Blue Goose ~ Day 296

March 19, 2015 ~ Macomb, IL to Springfield, IL

Down along the Illinois River just north of the the small town of Meredosia is the last National Wildlife Refuge I visited on this Blue Goose Adventure which was fitting as the first one way back in early June was Chautuaqua NWR which is a sister refuge. (The third refuge in this Illinois River Complex is Emiquon; I opted out on that one.)

Meredosia comes from the French marais d'osier or willow swamp (Wikipedia).

Meredosia NWR - IL

As I drove into town from the east, I could see the tall arched bridge over the river at the west edge of town. The day was dreary which undoubtedly colored my impression of the town. I finally found a small parking lot with a refuge information kiosk after making a few wrong turns, driving past modest homes and trailers, past a woman standing on the side of the road holding the reins of three miniature horses, past several roaming dogs and four Wild Turkeys rummaging in a vacant lot.

Meredosia NWR - Illinois River - IL

I started down a trail leading to the river but had to maneuver around a huge dead tree that had fallen and was blocking the path. I could sense the advent of spring here in this riparian habitat. Birds were actively moving in the trees and brush. There was a boardwalk built out above the river which is always a good viewing option. Not much was happening on the water though...except for coots and a few Canada geese.

As a refuge, Meredosia is still acquiring land along the river. Its primary objective is to manage the floodplain for wildlife. From their web site: "We attempt to mitigate the human-induced changes to the flood cycle in order to promote biological diversity, stability, and resilience in an altered system."

I continued down the refuge road which was nearly level with the river in some spots. A small white dog appeared out of the brush and ran after my car for a long time, The river was wide here with ducks in the distance. I turned around at the refuge boundary and went back into the town of Meredosia. The little dog chased me again.

It had started to rain, and by the time I got to Springfield, it was pouring. I drove around in busy traffic before finding the motel where I had made a reservation. I ate a complete Thanksgiving dinner at a Cracker Barrel next to the parking lot: roasted turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans and cranberry sauce. And then I worked to pay for the motel.

Cabin IN the town of Meredosia, IL

Blue Goose ~ Day 295

March 18, 2015 ~ Iowa City, IA to Macomb, IL

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.

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.

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.

Abandoned homestead in eastern Iowa

Blue Goose ~ Day 294

March 17, 2015 ~ Pella, IA to Iowa City, IA

I went back to the Smokey Row coffeehouse after checking out of the motel and sat with the locals for a couple of hours, working and eating a "breakfast casserole." Tasty, cheesy and caloric but with lots of protein.

The rest of the day was spent driving to Iowa City in the sunshine through the countryside, past prosperous farms with resting fields and impressive large square 3-story white farmhouses in the distance.  The land rolls gently in Iowa and is seldom flat like west Texas and Oklahoma. There are proper neat and orderly small towns intermittently along the main roads.

I had one more "light geese" stop, on a body of water close to the road.  I was able to turn on a gravel side road and get closer. This is such a stunning spring spectacle.

I got to Coralville which is contiguous on the west with Iowa City and spent the night, eating at the next door Azul Cafe where I a wonderful shrimp dinner with an abundance of ajo which name brings back memories of Ajo, AZ, the little town on the edge of Cabeza Prieta NWR. I have eaten more Mexican food than any other cuisine on this trip and this was one of the best.

(Ajo is garlic in Spanish)

Geese (Snow and Greater White-fronted) in Iowa 

Blue Goose ~ Day 292 and 293

March 15, 2015 ~ Bethany, MO to Pella, IA

A chilly and windy but sunny Sunday morning as I figured out a plan for the day which ended up being driving to Pella, Iowa. (I thought Esther and Ger had gone to college there but realized it was Sioux Center, IA.) I stayed here two days in a Holiday Inn four miles out of town, on a golf course surrounded by grand new homes of the type I see in the upscale subdivisions in Holland or Grand Rapids. They dominated the landscape.

I found the Smokey Row, a downtown coffee shop where I knew the pastries would be delicious and had a couple of lemon cookies. The town was founded in the mid 1800s by 800 Dutch immigrants. In the 2000 census the town was 96.32% white; in 2010, it was 95% white. (Check out the insert in USA Today of March 20 on Race Together for the pertinence of this statistic.) And Wyatt Earp spent much of his childhood in Pella, not exactly my first choice had I had to guess.

For now, Pella is a little town on the prairie surrounded by rich farmland. The city plants tulips, and there is a Tulip Festival in May.  The Vermeer Windmill right downtown "is the tallest working windmill in the United States." And Pella has a relatively new opera house which Sarah Palin visited in 2011 when it showed the film based on her life.

