This Thanksgiving morning, I put the turkey in the oven and then headed to Bell Slough WMA for a few hours (leaving people at home to watch the bird). Figuring that hunters might be less plentiful at the main entrance, especially on Thanksgiving, that is where I went. There was one vehicle there and I had birded for over 30 minutes before hearing my first shotgun blasts and those were in the distance. I walked the big waterfowl rest area first then took to the trail after the rest area seemed rather slow. I did hear what might have been a hunter’s duck call in the rest area but the birds weren’t distressed nor was there ever any shooting going on. It was mainly Coots. I can’t say I saw anything exotic. Later after the meal and processing pictures from the day, I went to Lake Maumelle to see if there were anything exciting there. Again it was kind of slow there.
