Ducks, Geese, and Coots: A 13-Year Summary of The Illinois River Valley

Aaron P. Yetter, Christopher S. Hine, Andrew D. Gilbert, Joshua M. Osborn, Auriel M. V. Fournier, Cheyenne R. Beach, Samuel T. Klimas

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

The Illinois River valley has historically been important to migrating, and more recently, wintering waterfowl. Prior to 2007, Chautauqua NWR was the most important migratory waterfowl refuge in the IRV; however, following restoration of the Emiquon Preserve and Emiquon NWR, a new player came to be. Emiquon/Spoon River Bottoms has taken over the top spot for migratory waterbirds and since 2007 has ranked 1.5 of 24 refuges in the IRV. Emiquon on average hosts nearly 20% to the total duck use-days during fall migration and nearly 70% of the American coot numbers from 2007–2018. When managed cooperatively, Emiquon Preserve, Emiquon NWR, and Chautauqua NWR provide ~5,000 ha of diverse emergent marsh that give us a glimpse of what the historic Illinois Valley was like prior to prior to European settlement.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationMidwest Fish and Wildlife Conference 2020
StatePublished - 2020

Keywords

  • INHS

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