Site Details

Banwart Prairie - Humboldt County

GPS Coordinates: 42.8932533806726, -94.3907724326709

Management: County

Description: Very small grassland area with small manmade 'duck pond' viewable from road. Purely a drive by site, or a park and look with binoculars site. Note Only the half that is west of the 'access road' is public property, east of access point is private property! It does sometimes host upland game hunters. Notable catches are Short-eared Owl and Western Kingbird. In the spring, the wide, shallow ditches (on both sides of C20) readily flood and if timed right have given great views of migrating shorebirds like Wilson's Phalaropes and Wilson's Snipe. Potential for some migrating rails. Occasionally will find an interesting puddle duck (Red Head or Canvasback). Northern Harriers regularly migrate through.

Habitat: Wet Grassland

Directions: Traveling on 169 turn west on C26. Continue on C26 for 8 miles, and turn North at Delaware Ave. Continue on Delaware Ave for 6 miles and then turn West onto C20 at the stop sign. Proceed west for a quarter mile. There will be a sign and you will see the pond. You can pull into a little culvert but should not proceed beyond fence (road is mostly mud…and you will get stuck especially in Spring). Otherwise you can drive by slowly and check out the fenceline, the pond or the back fencerow/hedge for any interesting movement.

Public Hunting Area Search for area boundary information on the DNR interactive atlas