Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge & Canyon Prairie Dog Colony

The 7,664-acre Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1958 to protect habitat utilized by migrating and wintering waterfowl and other birds. Although more than 800,000 ducks and 40,000 Canada Geese wintered on the refuge in the mid-1960s, the numbers have declined due to decreased inflows of water. The 300-acre Stewart Marsh, where the majority of the waterfowl now occur, was developed to catch smaller water inflows. Refuge hours run from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M. daily from October 1 through March 31, and from 8 A.M. until 8 P.M. daily from April 1 through September 30. Key birds: Wild Turkey, Scaled Quail, Greater Roadrunner, Curvebilled Thrasher, and Rufous-crowned Sparrow are present year-round. Swainson’s Hawk, Snowy Plover, Burrowing Owl, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Horned Lark, Rock Wren, Dickcissel, Lark Bunting, and Grasshopper Sparrow occur in summer. Tundra Swan; Greater Whitefronted, Snow, Ross’s, and Canada Geese; Common Goldeneye; Hooded and Common Mergansers; Bald Eagle; Ferruginous and Rough-legged Hawks; Merlin; Peregrine Falcon; Long-eared and Shorteared Owls; Townsend’s Solitaire; American Tree, Fox, and Harris’s Sparrows; and McCown’s, Lapland, Chestnut-collared, and Smith’s Longspurs can usually be found in winter. This eTrail provides detailed information on birding strategies for this specific location, the specialty birds and other key birds you might see, directions to each birding spot, a detailed map, and helpful general information.