The motel was pristine in a sterile way.

Vermeer Windmill - Pella, IA

The Des Moines River is dammed near Pella creating the Red Rock Reservoir, Iowa's largest "lake." I thought about birding there as it was only a few miles from the motel, but not much is happening right now with the birds in this part of the country, AND it was very windy.

I worked and then poked around this town of 10,000. The wind blew hard all day, but the temperature was over 80 degrees! I had salmon at an Applebee's on the edge of town. Many of the commercial and city buildings have an architectural style with a nod to the Dutch influence, including a Walmart.

I also did some housekeeping inside the van and washed my clothes.

Blue Goose ~ Day 291

March 14, 2015 ~ St. Joseph, MO to Bethany MO

Now this IS Missouri Gothic

Squaw Creek NWR...where the Snow Geese come. Some recent estimates were one million; the official count three days ago was 683,422.

Eagle's nest at Squaw Creek NWR - MO

About half of this 7500-acre refuge is wetlands...Missouri River bottomlands. One first sees the geese from the VC which is across the road and up a slight elevation. It is a stunning sight, especially when they rise en masse before quickly settling down again, as they do.

I had just heard about the 2000 Snow Geese in Idaho who fell out of the sky after presumably succumbing to avian cholera and heard how quickly this can happen and how the geese fly erratically and even upside-down before plummeting. It's a disturbing image, in part because these geese are so striking visually. It's a cruel fact of life that 2000 dead starlings or House Sparrows wouldn't elicit the same response. Snow Geese congregate in such dense flocks, feeding and pooping, which must facilitate transmission of bacteria.

Snow Geese at Squaw Creek NWR - MO

But apparently this isn't a major cause for alarm; humans are not susceptible and if the birds are quickly disposed of (burned), the outbreak stops. And there are millions of Snow Geese, so many they are degrading their breeding grounds in the Arctic...

There were other waterfowl also at Squaw but in more modest numbers, and I saw almost no passerines (sparrows,  etc.) There were Green-winged Teal which isn't the most common duck I've been seeing lately. And while I didn't see a Bald Eagle, this is a favorite venue for them in the winter...up to a couple hundred.

Many folks were out driving the 10-mile auto route or digiscoping at various pull-outs and observation platforms. It was a lovely early spring afternoon with those pale blue skies but very little new green showing yet. A guy with a cigarette in his mouth was looking though his camera. I watched in my rear-view mirror, and he finally just sat on the ground, still with the camera, as entranced as all of us were by this spectacle.

Missouri has many towns with names like Paris, Oregon, Miami, Glasgow, Louisisana, Mexico...maybe most states do, but saying one lives in Louisiana, Missouri, when checking into a motel or ordering over the phone must always be a little confusing. I just checked and there are nine states with cities named Paris. And then the towns striving for the worst names: Sulphur, for instance, or Industry.

Remnant grove of trees in Missouri

After driving through prosperous farming country on secondary roads, up and down long gentle rises, past impressive 3-story homes, I got to Bethany where I stayed. I ate at the Toot Toot next to a very  jovial party of ten men, half of whom were wearing Stetsons. There were also two women, one with classic honey-colored blond hair and expensive gold earrings; the other in jeans and no adornment except boots with spurs.

Blue Goose ~ Day 290

March 13, 2015 ~ Kansas City, MO to St. Joseph, MO

I went to Marais des Cygnes almost solely because of the name. I had to go back into Kansas although very eastern Kansas, almost on the border with Missouri, and south of Kansas City 60 miles. Valerie in the office was friendly. She has worked here 10 years, lives "on a farm" about 25 miles away and her eyes lit up when I told her what I was doing.  Occasionally I get my blue NWR Passport book officially stamped which I did here. Most of the time I forget or the refuges are closed. Staff will sometimes remind me about this.

Marsh of the Swans.....well, it used to be...when the French trappers were moving through this area 200 years ago. Recently a few Trumpeters have been using the refuge when they migrate but ducks and geese are far more numerous. There are remnants of tallgrass prairie here (only 1% of this habitat remains), but over half is forest bottomlands along the Marais des Cygnes river. One third of the refuge is a "wildlife sanctuary" and not open to the public.

I drove the open gravel roads finally seeing a dozen species, including Great-tailed and Common Grackles, Brown-headed Cowbirds and Starlings mixed in with Red-winged Blackbirds, all grubbing where cows were feeding. These flocks often startle and lift off in unison, their order and symmetry amazing, wheel and turn in the sky and then return. Or they settle in noisy groups high in the trees, an early sign of spring.

