kansas; North-central Kansas and the Smoky Hills; Central Kansas and the Great Bend wetlands; South-central Kansas, Wichita and the Red Hills; The Flint Hills; Northeast Kansas, Topeka and Kansas City; Southeast Kansas.

When do shorebirds peak at Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira in April?

Late April is the busiest stretch for shorebirds in central Kansas, and the staff at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center say so in their own sightings posts. Their April 12 post in a recent year said spring migration would typically crest near the month’s end, and another, from April 23, called it “the peak 2-3 weeks of shorebird migration.” The Quivira refuge says shorebirds start showing up as early as February and put on the biggest show by May, especially around the Big Salt Marsh. In the International Shorebird Survey count of 2022, which ran from March 15 to June 15, volunteers and scientists tallied more than 500,000 shorebirds at Cheyenne Bottoms, including more than 30 percent of the whole Hudsonian godwit population. That is a count from one year, not a record, and the numbers swing with water.

Water is the catch. The Bottoms is managed with pools that are filled and drawn down, and drought can leave it nearly dry. In 2023 the wetland staff wrote that Cheyenne Bottoms was dry while Quivira still held water in its salt marshes, and in 2026 they noted that shorebirds were concentrated wherever pools and edges remained. Read the latest post before you drive, and have Quivira as your plan B.

An American avocet with a rusty-orange head and a thin upturned bill wading in shallow water — An American avocet wading at a Minnesota waterfowl production area in late April, a bird the Kansas wetland staff list among the spring arrivals at Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira. Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, public domain.

Hudsonian godwits, Baird’s sandpipers and dowitchers

Late April into early May is the usual peak · Shallow pools and mud at Cheyenne Bottoms

The Manomet scientists who coordinate the survey name these three as the birds that rest and feed on the invertebrates of the marsh before pushing on north. Godwits are large, with long upturned bills and a black-and-white wing pattern in flight; Baird’s sandpipers are small and buffy and often walk along the drier edges.
American avocets and black-necked stilts

Reported by the wetland center in mid April in different years · Pool edges at the Bottoms and the salt marshes at Quivira

Both are tall and easy to recognize: the avocet has a thin, upturned bill and a rusty head in breeding plumage, and the stilt has very long pink legs and a black back. Quivira says avocets, snowy plovers and interior least terns nest on the refuge in spring and summer.
Buff-breasted sandpipers and golden plovers on burned ground

A report from April 23 in one past year counted 110 buff-breasted sandpipers · Recently burned areas in the Bottoms, including one pool’s burned area

The wetland center’s post from that spring placed 110 buff-breasted sandpipers in a burned part of Pool 5 and said American golden plovers were in good numbers on recently burned fields. Fire clears the old cover, and the birds like the open ground. It is a pattern worth checking, not a guarantee.
Snowy plovers

Seen at the Bottoms by mid April in the wetland center’s posts · Salt flats at Quivira and shores at the Bottoms

Quivira lists the western snowy plover as a state-protected species that nests on the refuge. Keep your distance from any bird on the ground, and stay on roads and signed trails.

From April 1 the education center near Great Bend is open six days a week from nine to five, with Sunday afternoon hours of one to five. Quivira’s own page sets its daily visiting window around the Sun, starting well before dawn and ending well after dusk. Last month’s page, March in Kansas, covers the cranes and snow geese that are leaving as these birds arrive.

Which songbirds, hawks and hummingbirds arrive in Kansas in April?

The Kansas Wetlands Education Center says peak spring migration through central Kansas arrives from the last days of April into early May, and a 2024 Wichita public-radio piece gave the same window. Before then the changes are steady rather than sudden. The wetland center’s April 28 post in a recent year said spring migration was approaching its peak, with “first of season” birds arriving often and swallows, warblers, sparrows and orioles on the list, and a post from April 21, 2026 said many early migrants seemed to be two to three weeks ahead of schedule. So treat each date below as a window and watch your own yard.

A female ruby-throated hummingbird hovering at a red feeder with its wings blurred — A ruby-throated hummingbird at a feeder, photographed outside Kansas, the species Kansas birders expect around mid April in the eastern half of the state. Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, public domain.

