*The Visitor Center is open weekends until early November.  Weekend hours are 10am-4pm.  Weekday hours are 8am-4:30pm.  We now have high definition videos to replace the DVD programs we had been showing.  Take time to view one or both of the videos.  They are a major improvement over the DVD’s.  We also added a few small items to the exhibits during the winter.  The Bog Shoe Shop is well stocked with a large variety of wildlife-related items. 

*Check out the prairie garden in front of the visitor center and the prairie trail south of the parking lot.  Many prairie wildflowers and in bloom and are labeled to help you with identification.  The prairie trail also includes six interpretive signs dealing with prairies.

*There seems to be an irruption of lark sparrows in the area.  Quite a number of people have seen them in many different locations.  Places to see/hear a lark sparrow include the intersection of County Rd. F and Buggert Lake Rd. on the north side of Crex, Stolte Rd. (Fish Lake WA) near the intersection with the road to Dueholm Flowage and further north on Stolte Rd. near the north end of Corduroy Dike.  Lark sparrows may be seen in almost any sandy, open area.

*Trumpeter swans are present on almost any of the larger flowages.  Many of the nesting pairs have young.  There are three pairs with young (cygnets) on the north end of Phantom Lake.  The pair on Upper North Fork has four cygnets.  10-12 non-breeding swans are using Dike 1.

*Eagles are nesting on the osprey platform on the south end of the refuge and near the center of Upper North Fork.  The young eagles are about half grown.

*Grettum Flowage is being drawn down for work on the water control structure.  The draw down presents excellent conditions for herons, molting ducks, and a variety of other birds.  A pelican was present all of last week.  10-15 great blue herons are usually present near the water control structure.  Yellow-headed blackbirds are often present on the mudflats.   This should be a good location for egrets and maybe even some of the uncommon herons.  There may be a few stray shorebirds on the mudflats.

*Goose and duck broods are commonly seen along the dike roads.

*The brush prairies and now covered with a large variety of prairie flowers and grasses.  Puccoon, wood betony, prairie phlox, alumroot, bedstraw, lupine, harebell, New Jersey tea, hyssop, spiderwort, beardt0ngue, butterflyweed, needlegrass, prairie Junegrass, and several others, are all in bloom.  The next few weeks should be great for prairie wildflowers as more species begin to bloom.   

*There are good numbers of sandhill cranes in the area.  You should be able to find them in any of the larger sedge marshes.  Most of the pairs now have young.  Small groups (10-30 birds) of non-breeding cranes can often be seen along Main Dike Rd.   

*Black terns are abundant on Phantom Lake and many of the other flowages.

*The Crex wolf pack has been very active this year.  You can find fresh tracks throughout the property.  They are most active on the eastern half of the property.

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