Field Checklist for Shimek Forest ___American Robin* ___Grasshopper Sparrow* ___Dickcissel* *=confirmed or likely area breeder ___Olive-sided Flycatcher ___Henslow’s Sparrow* ___Bobolink* Iowa Wildlife Action Plan Migratory Species of ___Eastern Wood-Pewee* ___Gray Catbird* ___LeConte’s Sparrow ___Red-winged Blackbird* Shimek Forest ___Yellow-bellied Flycatcher ___Northern Mockingbird* ___Fox Sparrow ___Eastern Meadowlark* Greatest Conservation Need ___Acadian Flycatcher* ___Brown Thrasher* ___Song Sparrow* ___Western Meadowlark Iowa Wildlife Action Plan Nesting Species of ___Alder Flycatcher ___Lincoln’s Sparrow ___Rusty Blackbird Greatest Conservation Need ___Willow Flycatcher* ___European Starling* ___Swamp Sparrow ___Common Grackle* ___Least Flycatcher* ___White-throated Sparrow ___Brown-headed Cowbird* ___Eastern Phoebe* ___American Pipit ___Harris’s Sparrow ___Orchard Oriole* Bird Conservation ___Greater White-fronted ___Solitary Sandpiper ___Great Crested Flycatcher* ___White-crowned Sparrow ___Baltimore Oriole* Goose ___Greater Yellowlegs ___Eastern Kingbird* ___Cedar Waxwing* ___Dark-eyed Junco ___Snow Goose ___Lesser Yellowlegs ___Purple Finch Area ___Ross’s Goose ___Upland Sandpiper ___Loggerhead Shrike* ___Lapland Longspur ___Summer Tanager* ___House Finch* ___Canada Goose* ___Semipalmated Sandpiper ___Northern Shrike ___Scarlet Tanager* ___Red Crossbill ___Trumpeter Swan ___Least Sandpiper ___Ovenbird* ___Northern Cardinal* ___Pine Siskin* ___Wood Duck* ___White-rumped Sandpiper ___White-eyed Vireo* ___Worm-eating Warbler* ___Rose-breasted Grosbeak* ___American Goldfinch* ___Gadwall ___Pectoral Sandpiper ___Bell’s Vireo* ___Louisiana Waterthrush* ___Blue Grosbeak* ___House Sparrow* ___American Wigeon ___Wilson’s Snipe ___Yellow-throated Vireo* ___Northern Waterthrush ___Indigo Bunting* ___Eurasian Tree Sparrow ___Mallard* ___American Woodcock* ___Blue-headed Vireo ___Golden-winged Warbler ___Northern Shoveler ___Warbling Vireo* ___Blue-winged Warbler* ___Northern Pintail ___Franklin’s Gull ___Philadelphia Vireo ___Black-and-white Warbler* ___Blue-winged Teal* ___Ring-billed Gull ___Red-eyed Vireo* ___Prothonotary Warbler ___Green-winged Teal ___Herring Gull ___Tennessee Warbler ___Ring-necked Duck ___Caspian Tern Canada Warbler ___Blue Jay* ___Orange-crowned Warbler Photo by Jeremy Meyer ___Lesser Scaup ___Forster’s Tern ___American Crow* ___Nashville Warbler ___Hooded Merganser* ___Connecticut Warbler ___Rock Pigeon* ___Horned Lark* ___Mourning Warbler ___Northern Bobwhite* ___Eurasian Collared-Dove* ___Kentucky Warbler* ___Ring-necked Pheasant* ___Mourning Dove* ___Purple Martin* ___Common Yellowthroat* ___Wild Turkey* ___Tree Swallow* ___Hooded Warbler* ___Yellow-billed Cuckoo* ___Northern Rough-winged ___American Redstart* ___Pied-billed Grebe ___Black-billed Cuckoo* Swallow* ___Cape May Warbler

___Bank Swallow* ___Cerulean Warbler* ___American White Pelican ___Barn Owl ___Cliff Swallow* ___Northern Parula* ___Double-crested Cormorant ___Eastern Screech-Owl* ___Barn Swallow* ___Magnolia Warbler ___Great Horned Owl* ___Bay-breasted Warbler ___Great Blue Heron* ___Barred Owl* ___Black-capped Chickadee* ___Blackburnian Warbler ___Great Egret ___Long-eared Owl ___Tufted Titmouse* ___Yellow Warbler* ___Snowy Egret ___Short-eared Owl ___Chestnut-sided Warbler* ___Cattle Egret ___Northern Saw-Whet Owl ___Red-breasted Nuthatch ___Blackpoll Warbler ___Green Heron* ___White-breasted Nuthatch* ___Black-throated Blue ___Yellow-crowned Night- ___Common Nighthawk* Iowa Department of Natural Resources Warbler Heron ___Chuck-will’s-widow* ___Brown Creeper ___Palm Warbler 1436 255th St. ___Eastern Whip-poor-will* ___Pine Warbler* ___Turkey Vulture* Boone, IA 