Internet Naturalist – September 28, 2014

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Seney’s list of commonly seen critters reads like a wildlife watcher’s wish list. There are excellent opportunities to view bald eagles, common loons, trumpeter swans, ospreys, sandhill cranes, white-tailed deer, and beavers. Trumpeter swans were reintroduced to the refuge in the early 1990s. Since then, they have flourished and now form one of the largest resident flocks in the Midwest. Some lucky visitors also catch glimpses of black bears, bobcats, river otters, and moose. Gray wolves are found at Seney, but sightings are rare. All told, the refuge is home to more than 200 kinds of birds, 45 mammals, and 26 fish. | The 7-mile Marshland Wildlife Drive is a must for wildlife viewers visiting the refuge. Open dawn to dusk, May 15-October 15, this one-way auto tour route is constructed on the tops of water control dikes. The route takes visitors alongside open water ponds and wetlands, sedge meadows, and through forests. These diverse habitats attract many native and migratory wildlife, many of which can be seen at close range on both sides of the auto route, and often seen in the pine stands growing along many of the dikes. The drive has three wheelchair accessible wildlife observation decks.