Warblers and flycatchers

Late April into mid May · Wooded creeks and trails, such as the old landfill and Baker Wetlands in Lawrence

A Lawrence tourism guide says many wood warblers move through from late April to mid May, with Baker Wetlands best for waterfowl and shorebirds in late April and the old landfill best for warblers in May. Wichita Audubon’s Saturday, April 17 backroads trip in Chautauqua County is aimed at early spring warblers and other migrants.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds

Usually mid April in the eastern half of the state · Feeders and flowers in eastern Kansas; rare in the far west

The Kansas Ornithological Society’s secretary, Chuck Otte, told a Topeka television station that he advises waiting until about mid April to put out feeders, and said most hummingbirds stay in the eastern half of the state, with western Kansas near the far edge of their range. For nectar he recommends four parts water to one part plain white sugar, with no dye or honey, and cleaning the feeder every two or three days. Journey North collects hummingbird first-sighting reports if you want to add yours.
Swainson’s hawks and other raptors

Reported in the wetland center’s mid April posts in several years · Open country, fence posts and shelterbelts around the wetlands

The wetland center’s April posts list Swainson’s hawks alongside northern harriers, red-tailed hawks, Cooper’s hawks, bald eagles, kestrels and peregrine falcons. Swainson’s hawks winter far to the south, so a first one is a sign the season has turned.
Burrowing owls on prairie dog towns

Two were reported in the April 23 post of one past year · Prairie dog colonies near the Bottoms

The wetland center noted two burrowing owls on a prairie dog town in that report. Ask at the visitor center where a colony can be viewed from the road, and never walk into a town.

Add each first-of-year bird to your Naturalist’s Field Journal with the date. Our forecast in plain words shows the warm south winds that tend to bring them.

Which frogs and toads call in Kansas in April?

According to the Fort Hays State atlas of Kansas reptiles and amphibians, a rainy night anywhere between February and September can start a chorus among some of Kansas’s 21 frog and toad species, and the singers are all males. In April the chorus shifts from the early peepers and chorus frogs to toads and the species that need warmer water. The atlas accounts below give the ranges of breeding dates that observers have recorded, so use them as guides and listen on the warm, wet nights.

A gray toad with a pale belly sitting on short grass and gravel — A Woodhouse's toad at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills, one of the toads that calls from floodplain pools after warm April rains. Photo: NPS Photo, public domain.

Woodhouse’s toad

Vocal from March through June; one Konza Prairie chorus noted late April through June · Floodplain sloughs and temporary pools across the state except the far southeast

The atlas describes the call as a low, nasal waaaaah, and one Allen County record has a male calling on April 28 when the air was 58 degrees. It lists the toad as common except in the extreme southeast, where Fowler’s toad replaces it.
Great Plains toad

Males can start in late March; breeding goes into early summer · Temporary upland pools in short and mixed-grass prairie, from western Kansas east to the Flint Hills

The atlas says the species spends the day underground and comes out on warm evenings, and that breeding is tied to rain. The best chance for a chorus is a warm night right after a hard rain.
Blanchard’s cricket frog

April to July; warm temperatures are needed to start a chorus · Muddy, sparsely vegetated banks of streams, ponds and reservoirs in the eastern two-thirds of the state

This tiny frog is abundant along streams in the eastern two-thirds of Kansas, according to the atlas. The chorus the atlas recorded at Cheyenne Bottoms ran from May 1 to June 5.
Plains spadefoot

Late April through September, after the first warm, heavy rain · Rain pools on floodplains and open prairie, from western Kansas to the edge of the Flint Hills

The atlas says breeding typically follows at least 3.5 inches of spring rain along with air temperatures of 52 degrees or more. When the rain does come, males chorus loudly in the new pools, often alongside Woodhouse’s toads.

Listening beats looking. Stand still, wait five minutes, and write the temperature and time in a Naturalist’s Field Journal. Our sky cover forecast helps pick a rainy night to try.

What blooms in Kansas in April?

April is the bridge month between the first woodland flowers and the big prairie bloom of May and June. The Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses database lists a bloom period and range for each plant, and the five below all show April. Several of the showiest prairie flowers come later: blue wild indigo and downy paintbrush are listed as May and June bloomers, and prairie phlox starts in May, so April walkers mostly find small, low flowers in the eastern third.

Yellow trumpet-shaped flowers with fringed edges on a low plant growing in dry prairie — Fringed puccoon blooming on dry prairie in North Dakota, a spring wildflower that Kansas lists statewide from April. Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie, public domain.

