It is most helpful when submitting eBird observations at Union Slough NWR to start a new checklist for each hotspot within the wildlife area. Use this general hotspot when you have a checklist that includes multiple locations or there was not a hotspot or personal location appropriate for your sightings.

Migrating waterfowl and shorebirds, breeding grassland species

Union Slough is all that remains of a pre-glacial riverbed. Actually, the area is a connection point, or union, between two watersheds - the Blue Earth River of Minnesota and the east fork of the Des Moines River. Before European settlement, the area was so level that the wind determined which way the slough flowed. Established in 1938 as a migratory waterfowl refuge, Union Slough National Wildlife Refuge provides critical habitat for native prairie and wetland wildlife in a landscape dominated by intensive agriculture.