50036 ___Carolina Wren* ___Yellow-rumped Warbler ___Chimney Swift* Phone: (515) 432-2823 ___Bewick’s Wren* ___Yellow-throated Warbler* ___Osprey ___Ruby-throated Fax: (515) 432-2835 ___House Wren* ___Prairie Warbler* ___Bald Eagle* Hummingbird* ___Winter Wren ___Black-throated Green ___Northern Harrier ___Sedge Wren* Warbler ___Sharp-shinned Hawk ___Belted Kingfisher* Federal and State law prohibits employment and/or public ac- ___Marsh Wren* ___Canada Warbler ___Cooper’s Hawk* commodation (such as access to services or physical facilities) ___Wilson’s Warbler ___Red-shouldered Hawk* ___Red-headed discrimination on the basis of age, color, creed, disability (mental ___Blue-gray Gnatcatcher* ___Yellow-breasted Chat* ___Broad-winged Hawk* Woodpecker* and/or physical), gender identity, national origin, pregnancy,

___Red-tailed Hawk* ___Red-bellied Woodpecker* race, religion, sex or sexual orientation. If you believe you have ___Golden-crowned Kinglet ___Spotted Towhee ___Rough-legged Hawk ___Yellow-bellied Sapsucker been discriminated against in any program, activity or facility as ___Ruby-crowned Kinglet ___Eastern Towhee* ___Downy Woodpecker* described above, or if you desire further information, contact the ___American Tree Sparrow Photo by Doug Harr ___Sora ___Hairy Woodpecker* Iowa Civil Rights Commission at 1-800-457-4416, or write to: ___Eastern Bluebird* ___Chipping Sparrow* ___American Coot ___Northern Flicker* Director, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Wallace State ___Veery* ___Clay-colored Sparrow ___Pileated Woodpecker* Office Building, 502 E. 9th, Des Moines, Iowa 50319-0034. ___Gray-cheeked Thrush ___Field Sparrow* ___American Golden-plover Lee and Van Buren ___Swainson’s Thrush ___Vesper Sparrow* ___Semipalmated Plover ___American Kestrel* ___Hermit Thrush ___Lark Sparrow* Produced by Natalie Randall, Bruce Ehresman, and Shane Patterson, 2012 ___Killdeer* ___Merlin ___Wood Thrush* ___Savannah Sparrow Updated by Julia Dale, AmeriCorps, 2014 ___Spotted Sandpiper* ___Peregrine Falcon Counties occurring warbler Southern Leopard Frog hollow branches and cavities in Pine Warbler IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS Ryan Rasmussen species can be found, Photo courtesy these woodlands to set up USFWS Audubon’s Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program is a including the relatively nursery colonies. Bottomland global effort to identify and conserve areas that are rare Pine Warbler! forest pools support vital to birds and other biodiversity. Designated IBAs May is usually the best Smallmouth Salamanders and include sites for breeding, wintering, and/or month to observe the Plains Leopard Frogs, both migrating birds. All Iowa Bird Conservation Areas are warbler migration. relatively common in the also Important Bird Areas. southern third of the state. SHIMEK FOREST DIVERSITY Smooth Earth Snakes, Speckled BIRD CONSERVATION AREAS PLANTS King Snakes, and Slender Glass Shimek Forest Within the last two decades, alarming declines in a Much of the Shimek Forest BCA is composed of Lizards, all SGCN, may be seen in woodland and large number of species of North American birds have deciduous oak-hickory species woodland edge habitats within the Shimek Forest led to the emergence of national and international like Black, Bur, and Shingle Oak, BCA. Ponds along these woodland edges may also The Shimek Forest Bird Conservation Area (BCA) is programs dedicated to the conservation of game and as well as Butternut and harbor the Blue Corporal, a dragonfly species that has located in the far southeast corner of Iowa and runs non-game birds. Since 1999, bird conservation Shagbark Hickory. Bottomland only been documented in