Marais de Cygnes NWR - KS

I am seeing these Midwest refuges at the end of winter when many waterfowl have already headed north and before spring migration, so they are quiet...in a waiting mode.

Marais des Cygnes NWR - KS

Freshwater mussels are closely monitored here as they are very much an indicator of what we are doing / have done to their environment. The Midwest is rich in freshwater mussels, but over half of the known 78 mussel species are imperiled.  Another thread to follow if anyone wants to, starting with the Marais des Cygnes web site:


WWW.FWS.GOV

The Nature Conservancy reports that about 70 percent of mussels in North America are extinct or imperiled, compared to 16.5 percent of mammalian species and 14.6 percent of bird species.

Mussels are not in trouble simply because they're delicate creatures that are on their way out anyway. Although mostly sedentary, they can move. Many species have adapted to the constantly changing situations in streams and rivers. They can also close their shells to avoid short term exposure to toxins or other unfavorable environmental conditions. Thus mussels are tough creatures that can withstand harsh conditions if those conditions are temporary. The fact that so many mussels are imperiled in the Midwest shows that there have been significant, long-term changes to our lakes and waterways. And those changes have been so dramatic that these aquatic animals have trouble surviving.

So think about mussels in our fresh waters. And here is one more bit of mussel information from the Marais web site, perhaps only interesting to a naturalist but isn't it clever?

This is a female Higgins eye pearlymussel with most of the shell buried and the fleshy mantle flap exposed. The Higgins eye has evolved a ribbon-like mantle flap that, when exposed above the shell, looks like a minnow and serves as a lure to attract a potential fish host. When the target fish approaches, she will expell her larvae at the fish. The larvae attach to the fish's gills or fins, and hitch a ride for a few weeks while they continue their transformation into a juvenile mussel.

Farmers are burning their fields this time of year, cleaning them up. Refuges do this also to reduce wildfire risk and manage vegetation, and Valerie said this was on the refuge agenda lately.

My day was mostly moving up and down I69. Just driving the western half of the beltway around Kansas City was a 30-mile trip. I made a motel reservation at St. Joseph and was initially disappointed when I arrived. It was downtown and a block from the river with train tracks and a huge Civic Center across the street, BUT it was an old classy hotel inside. I could almost see prosperous cattlemen of 100 years ago smoking their cigars in the generous leather chairs in the extended lobby. The next morning, as I walked to my car, I realized the venue was identical to downtown Grand Rapids...along lower Monroe as it approaches the river.

I ate at the bar with a turkey salad wrap and a pile of Tumbleweeds, a variety of thinly sliced and deep fried onions, with salt and coarse black pepper and sauces for dipping. Yummy with no nutritional merit whatsoever....

The sun set, silhouetting the tracks and buildings, the river flashing silver.

Blue Goose ~ Day 289

March 12, 2015 ~ Boonville, MO to Kansas City, MO

I had seen a Book Sale sign the night before at the library in Boonville and went back to check that out, coming away with seven more books for which I paid $2.75. I finished the first one (The Reader) in a day...a powerful book. I thought I had read it, but finally remembered it was the movie that I saw. There is almost no venue more appealing to me than a library. The small town libraries are especially endearing and promising places. I thought of Pathfinder in Baldwin and how Maria and Richard got much more than books there.

I then drove northwest to the historic town of Arrow Rock where one unit of the Big Muddy NWR is situated. Not much was going on in this quaint little town, it being too early in the year for tourists. The road down to Big Muddy was on the back edge of the town behind the grand Lyceum Theatre.  Trail signs cautioned about water on certain parts, and I only walked a short ways on an elevated dike through open woods which were showing almost no signs of new growth, were still grey and brown, waiting for the right combination of light and warmth before budding visibly. The migration of birds north has not yet begun here.

Big Muddy NWR - MO

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Arrow Rock is a village in Saline County, Missouri, United States, located near the Missouri River. The village has important historical significance related to westward expansion, the Santa Fe Trail and 19th century artist George Caleb Bingham. The state’s first state historic site is located here and the entire village was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Department of the Interior, National Park Service in 1963. Many structures within the village are also individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Several locations are also certified sites of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and the Santa Fe National Historic Trail.

