Today, a friend and I visited Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area during the two-hour window when duck hunters are required to take a break and when birders are free to hunt for waterfowl and other avian species with their binoculars. As it turned out, on this cloudy, cool, damp afternoon, there were few hunters or birders at the refuge.
We did see more than 4000 individual birds during our one hour visit but almost all of them were mallards, American coot or red-winged blackbirds. A few great blue herons stalked the shallows and a small number of gadwall and pied-billed grebes joined the coot and mallards. Of most interest were the raptors, represented by an immature bald eagle, three red-tailed hawks, a sharp-shinned hawk and a rough-legged hawk; the latter buteo is a common winter resident on the High Plains but not often encountered here in central Missouri.
We had hoped to see migrant snow geese and greater white-fronted geese during our visit to the Missouri River floodplain but none were observed. It seems that their autumn journey through this region is later each year, just another sign that our climate is warming.
