Fall Migration Missouri Valley Style

Just after sunrise a huge flock of geese rise up and head south.

On to winter hang outs.

I had the opportunity to spend a few hours at the Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Preserve this week. This is a beautiful place that is a must see for nature lovers. A ten mile long auto tour loop takes you out along a number of large control ponds that are teeming with life. Bird migration is in full swing and this preserve is located right in the Missouri River valley which is a major flyway.

A couple pelicans make their way above a pool that has lots of muskrat houses.

I arrived at the preserve before dawn. From the moment there was enough light to see, you could tell the sky was filled with birds streaming south. I am sure this had been going on most of the night, and as expected it ceased an hour or so after sunrise when they stop and bed down for the day. I can honestly say I have never seen so many birds in one solid stream. At dawn, a lot of geese started to rise up from the ponds to head south and they had to dodge the stream of small black birds that was pouring across above them.

I saw a number of eagles hanging out in trees. There were two nests I saw not far from the road. This is the only one I got flying.

The first of two very large groups that came in for a rest while I was there.

Just after sunrise a couple of large groups of geese headed south. A couple hours later, two huge groups showed up and landed. Looking at the Birdcast page, it s really cool to see how the movement was showing up on radar compared to what I saw on the ground.

This is what the migration activity was about sundown on Sunday night. Not much going on at that point.

At midnight, the birds were pretty active coming down the Missouri valley.

At 3 AM, there was a lot of action in Iowa and Nebraska.

Bird activity at the time I arrived at the Loess Bluffs Refuge.

This is sunrise right above where I was at. The Loess Bluffs Preserve is in the northwest tip of Missouri where it is surrounded by Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas.

This is a picture I took with my phone just before sunrise. The sky was absolutely filled with these birds heading south.

This is an hour after sunrise, and the bird activity right over me dropped off considerably. The sky suddenly emptied of birds.