The town is named for a "prominent flint-bearing bluff on the Missouri River." There are several units of Big Muddy along the Missouri from St. Louis to Kansas City. On their web site, under the heading Resource Management, are the following three priorities: River Restoration Projects, Invasive Plant Removal and Monitoring Pollinators. Management of these noncontiguous refuge units along a river like the Missouri would need plans grounded in contingencies. Again, always, always...water will have its way.

On to Swan Lake NWR near Sumner. There are two large lakes here, Swan and Silver, but the Silver Lake road was closed.

Swan Lake NWR - MO

Mallards, Northern Pintails, Ring-necked and Gadwalls are the common ducks at Swan Lake, along with 50,000 geese, a few swans, gulls and eagles. The emphasis is on maintaining an "inviolate sanctuary" for migratory birds. Hunting is confined to deer and Snow Geese. Fishing is allowed with restrictions. I drove the dozen or so miles around Swan Lake and adjacent fields raising clouds of dust which eventually also settled on my van and seeped into the interior. The landscape was pastel blues and shades of brown.

Sumner, MO, just north of Swan Lake NWR

Lately, my search for a place to sleep is NOT a campground (which are either not open or are deserted this time of year) or a parking lot but rather motels that meet my criteria, those being price, an ergonomic situation for working on the computer and preferably a view. I am getting more and more efficient as I navigate the Internet finding the best deals, deciphering the descriptive language, learning what venues are most open to deals, etc.

Which is why I ended up on the east edge of Kansas City on the 9th floor overlooking the KC Stadium with a view to the west but, unfortunately, one of the worst Internet connections (or something glitchy) not fixed by reboots. I became increasingly frustrated and finally gave up trying to work and started reading The Kings of New York about a wildly successful chess program  in Edward R. Murrow Public School (Brooklyn, NY) and Eliot Weiss, the math teacher who  makes it all happen.

Blue Goose ~ Day 288

March 11, 2015 ~ St. Charles, MO to Boonville, MO

I am always relieved to be out of urban traffic, but first I found a Starbucks relatively close to the motel and settled in for a couple of hours trying to catch up with this blog.

It was a gorgeous day as I drove north to Clarence Cannon NWR, at least 50 miles, and found the access road closed. Four guys in orange fluorescent working vests were standing by their trucks, eating sandwiches. Yes,  ma'am, they said....You can get onto the refuge. All I had to do was call the office and "they will send a truck out to pick you up..." which option I declined. The guys were friendly, working on a railroad crossing on the road, the only one into the refuge...or so they told me.

Annada, MO, across the street from the closed
road to Clarence Cannon NWR

So I spent a couple of hours driving most west through the Missouri countryside on roads with no shoulders, up and down gentle hills, past farms before finding a motel in Boonville. The owner, the East Indian woman at the desk, was friendly, efficient and slightly curious about me traveling alone, telling me I had "guts." She laughed and acknowledged she is afraid driving four miles home after dark.

I switched rooms here also as the first one looked onto the back of another building. The second room was perfect with open farm fields and a western exposure. I love finding these small independently owned motels (even though still connected somehow to national chains) where the owners take pride in their property. The rooms were small but clean and updated. This woman was lively and talkative with bright red lipstick and a sly smile. She had been in the US for 32 years, living on the East Coast at first and then moving to Missouri to be closer to a sister. I don't know if she was currently married but I assumed she was. I think she mentioned grown grandchildren as a reason they moved on....they were no longer needed for baby siting.

On her suggestion, I went downtown to Maggie's Bar and Grill where I had a Reuben sandwich. The place was a typical dark small town popular bar,  very noisy with good food, slow service, seating for 40 at tables and 8 at the bar, families mingling with the regulars. The food was good and cheap; the noise comforting rather than annoying. Boonville is on the Missouri also with the grand Frederick Hotel at the end of the street. I wished I had known about it and checked out staying there. Several magnificent large homes were set back from Main Street just before the small business section and at dusk, all seemed extraordinarily tidy and appealing.

Missouri Gothic
(I think this grand old place was uninhabited but sometimes, it's hard to tell...)

Blue Goose ~ Day 287

March 10, 2015 ~ Alton, IL to St. Charles, MO

Even though it was half raining / misting, I had to go back to Riverlands and see the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers which happens at a state park at the end of five miles of muddy but drivable road.

Confluence of the Missouri (right) and Mississippi (left) rivers.

But first, I stopped again at the spacious Riverland VC, looked through the Swarovskis again and soon saw a small shrubby bush full of Eurasian Tree Sparrows down near the frozen river....15 to 20 of them, their distinctive dark check spots showing clearly through the high quality optics.

