Unfortunately, I missed seeing a college roommate who lives in Iowa City...
I continued east and south to Port Louisa NWR on the Mississippi River. The upper portion of the river is the part above St. Louis and has 29 dams and locks. The waters that back up behind the dams are the pools. Port Louisa is situated near pools 17 and 18. Obviously this extensive manipulation of the natural / historic river flow has changed how a drop of rain gets from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. It has also of course, defined the flora and fauna associated with the Mississippi and its tributaries. The name Mississippi comes from: Messipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe or Algonquin) name for the river, Misi-ziibi (Great River) (Wikipdedia).
There are four units to Port Louisa. I first stopped at the VC which is on the Louisa Division. I slowly counted my dozen species as I went down to the floodplain and walked a trail through the trees and last years' dried leaves. The pleasant surprise down here was several Common Mergansers, the only waterfowl I saw in this spot.
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| Port Louisa NWR - IA |
A friendly staff member in the Visitor Center showed me maps of the area, gave me information about the river and explained now the refuge works with the water. Windows looked out over well-stocked and busy feeders. There was also a short bluff trail where I saw Eastern Bluebirds, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Tufted Titmice, etc.
I then drove some of the roads through this Division seeing a perched Bald Eagle and dozens of Mallards. At one point there was a small group (200-300) of Snow Geese but something was weird as two guys were walking towards them and they didn't flush as they always do when approached too closely. I watched through binoculars and realized they were all decoys that the men were retrieving, gathering them up by the handfuls, and I could see the long sticks which secured them in the ground.
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| Snow Geese decoys - Port Louisa NWR - IA |
Another access went down to a boat ramp. There are few signs of spring yet, and it seems like fall with the leafless trees and no visible buds on the bushes, corn stubble in the fields and no new green shoots poking through last year's matted and tangled weeds along the roadsides.
I stayed in a motel in Macomb, IL where I ate across the street at a Buffalo Wild Wings and had pretty awful food before I worked several hours.
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| Abandoned homestead in eastern Iowa |
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