Mid April is a great time to visit Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area, southwest of Columbia. Stretching across the Missouri River Floodplain, this refuge harbors one of the best wetland complexes in the State.
This morning, a lone coyote loped across the entry road, portending another interesting visit to the preserve. American coot, northern shovelers and blue winged teal were abundant, favoring the lake margins, sloughs and flooded fields. Joining them were small flocks of gadwall, green-winged teal and wood ducks. About 200 white pelicans had stopped to rest and feed at the refuge and a large number of double-crested cormorants fished on the open waters or perched on dead cottonwoods that line the larger lakes. Great blue herons stalked the shallows, where muskrat moved among their dens. Noisy as ever, Canada geese had paired off and were nesting along the shorelines.
Hiking atop a levee, I found an excellent variety of songbirds in the adjacent bottomland forest. House wrens and blue-gray gnatcatchers had returned for the summer and yellow-rumped warblers had not yet departed for the north. The loud calls of flickers and red-bellied woodpeckers rang through the woodland, where the usual mix of chickadees, titmice, downies, cardinals and goldfinches hunted for seeds and insects. Tree and cliff swallows swooped along the channels and belted kingfishers surveyed the waters from overhanging limbs.
But the highlight of this morning were the mink. I saw several of these reclusive hunters as they crossed the levees in search of prey; primarily nocturnal, they remained active on this cool, cloudy morning, perhaps necessitated by a litter of kits in the den (their young are usually born in April). Unlike otters, mink are solitary creatures and are known to be aggressive hunters; they feed primarily on mice, frogs, muskrat, fish and waterfowl.