Not much else was happening on this drab and dreary day. The short trail to the view point of the actually meeting of the rivers was slippery with Missouri mud. A barge was pushing another working vessel sideways across the Missouri.  A pole marked the unbelievably high water mark of the 1993 flood waters. No one else was here; it was hard to imagine a major city so close, but even the foolhardy wouldn't choose to live on or develop land between these powerful rivers, although some of the field were obviously being farmed.

I stopped in St. Charles mid afternoon, got a room in a Best Western on the 7th floor where the key wouldn't work; went back to the lobby and got new keys. My unsuccessful second attempts finally roused the sleepy young man inside who opened the door. I apologized and went back to the lobby where the harried young lady at the desk gave me a 4th floor room and took $30 off my rate and apologized at five times.

The sun had some out and I watched it set over the city. (St. Charles is north of St. Louis but in the same sprawling metropolitan area.) I should have walked the two blocks to the Missouri River, especially as it was now sunny and warm, but I didn't. The area is geared toward tourists with all the hype that brings. DHC: Remember the River Walk in San Antonio?

Edward "Ted" and Pat Jones Confluence Point State Park - MO

Blue Goose ~ Day 286

March 9, 2015 ~ Nashville, IL to Alton, IL

Alton is across the Mississippi from St. Louis (and a bit north). Since I am having considerable trouble with even the thought of van-camping lately and since there is enough work from Kalispell, I've been staying in motels. I found a Best Western in Alton and headed to the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary, a partnership between the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Audubon Society. Nice, isn't it? these two entities in partnership...

I was here because I had researched where to find Eurasian Tree Sparrows, a species brought to the US from Europe in 1870. About 20 of these birds were released in the St. Louis area. They competed with House Sparrows (also released in the area about the same time) and the "tougher" House Sparrows were more successful in moving throughout all of the US, perhaps limiting the competing Eurasian Tree Sparrows who remain quite restricted in range, although the species is slowly expanding in Missouri and Illinois

The VC looked over the Mississippi and associated wetlands and the Melvin Price Dam and Locks just downriver. There were four or five Swarovski spotting scopes for public use. I watched and scanned with scope and binoculars and saw a single Eurasian Tree Sparrow within 15 minutes! It was almost surreal. I got a very clear look at the bird which resembles the House Sparrow but has a dark check mark and a white line around the nape. Easy to ID really, especially up close. And then it left as I was scrambling for my camera, and I didn't see it again. It came, I saw it and it left. A perfect birding moment.

Canada Geese at Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary - MO

A few Bald Eagles were on the ice in the distance along with gulls and geese and ducks.

There are USACE publications at these venues near the river, and I learned about potamology. I might have been a potamologist in another life and would then have studies rivers, with an emphasis on the science of river flow. My working world would be hydraulics and sediments and channelization and obstructions, floods, snow pack in distant mountains..... After the 2011, the Mississippi River Geomorphology and Potamology (MRP&P) with bases in New Orleans, Vicksburg, Memphis and St. Louis was formed to watch and measure the river from its confluence with the Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico.

What is it about moving water that fires the imagination?

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. 

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

Blue Goose - Day 283

March 6, 2015 ~ Dyersburg, TN to Sikeston, MO

I was ready to hit the road again...which I did late morning. While still very cold, the sun made all the difference and with no precip in the forecast and a slowly warming trend, life was good. I crossed the river again and was back in Missouri. I laughed when I stopped at the Welcome Center and had to gingerly navigate snow and ice just to get into the building.

Since I hadn't left Dyersburg until noon and the lesser roads were still iffy, I opted to stay in Sikeston  where I worked several hours in a room with a view over farm fields, my favorite motel view. Seriously. 

Interstate 55 in Missouri

And seriously, who would imagine a town in Missouri is named after.....

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Braggadocio is an unincorporated community in Pemiscot County, Missouri. It is located eight miles west of Caruthersville. The community was founded in about 1847 and was named for the knight and horse thief Sir Braggadoccio, in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene.

Blue Goose ~ Days 280 - 282

March 3 - 5, 2015 ~ Dyersburg, TN

WWW.TVA.GOV

Ever since Native Americans and fur traders first loaded canoes, the Tennessee River has been an important mode of transportation. The river provided a much quicker and easier way of transporting people and goods than the overland route. But it came with its own set of problems: low water and navigation hazards such as swift currents and rocky shoals. Later on, flatboats and steamboats had to deal with the same problems encountered by the early settlers. Periodic floods and droughts made travel up and down the river even more difficult. As the population of the Valley grew, so did the region’s commerce. The lure of reliable water transportation was finally strong enough to justify the challenge of improving the river for navigation. 

