With their distinctive blue speculum patch creating a Flash of Blues, a large flock of mallards take flight from a marsh in northwest Missouri. Hundreds of thousands of ducks and geese migrate through every spring and fall, as Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge is a major stopover for the Mississippi flyway. Along with these huge numbers of waterfowl, bald eagles also migrate to the refuge in the hundreds hoping to feast on the smaller birds. If the timing is right, Loess Bluffs can be a birder’s paradise.