Mallards, Canada geese, canvasbacks, cinnamon and green-winged teal, northern shovelers and ruddy ducks are common waterfowl species nesting and raising broods on the WMA. Several thousand white-faced ibis nest in scattered colonies throughout impoundment areas, and numerous gulls, terns, egrets, herons and grebes are common during spring and summer months. Bald and golden eagles are regular winter guests, while red-tailed and Swainson’s hawks, American kestrels and northern harriers are commonly observed during spring and summer months. Long-eared, short-eared and saw-whet owls frequently nest on Market Lake WMA lands. Mammals frequenting Market Lake WMA include both mule and white-tailed deer and a small moose population.Courtesy of idfg.idaho.gov

It would seem that in years past the bed of this lake was an immense prairie bottom or basin and a favorite resort for game of all kinds even indeed the buffalo have been killed in and near it in large numbers the evidence of which was shown by the skulls of the animals found near the present border of the lake So abundant indeed was the game here that the trappers and mountain men of that day who in squads and bands trapped and hunted in the wilderness of mountains always said to each other when their supply of subsistence grew scanty Let us go to the market referring to this resort of the herds of game and they never visited it in vain until by one of those strange freaks of nature in this valley of the Snake River which is fed at many points throughout its length by subterranean streams this market was converted into an immense sheet of water It is only accounted for by supposing that the streams making down from the Snake River Mountains and losing themselves in the sand or sage desert of the valley break forth or near the latter which is thus fed from year to year by the meltings of the snows and the rains from these mountains In order therefore to retain and hand down the name of this once favorable resort and the legend connected with it Lieut John Mullan of the Mullan Military Road qv named this sheet of water the Market Lake It is now entirely dry and its bed is being cultivated A town near by was called Market Lake but is now changed to Roberts named for a division superintendent of the Oregon Short Line Railroad. (Idaho Chronology, Nomenclature, Bibliography by John J. Reese) Courtesy of books.google.com