It did not look or feel like spring at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area this morning. Snow covered the fields, ice coated most of the pools and the temperature stood at 28 degrees F.
A good diversity of waterfowl huddled on the ice or plied the open waters, including tundra swans, ring-necked ducks, gadwalls and a lone hooded merganser and common goldeneye (among more common species). Raptors were represented by two bald eagles and a red-shouldered hawk and at least 200 ring-billed gulls graced the refuge.
Then, just before I left the floodplain preserve, a noisy flock of snow geese passed overhead, flying north through the Missouri River Valley. Among the earliest signs of spring in the American Heartland, these hardy migrants are always a welcome sight in late winter as they begin their trek to the Arctic tundra.
A good diversity of waterfowl huddled on the ice or plied the open waters, including tundra swans, ring-necked ducks, gadwalls and a lone hooded merganser and common goldeneye (among more common species). Raptors were represented by two bald eagles and a red-shouldered hawk and at least 200 ring-billed gulls graced the refuge.
Then, just before I left the floodplain preserve, a noisy flock of snow geese passed overhead, flying north through the Missouri River Valley. Among the earliest signs of spring in the American Heartland, these hardy migrants are always a welcome sight in late winter as they begin their trek to the Arctic tundra.
