Bill Shepherd & Dan Scheiman first spotted the rare (for Arkansas) Vermillion Flycatcher at Stuttgart Municipal Airport on Friday the 9th. I got a call from Dottie that night telling me that she, Doris, and Karen were heading there Saturday morning and were saving a spot for me and Sam. So we bundled up and headed out. We arrived at the airport at 8:15 and went to the location Dan provided. Lots of White-crowned Sparrows, thousands of Snow Geese, a few Ross’s Geese, aand assortment of other birds but no easy to spot flycatcher. So we walked around in the 30+ degree but thankfully no wind weather. For two hours. Then at 10:30, when he deemed it warm enough to look for insects, the flycatcher arrived. Flitting from tree to rice stubble to bush, he stayed there the entire rest of the time we were there. I had seen one out west about 25 years ago but not since and not in Arkansas. It was a life bird for Sam and several others.