That task fell to TVA, created by an act of Congress in 1933. Along with flood control and hydropower generation, navigation was one of the main objectives for which the new agency was to manage the river—putting it to work for the people of the Valley. By 1945, the navigation channel was essentially completed: a system of dams and locks set the stage for decades of thriving river traffic. Today, over 38,000 barges carry more than 50 million tons of goods up and down the Tennessee River.

Is the Tennessee even a river now or just a "navigation channel"? What it is not is the river of "Native American and fur trader" days, just like the wetlands and rivers all over our country are no longer what they were before white Europeans moved over the land.

There is a Tennessee NWR and I drove there in the early morning gloom and mist, stopping first at a McDonalds where the drive-through line extended out onto the main highway, whereupon I just went in and got coffee to go.

Tennessee NWR - TN

Tennessee NWR has 51,000 acres in three units on Kentucky Lake (Reservoir) created by one of the many dams of the Tennessee River. I drove through the Big Sandy Unit for a couple of hours, seeing no one else, watching ducks and geese in the fields and in the wetlands and waterways. Much of water still had ice so the waterfowl numbers were modest. A chattering Pileated Woodpecker flew over the road, always impressive. An Eastern Towhee rummaged in the brush along with Fox, Song and Savannah Sparrows. Hundreds of robins and assorted "black birds" were foraging in the corn stubble. The lake / reservoir is the "largest artificial lake (by surface area) east of the Mississippi" (Wikipedia). I stopped along the shore and could barely make out the opposite side through the fog and mist.

The refuge manages croplands and enhances forest habitat for birds, both migratory and resident. It has a large Wood Duck program, providing nesting boxes and banding approximately 1000 each year.  The topography was lovely, even on this grey day, and without a refuge, it would undoubtedly be developed, farmed and lumbered.

The state of Kentucky has only one National Wildlife Refuge: Clarks River, not far north of the Tennessee State Line.

Clarks River NWR - KY

I was greeted with interest and obvious delight and pride as the front desk staffer told me all about this fairly new refuge. The VC showed evidence of active involvement with the community, especially kids, which heartened me. There is a resident American Crow, an injured bird that cannot be rehabilitated and which lives in a cage next to a large window. There is also an outdoor enclosure which the crow so far has not appreciated. The staff are reluctantly coming to the conclusion that this crow may well not be "tamed" as it gets edgy and disconcerted at many of the attempts to do so. It seems to find change worrying and disconcerting. (So far it is unsexed but they named it Winston, or maybe Wilson.) To me it looked somewhat haughty, although perhaps I just thought that after hearing how it is not going gentle into captivity. For whatever reason though, its injury apparently cannot be fixed and it will never fly again.

The Clarks River is a tributary of the Tennessee river, It's only 67 miles long and actually consists of two forks (the East Fork and the West Fork) running parallel before joining shortly before emptying into the Tennessee. The river is named for George Rogers Clark of Lewis and Clark fame. The refuge is in the process of acquiring land within its acquisition perimeter and has several noncontiguous units along the river. One can drive in and out of little roads down to the river on this linear refuge and listen to information on a smart phone. At the first stop, there was a pickup at the landing with its window duct-taped with plastic and a guy just hanging out. I felt uneasy and left. A couple other of the access points were closed due to high water, so I eventually went on but was glad I stopped and saw how much this refuge is doing to attract and educate the public.

I went back into northern Tennessee to Reelfoot NWR, close to the Mississippi River. (Actually a part of one unit of Reelfoot is in Kentucky.) I drove around the town of Hickman, Kentucky, on the way which reminded me of Vicksburg as the town is above the river, with levees and a ferry, houses on a bluff and industrial, river-transportation structures and activity below.

On the way to Reelfoot, I saw geese descending into a field to the north and drove on back roads to get closer...to check this out. There were 50,000 geese settling in for the night! or maybe 10,000, but a huge number. These displays are visually elegant as the Snow Geese (both white and blue morphs) come out of the sky into the fields, their wings outstretched, their feet dangling as they drift slowly down. The white morph is white with black wing tips; the blue morph is mostly dark grey although the adults have white heads. The white morph predominates and the overall impression is white. The fields are clean, open and spare, and on a late afternoon with the sun only a brighter spot in a grey sky, the whole scene is wondrous.

(There may be Ross's geese and/or Greater White-fronted Geese in these flocks also, but Snow Geese predominate.)

