I decided to make my first trip to the lake after hearing about gulf bird like the Magnificent Frigatebird and Sooty Terns being spotted there after Hurricane Gustav. The first would be a state bird for me and the other a lifer. I left Little Rock at 5:45 and arrived at Saratoga Landing at about 7:45. I almost immediately saw the frigatebird and soon after saw the reported Laughing Gull as well. I then went to Beard’s Bluff where there is a birding platform built just for us. Then to the Millwood State Park and finally to Okay Levee where I walked to the end of the levee and back which was about a 4 mile round trip. Now that I look at the Okay peninsula in Google Earth, it looks like it is crisscrossed with trails that might be fruitful. I’ll have to find out. While on Okay Levee I saw a small plover, 3 to be exact, mixed with some Killdeers that looked like Semipalmated Plovers when they flew but had no dark band across the chest. Same size as the SP. Not sure what it was.
I’ve broken my day list into the areas.
Species seen or heard:
Saratoga Landing:
• Great Egret
• Herring Gull (with a fish too large to swallow)
• Laughing Gull
• Magnificent Frigatebird
• Great Blue Heron
• Northern Mockingbird
• Turkey Vulture
• Snowy Egret
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Canada Goose
Beard’s Bluff
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow
• Eastern Wood-Pewee
• Bank Swallow
• Cliff Swallow
• Northern Cardinal
• Carolina Wren
• Carolina Chickadee
• Blue Jay
• Red-tailed Hawk
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Turkey Vulture
• Pine Warbler
Millwood State Park
• Canada Goose
• Turkey Vulture
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Blue Jay
• American Crow
• Great Egret
• Carolina Chickadee
• Northern Mockingbird
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Okay Levee
• Turkey Vulture
• Anhinga
• Carolina Wren
• Great Egret
• Snowy Egret
• Great Blue Heron
• Little Blue Heron
• Carolina Chickadee
• Carolina Wren
• American White Pelican
• Red-eyed Vireo
• Northern Mockingbird
• Least Sandpiper
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Belted Kingfisher
• Killdeer
• Caspian Tern
• Bald Eagle (with big fish)
• Cliff Swallow
• Barn Swallow
• Solitary Sandpiper
• American Crow
• Canada Goose
• Northern Cardinal
• Mourning Dove
