Clinton Prairie SNA 

About

Willa Cather's description of a "rolling open country like the sea" could easily have been written for Clinton Prairie SNA and its topography of gently rolling ground moraine with broad, rounded swells and shallow depressions. The mesic blacksoil prairie here is exceedingly rare in the state's cornbelt, where row crops occupy nearly all of the upland soils built by prairies over the centuries from the raw material of calcareous (lime-rich) glacial drift from the Des Moines Lobe.

Dominated by native grasses and sedges-side-oats grama, slough sedge, Indian grass, porcupine grass-it's no surprise that this is a haven for grassland birds. Species include the upland sandpiper, the endangered chestnut-collared longspur, dickcissels, and horned larks. Hear the "bubbling, jangling, rising warble" of the male bobolink in spring and early summer, its dun-colored mate somewhere nearby on her ground nest. Find orb spiders by the dew shining on their webs anchored among the grasses, and keep an eye out for the rare poweshiek skipper. Shallow wetlands provide migrating northern shovelers, northern pintail ducks, and other waterfowl with opportunity to rest and refuel on abundant invertebrates.

This site has no maintained trails or other recreational facilities. This site is in an Audubon Important Bird Area.