The Reelfoot refuge was otherworldly. I drove through an icy swamp on a paved but snow-slushy road to Reelfoot Lake and felt I was in northern Minnesota except the trees were cypress trees instead of evergreens. The air temperature was warm enough so the ice was sublimating, creating snow fog in the distance...more wild beauty.

Reelfoot NWR - TN

This area has great history, with outlaws, the New Madrid earthquakes, and the place where Raintree County, In the Heat of the Night and US Marshals were filmed.

Again, it had the feeling of the Upper Peninsula...of Up North.

The refuge is on the Mississippi flyway....eagles, bluebirds, wood ducks, hunting, crop lands, bottomlands, fishing, migratory birds, waterfowl....which is what these refuges are all about up and down the river.

WWW.FWS.GOV

During the winter of 1811-12, a series of some 1,874 recorded tremors within the New Madrid fault dramatically altered the landscape over some 30-50,000 square miles and left Reelfoot Lake in its wake. This shaky beginning was followed by a series of conflicting issues, with competing interests involving timber, market hunters, and local hunting interest which eventually resulted in bloodshed when local vigilantes known as the night riders hung a lawyer representing the logging interest near what is still the community of Walnut Log. This prompted the State of Tennessee in 1908 to condemn and designate those lands on and around Reelfoot Lake for use by all the residents of Tennessee. Yet still the controversy continued in the early 1930's with failed attempts to drain Reelfoot Lake to benefit farming interests. The controversy over the water levels and water management were eventually quieted with the leasing of some 8000 acres on the northern end of the Lake to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1941 to be managed as a National Wildlife Refuge. In addition to the management of those lands transferred, the USFWS also took all responsibility for the manipulation and management of water levels within Reelfoot Lake.

It was getting dark and the weather forecast was dire. I found a pleasant motel in Dyersburg and waited out the storm, staying 3 nights.

With no hard agenda, it was a forced respite but totally fine, except for rather meager food choices. Everything shut down, including parts of the Interstates...all schools, the nearby mall, restaurants. Snow plowing was haphazard; the parking lot full of snow-covered vehicles and drifts. Some staff stayed in the motel; those who tried to drive got stuck. The manager made cheesy taco dip and chili one night and hot dogs and chili another night. There was a comfortable couch and chairs in the lobby and a gas fireplace. I worked and read and watched the storm. Salt was not available (due in part to the first storm of a week ago) so were considering using the soil in the large potted plants...or trying to find kitty litter. On the second day, I shoveled out my car and scraped enough ice to be able to open the doors and free the windshield wipers. Even so, when I tried to close the back door, it got stuck on ice, wouldn't close and I had to dig out a screwdriver to chip more ice. Walking was treacherous.

But the skies were brilliant blue, although the temps were in single digits until afternoon. On the third day, people left but the roads (except the Interstate) were rough with packed frozen snow.

 

On Tennessee NWR - TN

Blue Goose ~ Day 279

March 2, 2015 ~ Covington, TN to Camden, TN

Yesterday I was at Lower Hatchie and today I went upriver to Hatchie NWR. It was pleasant outside, the sun somewhat tentative but at least trying.

Access into Hatchie was limited due to high water but the VC faced Oneal Lake and I could drive around that, which I did, taking a couple of hours to drive 2.5 miles. 

Hatchie NWR - TN

Some of the women at the front desks (nearly always women) are civil but not especially welcoming. They answer questions but neither ask questions nor offer information. Some wear the USFWS brown uniform and are invariably friendly. Those in civilian clothing may or may not be. I am slightly bothersome, interrupting very important work. Sometimes, I hear staff in offices down short hallways but more often they are out and about doing refuge work. 

Oneal Lake was mostly ice-free so there were waterfowl, and the surrounding woods and fields were full of birds. What happens is that I drive along and see a bird in the brush, on the road, in the trees; if I stop and am patient, several other species usually drop by. I hear Carolina Wrens more often than I see them, and the only warbler so far is the Yellow-rumped (and Pine Warblers at certain refuges) but I usually see several woodpecker species. Today, there there were Red-bellied, Red-headed, Downy and Northern Flickers, along with kinglets, Eastern Bluebirds, sparrows, Killdeer, several C. geese, ducks, mergansers and the ever-present coots, head-bobbing along in the water. I got nice looks at Gadwalls with their silvery-gold feathers splayed on their backs.

Gadwall (and coot) at Hatchie WNR - TN

It was delightful parked on the verge with the windows open watching the lake on one side and the woods / fields / wetlands / watery ditch on the other. A variety of habitat...always the best for birding. 