Blue wood phlox

April and May · Moist, open woods and thickets, principally the eastern third of the state

Clusters of bluish-violet flowers, each with five blunt lobes and a paler throat, rise from soft stems in partial shade. The database places it mostly in the east.
Atlantic camas, or wild hyacinth

April to June · Mesic tallgrass prairies, swales and glades in the eastern third

Pale blue to white flowers with six narrow petal-like parts open along a spike above grassy leaves. Look for it in damp swales and glades of the tallgrass.
Fringed puccoon

April to June · Dry upland prairies, open woods and disturbed sites, found statewide

The yellow trumpet-shaped flowers have fringed edges, and the plant stands only 4 to 16 inches tall. The database notes that the early showy flowers cross-pollinate while later ones are small and self-pollinating, so look for the bright ones in spring.
Prairie violet

April and May · Prairies and open woods in the eastern two-fifths

Its leaves are deeply cut like a bird’s foot, and the violet flowers have white bases with dark veining on the lower three petals, a feature that helps separate it from the common violets.
Downy serviceberry and flowering dogwood

Serviceberry March and April; dogwood March through May · Serviceberry on rocky wooded slopes in the eastern quarter; dogwood only in the southeastern corner

The database lists flowering dogwood in Kansas only from Cherokee County. The database says serviceberry shows white clusters before most trees leaf out, on bluffs and rocky slopes, so an early spring can put it in flower at the start of April and a late one pushes it later.

Pick one shrub and write down the day its buds open, the day the flowers peak and the day the leaves are fully out.

What is happening on the Flint Hills prairie in April?

Three things overlap. The last prescribed burns go on, green-up spreads across the blackened ground, and the first bison calves appear. The National Park Service says early spring burns run from late February through April across the Kansas Flint Hills, and that bison calves drop in late spring, usually April and May. A burned pasture looks like a scar for days and then turns bright green, because, in the park’s words, the sun heats the dark soil and stimulates sleeping plants to sprout.

Two lines of orange flame burning through dry grass toward the horizon under a hazy sky — A prescribed burn at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve on April 4, 2016, the kind of fire that finishes the Flint Hills burning season. Photo: NPS Photo, public domain.

The April burning ban

Every April, in a list of Flint Hills counties · Sixteen counties named in state regulation K.A.R. 28-19-645a, among them Butler, Chase, Geary, Johnson, Riley, Sedgwick, Wabaunsee and Wyandotte

State regulation K.A.R. 28-19-645a, which the Kansas Interactive Fire site (ksfire.org) posts, bans burning of land-clearing debris, crop residue, construction material, firefighter-training burns and yard waste in those 16 counties during April, while burning of prairie and grassland for management and Conservation Reserve Program acres stays allowed, and residential burning at homes with five or fewer dwellings is exempt. A Lenexa city notice for April 2026 also describes the April burn ban as part of the state smoke management plan, and says backyard fire pits are still allowed when used safely. County rules can differ, so check with your county and the state’s smoke site, ksfire.org, before lighting anything.
Birds on burned ground

Mid to late April · Burned pastures and fields near wetlands

Cheyenne Bottoms staff reported buff-breasted sandpipers and golden plovers on burned fields one spring. After the grass is gone, birds can see the ground, and insects are easier to find.
Bison calves

April and May, per the National Park Service · Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve near Strong City and Maxwell Wildlife Refuge near Canton

Maxwell, in the Smoky Hills, describes itself through a state tourism article as home to 200 bison and 60 elk, and a writer who visited in April 2024 saw calves only hours old. Covered, open-air trailer tours put visitors within feet of the animals, and the refuge posts its tram schedule online, so look for the 2027 schedule.
Greater prairie-chickens, late in the season

Cheyenne Bottoms has run dawn lek tours through April in past years · Grassland leks, including the Flint Hills Tallgrass Prairie Preserve near Cassoday

A Great Bend Tribune article described Kansas Wetlands Education Center tours that met before dawn and watched from a trailer blind; it reported room for seven guests, ages 12 and up. Details change, so ask the center. The Nature Conservancy’s Flint Hills preserve, 2,188 acres open from sunrise to sunset, lists greater prairie-chickens and Henslow’s sparrows among its birds.

Keep dogs and children well back from bison, which are wild animals even where they graze beside a trail, and never stand downwind of a burn. Fire and wind forecasts are on our forecast page.

When does the white bass run start in Kansas rivers?

