Category: Birding

Angie, Sam, and I went to Lake Dardanelle and Holla Bend NWR Saturday morning.  The promised sunshine never showed but the weather was okay otherwise.  Probably the best bird of the day was this 1st winter Lesser Black-backed Gull.  At first I thought he was a first winter Herring Gull but after more looks I realized the field marks pointed to the LBBG.  Both are uncommon though not super rare. At Holla Bend NWR, we found all of the American Robins.  I think it must have been their annual conference because they were all there. Other than the robins we didn’t see much at HB, though we did get our first of year Bald Eagle. Of course, first of years are not hard right now.

Also shown below are a couple American Coots. Not that you could tell from any picture I ever took but they do have eyes.

My friend Lenore is having good success with rare birds this winter. First it was a Black-chinned Hummingbird at Thanksgiving which is still visiting. Now she has a Lesser Goldfinch, a smaller cousin to the familiar American Goldfinch from the western US.  I went over New Years morning and waited, not too long, for the LEGO to show up.  I didn’t have long to wait before first the hummingbird then the goldfinch made an appearance.  The goldfinch sat in a big bush for a while letting everyone else eat first then finally cam down for seeds.  It was cloudy and considering rain so my pictures were grainy and otherwise lousy but I got a few that were good enough for identification.  Here is the best.

On December 23rd I heard that Don Simons, Park Interpreter at Mount Magazine State Park, found 4 Townsend’s Solitaires. These are thrushes like Bluebirds and Robins but looking more like Northern Mockingbirds from way out west. They are rare visitors to Arkansas and most of the Arkansas sightings are from Mount Magazine. Don didn’t just happen across them, the abundance of cedar berries this year led him to search for them. Don put out the word and the next day, Christmas Eve, Sam & Angie and I drove to see them. We did and now Sam has a new life bird and I have a new state bird.