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2008 Federal Duck Stamp Contest Phone: 660-442-3187 |
Wildlife
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Northern pintail resting on a marsh during morning sunrise. Photo by Kenny Bahr. | |
For thousands of years, time in the Missouri River Basin has been measured by the annual migration of the waterfowl.
Each spring and fall, northwestern Missouri is visited by a cacophony of ducks and geese stopping to rest and fuel their bodies for the seasonal migration between northern breeding grounds and southern wintering areas.
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Green heron with a with a recently captured minnow. Photo by Kenny Bahr. | |
Squaw Creek Refuge is home to a variety of animal species. Wildlife recordings show more than 30 species of mammals, almost 40 species of reptiles and amphibians, and more than 300 species of birds have been found using the refuge. The diversity of animal species results from the diversity of habitats within the refuge. Download Refuge Bird List (752k pdf format).
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Beaver sitting on the winter ice chewing on a willow branch. Photo by Frank Durbian. | |
Squaw Creek Refuge comprises 7,350 acres of refuge land. Refuge habitats consist of approximately 3,200 acres wetlands, 2,020 grasslands, 1,560 forests and 490 croplands. Overlooking the refuge from the east, the loess hills habitat is a geological formation of fine silt deposited after the past glacial period. The hills stretch from about 30 miles south of St. Joseph, Missouri, to extreme northern Iowa. Some of the last parcels of native plants, of a once vast native prairie, can be found here.
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Purple coneflower on a Loess Bluff prairie. Photo by Frank Durbian. | |
Some of the last parcels of native plants, of a once vast native prairie, can be found here. Remnants of Missouri's native prairie are found here and include Indian grass, big bluestem, blazing star, compass plant, yucca, beard-tongue, and skeleton plant. Some native prairie has been restored on the loess hills and in the bottomland. Red-tailed hawks and great horned owls hunt for mice and voles in these grasslands.
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Brown thrasher perched on a limb in dense forest thicket. Photo by Kenny Bahr. | |
Woodland slopes covered by mature oak-hickory trees are where the towhees, robins, nuthatches, chickadees, woodpeckers, and tanagers can be seen during the summer. The woodlands provide resting and feeding perches for hawks and bald eagles. White-tailed deer and turkey are also common in the woodlands, and bobwhite quail and pheasants are found in the grassy edge near the woodlands.
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Canada geese resting on a muskrat house. Photo by Kenny Bahr. | |
Squaw Creek Refuge's wetlands can attract as many as 400,000 snow geese if conditions are correct during spring and fall migrations. Fall and winter waterfowl migration can peak with 100,000 ducks. Wetlands range from open pools and mud flats to flooded woodlands and cattail-filled marshes. An abundant population of muskrats - aquatic, rat-like mammals - is evident from the number of muskrat houses dotting the large wetlands. These dome-shaped houses make handy perches for bald eagles, double-crested cormorants, and Canada geese.
