On this bright, crisp morning, I headed down to Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area on the Missouri River floodplain. Near the entrance, a barred owl sat on a powerline, a potential omen that birding would be productive at the refuge.
Alas, an armada of tractors and trucks was harvesting the corn crop and initial sightings were limited to turkey vultures, great blue herons, killdeer, eastern bluebirds, red-winged blackbirds and a lone bald eagle. Further south however, away from the human activity, birds were more numerous, including flocks of American coot and blue-winged teal; a few pied billed grebes and double-crested cormorants were also observed and great egrets fed with the more numerous great blue herons.
Scattered flocks of American white pelicans also graced southern portions of the refuge, lounging on sandbars or moving between the lakes and pools. Just before I left, the pelicans began to congregate on a single, elongated pool, apparently drawn by fishing activity of the first group to arrive. Within ten minutes or so, several hundred pelicans were crowding the pool, ducking their bills to scoop up prey and driving competitors (egrets and herons) from the shallows. The intense activity died down as rapidly as it developed and the pelicans dispersed across the refuge; soon they'll be joining their brown cousins on saltwater bays along the Gulf Coast, from Florida to Texas.