White bass move up rivers above Kansas reservoirs to spawn when the water warms, and anglers and bird watchers alike notice the first run. The state wildlife agency says white bass are known for spawning runs that can carry them miles upriver of a reservoir, and its page gives no calendar. One newspaper account from April 2005 quoted a state fisheries specialist as saying that late April through early May is when anglers should expect the big females, that males move upstream first, and that the run depends on flow: without enough water in the rivers, the fish cannot get upstream. It named Kanopolis, Glen Elder, Perry and Cedar Bluff as the reservoirs with the most white bass. With only one old source behind that timing, use it loosely, and read the state wildlife agency’s current fishing forecast and reports before you head out.

When is the last freeze of spring in Kansas?

For most of the state, April is the month of the last freeze. Across the seven stations in the table, the typical final freeze comes on April 7 at Pittsburg, April 11 or 12 at Wichita and Topeka, April 18 at Concordia and Salina, April 21 at Dodge City and May 2 at Colby. In the earliest tenth of springs, Pittsburg is finished with freezing by March 24, yet in nine springs out of ten Colby is not clear until May 15 and Dodge City until May 4.

The Kansas Mesonet, run from Kansas State University, offers a freeze monitor and a soil-temperature display that you can check for your own county. For your own town, open our Kansas frost page.

Last spring freeze (32 °F), NOAA 1991–2020 normals at the main station. “One year in ten” is the date by which only the earliest tenth of years have had their last freeze; “Nine years in ten” is the date by which nine springs in ten are done with freezing.
Station	One year in ten	Median	Nine years in ten
Colby (northwest)	Apr 20	May 2	May 15
Dodge City (southwest)	Apr 7	Apr 21	May 4
Concordia (north-central)	Apr 3	Apr 18	May 2
Salina (central)	Apr 3	Apr 18	May 1
Wichita (south-central)	Mar 25	Apr 11	Apr 26
Topeka (northeast)	Mar 29	Apr 12	Apr 27
Pittsburg (southeast)	Mar 24	Apr 7	Apr 24

Plant by your town’s date, not the calendar, and keep a sheet or bucket handy for a late cold night.

How warm is a Kansas April, and what weather should you watch?

NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals for the five stations in the table put April afternoons at about 64 degrees at Goodland and Concordia and near 67 to 68.5 at Topeka, Wichita and Dodge City, while nights run from about 35 at Goodland to nearly 45 at Wichita. Precipitation ranges from 1.69 inches at Goodland to 3.81 at Topeka, which makes the northeast the wettest and the northwest the driest. Goodland still averages 3.2 inches of snow in April; elsewhere it is under an inch.

April also begins the heart of Kansas’s severe weather. The National Weather Service in Wichita says Kansas averages 81 tornadoes a year (1994 to 2023), that April through June accounts for about 74 percent of them, and that the peak runs from mid to late April into mid June, mostly between 2 and 10 p.m. A national summary of the state’s climate adds that spring thunderstorms can bring large hail and high winds. Late freezes, flash floods and grass fires on windy days are the other April hazards. The Climate Prediction Center posts new three-month temperature and rain maps once a month, near the middle of the month, on its 90-day outlook page.

April normals, 1991–2020, for five Kansas weather stations, from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (temperatures in °F; precipitation and snowfall in inches)
Station	Average high	Average low	Precipitation	Snowfall
Goodland (northwest)	64.0	34.6	1.69	3.2
Dodge City (southwest)	68.5	40.1	1.99	0.8
Concordia (north-central)	64.9	41.2	2.53	0.4
Wichita (south-central)	68.3	44.8	3.10	0.2
Topeka (northeast)	67.0	43.9	3.81	0.1

When a line of storms is forecast, check radar, know where your shelter is, and compare with our plain-word forecast.

How much daylight does Kansas gain in April?

Days keep growing quickly in April but a little more slowly than in March. Between April 1 and April 30, each city in the table gains between 65 and 70 minutes of sunlight. The clocks have already changed, so in Wichita the sun rises at 7:15 a.m. and sets at 7:52 p.m. CDT on April 1, and rises at 6:35 a.m. and sets at 8:19 p.m. on April 30 (U.S. Naval Observatory). Civil twilight, the bright afterglow, ends at 8:19 p.m. on April 1 and 8:47 p.m. on April 30 in Wichita, and the sky is not truly dark until later. Clocks in the Mountain-time counties of Sherman, Wallace, Greeley and Hamilton read an hour earlier than these.

