Blue Goose - Day 284

March 7, 2015 ~ Sikeston, MO

Mingo NWR is 50 miles west and a little north of Sikeston in the Ozark Plateau. The roads were clear enough, the sun was out and the temperature slowly rising.

Mingo has a gorgeous new Visitor Center up the hill from the entrance. The adjacent hiking trails were under several inches of snow, but there were active feeders right outside the refuge windows.

Mingo NWR - MO

The refuge was founded in 1944 "under the authority of the National Migratory Bird Act" and "lies in a basin formed by an ancient channel of the Mississippi River" which is something to think about as the river currently runs a significant distance to the east. In 1964, one-third of the 21,000 acre refuge was designated Wilderness.

After watching Fox, Song and White-throated Sparrows, goldfinches, juncos and cardinals at the feeders, I talked with the staffer at the front desk (a college student who is working at Mingo part-time). She told me about the auto routes, including the gravel Red Mill Drive which she said was plowed and passable. It was, but just.

Fox and White-throated Sparrows - Mingo NWR - MO

On the refuge web sites, which have a generic template, there is a Visitor Activities page. I have taken to noting the order in which activities are listed. Those at Mingo are (from top to bottom):

• Hunting
• Fishing
• Wildlife Viewing
• Interpretation
• Environmental Education
• Photography
• Boating/Canoeing/Kayaking
• Hiking/Biking/Horseback Riding
• Mushroom/Berry Picking

It was one more beautiful place. As I drove the Bluff Road, one side was like a Michigan road with woods and rocky cliffs and hills; the other side was southern with cypress swamps. I slowly added up the bird species with the best by far being a gorgeous Red-Shouldered Hawk flying so the translucent outer wing crescent showed beautifully in this very handsome hawk. It always shows a lot of bright rufous with sharp black and white markings on wings and tail. 

While several cars were on this road, I saw none on the more marginal Red Mill road which still had snow and wet gravel in places. But I made it, moving slowly along canals, through fields and woods, past small ponds. 

Red Mille Road - Mingo NWR - MO

A lovely refuge with a pretty name. It was part of the Louisiana Purchase. The name is from the Iroquoian Mingo Indians.

I got gas in Puxico, the first small town near the refuge where a couple of people were ineffectually trying to break up ice dams in the gutters. Small waterfalls were pouring onto the parking lot in front of the convenience store.  There was a photo on the front page of a local newspaper about a 10-car pile up the day before at the bottom of a hill. I could just see the scene as cars (although the snow looked deep enough to obscure the road completely so I wondered why people were even out driving)  came over the hill and of course could not stop, so slid into the mess at the bottom. It didn't looked like bad crashes so I assume it all happened at slow speeds but was a mess nonetheless. 

It was late afternoon when I got back to Sikeston so I stayed another night after going to an outlet mall almost next door to the motel and bought: jeans, a couple of tops, sox, a dress, a tank top, some underwear. Hating to shop, I figured this would keep me going for awhile. 

And then worked to pay for the motel....

Mingo NWR - MO