I went by Cook’s Landing Friday afternoon to look for the Cackling Geese and Mute Swans that Donna Haynes had reported earlier. The geese were easy to spot, near the first parking lot, milling around with about 40 Canada Geese. See pictures below. The swans were a little harder, they had migrated across the Arkansas River to the Little Rock side. Fortunately, Karen Holliday was there and recovered them. Being across the river, they were too far for the camera. I hope you enjoy these cacklers.
Rufous Hummingbird 2/13/2011
I spent part of the last day of my 52nd year at the Haynes house shooting their wintering hummingbird. When he first arrived in October, it was debatable whether he was a Rufous or an Allen’s but all doubt has been dispelled. Sam and I rode with the obliging Boyles’. He made two visits in the hour we were there, approximately 20-30 minutes apart. Year bird number 105 for me.
Lonoke & Holla Bend CBCs 1/2/11 & 1/5/11
I decided to do more CBCs this year in attempt to finish out the year with a bang. As it turned out, several of those that I might have been interested in were on week days and I was busy at work and two of three I wound up doing were in January so I started with a bang rather than finish with one. On Sunday, I joined Bill Holliman and others for Lonoke. It started out cold but sunny with little wind. We didn’t come across anything unusual but by the end of the day we had about 66 species.
Three days later, I joined Dan Scheiman and others for the Holla Bend NWR CBC. It was another cold and sunny but wind free day, We had the area around the observation tower and including “County Loop Rd” in New Neely where Bewick’s Wren and Harris Sparrow’s can be found. We did in fact find those species and 66 more including a good look at two Barred Owls who were as surprised as we were.