Day length on April 1 and April 30, 2027, sunrise to sunset (NOAA solar equations, which match the U.S. Naval Observatory)
City	Apr 1	Apr 30	Gained	Per day
Goodland	12 h 40 m	13 h 49 m	69 min	2.4 min
Liberal	12 h 36 m	13 h 41 m	65 min	2.2 min
Hays	12 h 39 m	13 h 48 m	69 min	2.4 min
Salina	12 h 39 m	13 h 48 m	69 min	2.4 min
Wichita	12 h 37 m	13 h 44 m	67 min	2.3 min
Manhattan	12 h 39 m	13 h 49 m	70 min	2.4 min
Overland Park	12 h 39 m	13 h 48 m	69 min	2.4 min
Pittsburg	12 h 36 m	13 h 43 m	67 min	2.3 min

Our daylight calculator gives times for any Kansas town.

What can you see in the Kansas night sky in April?

Times below are Central daylight time; in the four Mountain-time counties subtract an hour. The new Moon on April 6 makes the evenings around then the darkest of the month for faint stars. Saturn lines up behind the Sun that week and cannot be seen until it re-emerges at dawn.

The Pink Moon

Full on Tuesday, April 20 at 5:27 p.m. CDT (4:27 p.m. MDT) · Rising in the east around dusk that evening

SeaSky’s calendar says the name Pink Moon comes from moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which blooms in early spring. The Moon is not actually pink. Full comes in the late afternoon, so the Moon looks full as it rises at dusk that evening and the evening after.
The Lyrid meteors, in a poor year

Predicted peak on the evening of Thursday, April 22, about 8:41 p.m. CDT; active roughly April 14 to 30 · Look toward Lyra, rising in the northeast, in the early evening

The Moon will be about 95 percent lit and comes up in the late evening, about 10 o’clock across most of the country, so just the early hours of darkness are Moon-free. SeaSky says the Lyrids usually produce about 20 meteors an hour at peak; this year, expect a few an hour. The shower can surprise with short bursts, but they are not predictable.
Venus and a thin crescent

Mornings of April 3 and 4 · Low in the east before sunrise

The old crescent Moon sits near brilliant Venus on those mornings, and a clear eastern horizon is a must because Venus climbs only a little ahead of the Sun.
Jupiter and Mars in the evening

The Moon passes Jupiter on the evenings of April 14 and 15; Mars is about 3 degrees from the Moon on April 15 · High in the south after dusk

Jupiter is the bright steady light in the evening sky all month and stays up late. Mars is fainter and orange, and it trails Jupiter, setting after midnight.

Moon phases for April 2027 in Central daylight time, with Mountain time for the four western counties (U.S. Naval Observatory)
Phase	Date	Time
New moon	Tuesday, Apr 6	6:51 p.m. CDT (5:51 p.m. MDT)
First quarter	Tuesday, Apr 13	5:56 p.m. CDT (4:56 p.m. MDT)
Full moon, the Pink Moon	Tuesday, Apr 20	5:27 p.m. CDT (4:27 p.m. MDT)
Last quarter	Wednesday, Apr 28	3:18 p.m. CDT (2:18 p.m. MDT)

Our sky cover forecast shows which nights are clear, and the moon calendar lists moonrise for each date.

What nature events and programs are on in Kansas in April 2027?

Every dated entry here rests on the organizer’s own 2027 listing or on a state law. Storms and mud reschedule outdoor events, so confirm before driving.