the far southeast corner of parallel along the east side of the Des Moines River organizations and hardwood areas include Red and Iowa. Records of SGCN butterflies like the Ozark near where it drains into the Mississippi River. enthusiasts have worked White Elm, Green Ash, and Baltimore Checkerspot, found in dry upland forest, Dedicated in 2006, this was Iowa’s eighth official together under an umbrella Black Walnut. However, this and the Pipevine Swallowtail, found in old-growth BCA. With portions of the boundary in both Lee and called the North American BCA also includes some woodlands, have also been reported in this area of the Van Buren counties, this BCA encompasses over Bird Conservation coniferous forest made up of state. 80,000 acres of land, of which over 8,000 acres are Initiative to “conserve all pine, spruce, and larch, a result protected. Although the majority of the land cover birds in all habitats.” As False Hellebore of plantations created by the PARTNERSHIPS Mark Leoschke here is forest (~44%), about 35% of the area is part of this initiative and in Civilian Conservation Corps in Partners in the creation of the Shimek Forest BCA classified as grassland/savanna. Because of this habitat A BCA Model: shaded areas an effort to protect the 1930’s. Understory flora of upland forest areas include the Lee and Van Buren County Conservation depict public habitat protected for include the Iowa threatened False Hellebore, as well as diversity, a broad range of avian assemblages can be birds; white is private land. dwindling populations of Boards, the Natural Resource Conservation Service, found within the Shimek Forest BCA. many Iowa birds, the Bird the more common Hepatica, Bloodroot, and the Iowa chapter of the National Wild Turkey Conservation Area (BCA) program was established Solomon's Seal. The Iowa endangered Virginia Because Shimek Forest makes up one of the largest Federation, Iowa Audubon, the Iowa Natural Heritage by the Iowa DNR Wildlife Bureau in 2001. Snakeroot, a type of “pipevine”, can be found under Foundation, the Iowa Department of Natural tracts of contiguous woodland in the state of Iowa, it is dense stands of oak-hickory forest. Look for Wild considered critical nesting habitat for large-forest The present model BCA encompasses at least 10,000 Resources, and various private landowners. Garlic and Monkey Flower in bottomland hardwood species like the acres of public and/or private lands with at least 25 forests and Tick Trefoil and Wild Geranium in Cerulean Warbler, percent of the area established as key bird habitat. Veery woodland-to-prairie transition areas. Jim Durbin Veery, Acadian This concept is backed by research that suggests viable ANIMALS Flycatcher, and Broad- bird populations require conservation efforts at a The mix of deciduous and winged Hawk (all of landscape-oriented level. Each Broad-winged Hawk coniferous forest and Pipevine Swallowtail which are Species of BCA should also include a Bob MacInnes Bill Weaver grassland making up this Greatest Conservation large “core” area of protected BCA provides a diverse Need [SGCN] in high- q u a l i t y h a b i t a t . suite of habitat for a Iowa). Many migratory Surrounding this core are variety of animals. SGCN also use the private lands, plus additional Southern Flying Squirrels Shimek Forest BCA, such as the Olive-sided public tracts, managed for take advantage of the Flycatcher, Rusty Blackbird, Golden-winged Warbler, good bird habitat or at least acorns and nuts produced and Canada Warbler. With regards to warblers, this is maintained to be neutral in by the oak-hickory forests, and Evening Bats use the one of two BCAs where all of Iowa’s regularly how they affect bird life.