Blue Goose ~ Day 285

March 8, 2015 ~ Sikeston, MO to Nashville, IL

Lately, I have been zig-zagging east and west but in a general northernly direction.  So this morning I went into Illinois to find a couple of refuges in the very southern part of the state. The first was Cypress Creek. The headquarters (closed as this was Sunday) were on the campus of Shawnee Community College. The refuge was created under the Emergency Wetland Reserve Act of 1986. Its acreage includes the Cache River Basin between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. It is a RAMSAR site (a wetlands of international importance):

EN.WIKIDPEDIA.ORG

The convention was developed and adopted by participating nations at a meeting in Ramsar, Mazandaran,Iran, on February 2, 1971, hosted by the Iranian Department of Environment, and came into force on December 21, 1975.
The Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance now includes 2186 Sites (known as Ramsar Sites) covering over 200,000,000 ha (490,000,000 acres). The country with the highest number of Sites is the United Kingdom at 170 and the country with the greatest area of listed wetlands is Bolivia, with over 140,000 km² (54,000 sq mi). The Ramsar definition of wetlands is fairly wide, including "areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six meters" as well as fish ponds, rice paddies and salt pans.

I drove through a part of Cypress Creek on a paved road with water only a few inches below the road surface. The work here is now a familiar litany: eradication of invasive species, reforestation, wetland management and limited "cooperative farming" which is the term used for farming on a refuge. Herbicides have to be approved by the USFWS and GMO corn and soybean crops are are not permitted. (Approximately one-third of the crops is left for wildlife; the farmer harvests the remainder.)

Cypress Creek NWR - IL

And there are the public use activities. I am coming to terms (somewhat) in the hunting and fishing on refuges. But not completely as in frog hunting....

The topography was hilly and the roads curved up, around, down, around, up and down. I still see (mostly Baptist) small white-painted steepled churches, often on a slight rise in the countryside between little towns; some have adjacent old cemeteries.

I arrived at Crab Orchard NWR early afternoon and visited with the most enthusiastic staffer I have yet to meet. She was young and soon to move to Stevens Point, WI, to begin a graduate program. She loved nature, loved Crab Orchard and was delighted to point out her favorite places on the refuge.  She talked about the Chrismas Bird Count and how they went back "three times" for a Black Duck which is ALWAYS in a certain pond. The VC was busy and active on this Sunday afternoon.

Crab Orchard NWR - IL

The morning sun had gone and the skies were cloudy.  Crab Lake was mostly ice-covered, and gulls moved at the ice-water interfaces. Fishermen were watching their lines. This is a refuge that has a wonderful variety of habitat with an important agricultural component and also (unique on a refuge?) industry which is proudly described as "an industrial complex fully utilized by compatible tenants that conform to prescribed safety, health, environmental, and maintenance standards." Melissa at the VC (I think her name was Melissa) also mentioned "industry" and now I wished I had asked her what exactly this was all about. Maybe putting the best face on a fait accompli....

I could imagine the bird activity here, although it was subdued today. It had that feel of very productive birding, especially during migrations, as the refuge is large with fields, a big lake, wood and wetlands.... 

Crab Orchard is one of the few refuges that allow camping.

I now headed back west towards the Great River again and stayed in Nashville, IL, after a quick detour for another geese display in a field to the north. I find these events so elemental...just late afternoon skies, fields and thousands of geese. 

I ate at the next door family restaurant on the edge of town with food reminiscent of years ago...spaghetti sauce on overcooked pasta, vegetable beef soup and coconut cream pie. The customers were truckers and farmers with their wives. I look at the faces of the hard-working waitresses and think about the constraints of their lives.