Saturday, April 3, 8 a.m.: Chaplin Nature Center bird walk near Arkansas City, a guided stroll that lasts roughly ninety minutes if the weather cooperates, starting at the visitor center (from Wichita Audubon’s 2026 to 2027 schedule).
Saturday, April 10, 8 a.m.: second-Saturday bird walk in Chisholm Creek Park, Wichita. The walk starts in the Great Plains Nature Center parking lot, covers one to two miles of paved path in about 90 minutes, and needs no experience.
Saturday, April 17, 6:30 a.m.: Chautauqua County backroads trip for early spring warblers and other migrants in the Cross Timbers country. Meet at the Dillon’s parking lot at Andover Road and US 400 and carpool (Wichita Audubon).
Tuesday, April 20, 7 p.m.: Wichita Audubon program, “On the Trail to 5,000,” at the zoo’s Cargill Learning Center in Wichita.
Thursday, April 22: Earth Day. The organizer’s site names “Food for Our Planet” as the theme for 2027.
Friday, April 30: Arbor Day in Kansas. State law sets the last Friday in April, and Kansas State University’s news site repeats it.
City Nature Challenge: the organizer’s observation window is April 30 through May 3 for photographing wildlife through iNaturalist, with identifications through May 16. Its page did not show which Kansas cities take part, so look at the challenge’s city list before you plan.
Kansas Wetlands Education Center: summer hours begin April 1 (Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m.). Its sightings posts are the best guide to shorebirds.
Wings and Wetlands Birding Festival: the center says it is held in odd-numbered years, in late April or early May. 2027 is an odd year, but the center’s page showed no 2027 date or plan when this page was written, so call 1-877-243-9268 to ask.
Citizen science: log shorebirds in eBird, frog and toad records in the Kansas Herpetofaunal Atlas, and first sightings of hummingbirds and monarchs with Journey North. Monarch Watch, based at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, runs a tagging program and accepts milkweed seed donations.

Other states and months are listed under nature this month, and March in Kansas has the cranes and the first peepers.

Safety notes for April in Kansas

Spring turkey season: the state wildlife agency’s When to Hunt page lists the 2027 youth and disability segment as April 1 to 13, archery only as April 5 to 13, and the regular season, with firearms or archery, as April 14 to May 31. Legal equipment includes shotguns with shot sizes 2 to 9 and bows; legal shooting time for turkey starts a half hour before sunrise and ends at sunset. The turkey page names no blaze-orange rule, so ask the agency, and expect hunters in the woods from the first day of the month. The agency’s own site refused our automated reading, so we read those dates on an archived copy of the page dated August 14, 2026, where the agency states the rule (youth from April 1, archery from the first Monday after the first Saturday in April, regular season from the second Wednesday after the first Saturday in April through May 31) and the dates for each year. Confirm them on the agency’s site before you go.
Other seasons: hunters of light geese can still use the conservation order, which carries no daily limit, until April 30, 2027. Beaver trapping and the night-vision coyote segment closed on March 31.
Ticks and rabies: the Kansas health and wildlife agencies say the American dog tick, the lone star tick and the blacklegged tick are the ones people meet most. They advise light clothing, repellent with 20 to 30 percent DEET on skin, and permethrin on clothes, never on skin, with a careful check afterward. The same page says skunks and bats are the most common rabies carriers in the state, and that a wild animal acting oddly tame is a warning sign.
Bison, young animals and burns: stay back from bison, especially cows with calves; a fawn or a fledgling alone is usually not abandoned, so leave it where it is. Check your county’s burning rules in April, since a state ban covers a list of Flint Hills counties, and stay away from crews at work.
Storms and water: April afternoons can turn into severe thunderstorms by evening, with the peak hours for tornadoes between 2 and 10 p.m. Creeks that run fast after rain can cut a low-water crossing in minutes, and a flooded road is never worth the gamble.

What to look for in nature in Kansas this April

When do shorebirds peak at Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira in April?

Hudsonian godwits, Baird’s sandpipers and dowitchers

American avocets and black-necked stilts

Buff-breasted sandpipers and golden plovers on burned ground

Snowy plovers

Which songbirds, hawks and hummingbirds arrive in Kansas in April?

Warblers and flycatchers

Ruby-throated hummingbirds

Swainson’s hawks and other raptors

Burrowing owls on prairie dog towns

Which frogs and toads call in Kansas in April?

Woodhouse’s toad

Great Plains toad

Blanchard’s cricket frog

Plains spadefoot

What blooms in Kansas in April?

Blue wood phlox

Atlantic camas, or wild hyacinth

Fringed puccoon

Prairie violet

Downy serviceberry and flowering dogwood

What is happening on the Flint Hills prairie in April?

The April burning ban

Birds on burned ground

Bison calves

Greater prairie-chickens, late in the season

When does the white bass run start in Kansas rivers?

When is the last freeze of spring in Kansas?

How warm is a Kansas April, and what weather should you watch?

How much daylight does Kansas gain in April?

What can you see in the Kansas night sky in April?

The Pink Moon

The Lyrid meteors, in a poor year

Venus and a thin crescent

Jupiter and Mars in the evening

What nature events and programs are on in Kansas in April 2027?

Safety notes for April in Kansas

Sources (62)