Mud Lake Wildlife

Mud Lake WMA is an important spring staging area for migrating waterfowl within the Pacific Flyway. Migrating waterfowl, including up to 50,000 snow geese, settle on Mud Lake in March and early April, resting and feeding before continuing the spring journey. Some choose to end their spring migration at Mud Lake; mallard, northern pintail, gadwall, wigeon, northern shoveler, redhead and ring-necked ducks, together with green-winged and cinnamon teal, commonly nest in Mud Lake’s East and West Sloughs. Canada geese readily nest on islands and nesting structures scattered throughout the area.

The largest of all waterfowl, trumpeter swans, are also present in the spring. Recently a few immature trumpeters have remained on Mud Lake throughout the spring and summer, posing the possibility that Mud Lake may one day have its own nesting pair(s) of this threatened swan.

Smaller waterfowl concentrations gather on Mud Lake WMA from late August through September and from November through December. Winter temperatures and the loss of open water on Mud Lake inevitably push these birds further south for the remaining winter months.

A variety of colonial nesting birds (birds nesting in a common group or “colony”) returns each year to Mud Lake WMA. Double-crested cormorants, great blue herons and cattle egrets nest in the trees of Mud Lake’s Cormorant Bay. Less common are nesting great egrets, snowy egrets and black-crowned night-herons. Franklin’s gulls and white-faced ibises are other colony nesters which utilize bulrushes in Mud Lake’s Headquarter’s Bay for nesting purposes.

The changing water levels of Mud Lake make the area a shorebird’s paradise. All spring and summer, visitors can view willets, long-billed curlews, American avocets, and many other species probing freshly exposed mud flats for food. Many shorebirds species (including those listed above) regularly nest on Mud Lake WMA lands. As with waterfowl, songbirds congregate at Mud Lake WMA during spring migration, with numbers peaking in May. Various warblers, finches and sparrows pass through, while others nest on WMA lands. Ring-necked pheasant and gray partridge are year-long residents.

Mud Lake WMA also supports a wide variety of raptors. Red-tailed and Swainson’s hawks frequently nest on the area; other hawk species spend a portion of the spring and/or fall on the WMA. Northern harriers (marsh hawks) are commonly seen dipping and gliding only inches above Mud Lake’s cattail marshes. Long-eared, short-eared and saw-whet owls spend the summer at Mud Lake WMA, nesting and raising their young. Bald and golden eagles are common fall and winter guests.

Mule deer, white-tailed deer and pronghorn antelope are often seen at Mud Lake WMA. Surprisingly, small, resident herds of moose and elk also roam the area. Jackrabbits, badgers, mink, muskrats and other smaller mammal species thrive among the diverse habitats of Mud Lake WMA.