Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge
Encyclopedia
Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge is located in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

. Bowdoin NWR was established in 1936 as a migratory bird refuge. It is located in the short and mixed grass prairie region of North-central Montana and encompasses 15551 acres (63 km²). The Refuge lies about 7 miles (11.3 km) northeast of Malta in the Milk River Valley of Phillips County. Managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bowdoin is one of over 540 refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System - a system of lands set aside to conserve wildlife and habitat and as a place for people to enjoy today and for generations to come.

Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge's primary purpose is to preserve and enhance resting, feeding, and breeding habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife. The Refuge attracts migrating waterfowl and shorebirds by the thousands and provides breeding and nesting habitat for ducks, geese, grassland songbirds, and colonial nesting water birds. The area is equally important to a variety of resident wildlife, including raptors, white-tailed deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...

, pronghorn
Pronghorn
The pronghorn is a species of artiodactyl mammal endemic to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is often known colloquially in North America as the prong buck, pronghorn antelope, or simply antelope, as it closely resembles the true antelopes of the Old World and...

 antelope, sharp-tailed grouse
Sharp-tailed Grouse
The Sharp-tailed Grouse, Tympanuchus phasianellus , is a medium-sized prairie grouse. It is also known as the sharptail, and is known as "fire grouse" or "fire bird" by Native American Indians due to their reliance on brush fires to keep their habitat open.-Taxonomy:The Greater Prairie-chicken,...

, and coyote
Coyote
The coyote , also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States and Canada...

s. Threatened species using the Refuge include the bald eagle
Bald Eagle
The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. It is the national bird and symbol of the United States of America. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle...

 and piping plover
Piping Plover
The Piping Plover is a small sand-colored, sparrow-sized shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange legs, a black band across the forehead from eye to eye, and a black ring around the neck...

 and on occasion peregrine falcon
Peregrine Falcon
The Peregrine Falcon , also known as the Peregrine, and historically as the Duck Hawk in North America, is a widespread bird of prey in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-gray back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache"...

s.

North-central Montana is made up of many depressional wetlands created by glacier
Glacier
A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

s 12,000 years ago. Although geologic history indicates that Lake Bowdoin was once an oxbow of the pre-glacial Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...

channel, today the Missouri River lies nearly 70 miles (112.7 km) south of Bowdoin NWR. Major habitat types on the Refuge include saline and freshwater wetlands, native prairie, planted dense nesting cover and shrubs. Refuge wetlands total 7226 acres (29 km²), with the remaining habitat consisting of uplands.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK