Iowa City Bird Club trip to Indiangrass Hills

This image of Indiangrass Hills is from their website.

Today, the Iowa City Bird Club visited the Indiangrass Hills Preserve this morning and walked most of the SE quadrant. Indiangrass Hills is a place for real prairie birding -- large open spaces and rolling hills under the great prairie sky.  Highlights included really nice looks at Henslow's Sparrows and Sedge Wrens, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Red-headed Woodpecker, Bobolink, Brown Thrasher and Eastern Towhee.

Some people returned after lunch to walk some of fields on the west side of I Ave, which are in the Lake Iowa Park atlas block.  We encountered many more Sedge Wrens and Bobolinks than we had in the morning.  We also found a couple Savannah Sparrows, a number of Grasshopper Sparrows including one sitting on a nest with five eggs.  A Cedar Waxwing sitting on a nest was another breeding confirmation, as were fledged Red-winged Blackbird and House Sparrow.

Indiangrass Hills is a magnificent prairie/savannah preserve in SW Iowa County.  It started as privately owned prairie restoration project, piecing together existing prairie remnants and some land which was naturally reverting to prairie, along with pastures and some woodland.  The people who started this project are real pioneers in private prairie restoration, and deserve thanks from all interested in prairies.  A Conservation Easement was granted to the DNR in 2005, and the land donated to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation.

This property was one of only a few privately owned Iowa Important Bird Areas, prior to its donation to the INHF.  Important Bird Areas or IBAs are a national and international program to

a] Identify the most essential areas for birds,

b] Monitor those sites for changes to birds and habitat, and

c] Conserve these areas for long-term protection of birds and biodiversity

To learn more about Indiangrass Hills, IBAs and Iowa Audubon [not part of National Audubon], or the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation visit their sites.

Again a large thank you to the people who spent their money and sweat to make this great place possible!