The Hatchie River is not dammed, impounded, channelized or otherwise manipulated in most of its run through Tennessee where it is designated a Scenic River. I learned from Wikipedia that the name "hatchie is redundant as it means river in many Native American languages." It manages river bottomland, with an emphasis on red oaks. 

Watching the weather, as I do, I figured tonight I could comfortably van-camp before things starting happening again, like major cold, snow and ice. There were several Walmart-towns coming up on my route and I chose Camden, carefully picking a spot on the parking lot edge that backed up to tall trees. My window coverings are pathetic as they are only brown paper grocery bags which actually fit nicely in the rear pop windows, but the others are pieces of poster board. I only use one of these occasionally depending on lghts and proximity to other vehicles and it is ripped and ragged.

When I woke up for good (I often wake up in the middle of the night and read an hour), the cab of a Little Debbie truck was about 15 feet from me. Why, with the whole parking lot available, do some truckers do this? It never seems creepy but a benign boundary invasion.

Oneal Lake - Hatchie NWR - TN

Blue Goose ~ Day 278

March 1, 2015 ~ Blytheville, AR to Covington, TN

I made it to March! But my best laid plans are going awry as the weather (which was supposed to be 50 degrees by noon in my plan) is headed downhill. Today was drippy, chilly and grey as I left the motel and drove first to Chickasaw NWR, one more Mississippi floodplain refuge. I had to drive winding roads with names like Edith-Nankipoo and Hobe Webb following along on my iPhone. When I got to Sand Bluff Road, the directions said to turn right and "proceed to the bottom of the bluff." Which I did not do as the road went steeply downhill and was ice-covered.

Chickasaw NWR - TN
(the Headquarters road, which disappeared down an icy hill)

Like I might start sliding and land in the river. I have no experience driving the minivan on ice and snow, but might not have tried it even with a Subaru. The road along the bluff was trashed....amazing piles of random litter, lumber and discards along with the usual bottles and cans and white plastic bags. What is it with these southern states where the citizens consider the roadside their own personal dump? It was foggy and I couldn't see much, but it felt like the road was holding on somewhat precariously and in danger of slip-sliding away. There were large piles of sand intermittently at critical points. So that was my Chickasaw experience.

Lower Hatchie NWR was much more pleasant, downriver from Chickasaw about 20 miles though I had to drive twice that far to get there.

WWW.FWS.GOV

Lower Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) sits along the lower 17 miles of the Hatchie River in western Tennessee. Unlike most Mississippi River tributaries that have been straightened and levees constructed for flood control, the Hatchie River remains the longest continuous stretch of naturally meandering river in the lower Mississippi River Valley. In result, wildlife and fisheries thrive in its almost pristine watershed ecosystems. The refuge helps protect and enhance the ever diminishing bottomland hardwood forests...

Isn't there something depressing about the idea of "straightening" a river?

I drove to a refuge boat-landing a few miles before the headquarters just to see the coffee-colored river, running high, before continuing on to the headquarters area, which overlooked flooded fields and open impoundments. A modest number of ducks and geese were paddling about, including Ring-necked Ducks and Northern Shovelers, mixed in with coots and Mallards.

Lower Hatchie NWR - TN

This refuge is very close to the old village of Fulton, where the road ends on a bluff above the river. I saw no sign of life, but there are probably a few people who relish the solitude of living at the end of the road. I could easily imagine how lovely it would be on a sunny spring day... Even today with the mist and fog, it was appealing, perched high above the Mississippi.

There were Eastern Bluebirds perched on dried corn stalks as I drove back to the highway, and Kestrels on the wires, along with the usual abundance of Cardinals, the state bird for seven states. And vultures, soaring or eating carrion, with occasional Red-tailed Hawks and American Crows...

The road to Lower Hatchie went by the State Penitentiary, an impressive collection of buildings and open ground for several miles. I also passed a field of Snow Geese which come down into certain fields by the thousands to feed. I am getting used to seeing these white "goose" blankets in distant fields as they forage in huge flocks.

There are numerous abandoned dwellings as I drive about, dilapidated and disappearing under vegetation, stark window frames, the glass long gone, many leaning at the corners, some sagging from the middle, a few flakes of weathered paint here and there on grey or dark brown boards.

By the time I got to Covington, it was raining hard. I intended to continue on but decided it was time to stop for the night.

Where the road ends, near Lower Hatchie NWR, on a bluff above the Great River