Category: Birding

Allan Mueller and I met at Camp early Wednesday morning to  go over the survey route that I would use when conducting the IBA surveys I had agreed to do.  It was cool and wet but sunny.  We started at the gun range and visited all of the areas that we knew to have habitat appropriate to Bachman’s Sparrow although they weren’t the only bird of interest for the survey.  It didn’t seem very birdy and certainly the numbers of individuals were not great but when we finished we had 69 species for the morning including 17 warblers and 4 first of year birds for me – Bachman’s Sparrow, Blackburnian Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, and American Redstart.  In the end, it was well worth the saturated shoes.

The map below shows the locations where Allan and I heard two Bachman’s Sparrows.  I think the road names are incorrect. The first was on the eastern side of a hill whose western side is Skid Tank Hill Road and from which you can see a corner of the nursery pond.  The third point in the upper left is where we encountered many of our 17 species of warbler.

I decided to try to make a quick visit to Allsopp Park in between bouts of rain.  I was partially successful, at I least I started between bouts of rain.  I walked up the paved trail barely able to hear anything over the roar of the hillside stream.  As I came around and walked back on a dirt trail above the steam I could start to hear a few birds.  Not many but I did hear at least two Cerulean Warbler and later was able to see one of them.  I was grateful to have the sighting confirm my identification by song.  New year bird for me.

I started the Sunday morning planning to bird Pinnacle Mountain State Park.  I knew it had rained overnight but had no idea how much.  I found part of Chenal Parkway closed and when I got around that, I found Highway 300 closed just north of Highway 10.  I decided to come around the other way via Pinnacle Valley Road but found it to also be closed where County Farm Road split off from it.  I decided to go down to the River Trail entrance under the I-430 bridge.  There I saw three floating docks, presumably from the private marina next to Maumelle Park floating in the Big Maumelle River waiting to join the Arkansas River.  At this point I decided to go home.  It was only after I got home that I learned we had had 4.5 inches of rain overnight.

After reading the many account of flooding, I’m glad I live on a hill.  Although that is no guarantee against water problems.  Susan Staffeld was stranded inside Pinnacle Mountain State Park.