Moose Junction Peatlands

 

Site Description

This is vast, flat, poorly drained area contains numerous wetland habitats including muskeg, open bog, conifer wetlands, black ash swamp, sedge meadow, and alder thicket. The uplands are forested mostly with aspen and sugar maple, and some spruce-fir.

Moose Junction Peatlands, photo by Andy Paulios

Moose Junction Peatlands, photo by Eric Epstein

Ornithological Importance

A diverse breeding avifauna includes American bittern, yellow rail, northern harrier, black-backed woodpecker, black-billed cuckoo and very high numbers of alder flycatcher, Nashville warbler, chestnut-sided warbler, Blackburnian warbler, Connecticut warbler, mourning warbler, rose-breasted grosbeak, and Le Conte’s sparrow, among others. This site contains some of the best golden-winged warbler habitat in the state, with an estimated population of several thousand pairs.

Photo Credits: Andy Paulios, Eric Epstein