Category: Birding

When I got up Monday morning, I heard a report of the Red Phalarope spotted at Big Lake WMA on Sunday.  Dang!  Why couldn’t it have been found on Saturday?  A little later after I got to work, I got another email saying it was still there Monday morning!  Then I started wondering if maybe I ought to try to chase it.  I asked around and found some birders interested in going and got permission to take off and the off we went.  It took us right at 3 hours to get there, arriving at 4 PM.  I saw my first Bald Eagles in a few months right off. Then we found the spot where he had been seen and from inside the car spotted the small rock colored bird swimming in the water among the rocks of the bank.

He was not in the least concerned with us and we awarded good looks for over an hour.  We checked the AAS database and this species had not been seen in Arkansas since 1988! I hope he’ll stay around for a day or more giving other people a chance to see this rare bird but its likely he’ll fly away soon.

My complete Red Phalarope album can be found here.

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Here is a map showing where the bird was found.

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I appeared to have the entire park to myself today.  It could have something to do with the 20 degree drop in temperature and the rain.  Whatever the reason, no one was there.

Birding started off with a bang when I heard and then saw an Osprey as I started off.  Normally, I might see one Osprey per year but I’ve seen three in as many weekends.  They could conceivably be the same one but since they are migratory that doesn’t seem likely.

The birds, like people, were subdued by the rain but I did see a larger than normal groups of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Eastern Bluebirds. Usually, I see just a few and not in big groups.  I also saw about 50 Chimney Swifts overhead. They won’t be here much longer and maybe they were heading not East but down river. I don’t know what their migration path is.

The coolest thing I saw was a House Wren.  It was unusual in that it has flank stripes and a weak eye stripe.   Those features could be a sign of a Winter Wren but this bird had a longer tail than a WIWR, a bifurcated bill, and was the right color for a House Wren.  It was in the east-most of the two big plum thickets north of the paved trail.

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Species seen or heard:

• Double-crested Cormorant
• Great Egret
• Osprey
• Cooper’s Hawk
• Red-shouldered Hawk
• Chimney Swift
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Eastern Phoebe
• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
• Blue Jay
• American Crow
• Carolina Chickadee
• Tufted Titmouse
• Carolina Wren
• House Wren
• Eastern Bluebird
• Northern Mockingbird
• Brown Thrasher
• Common Yellowthroat
• Song Sparrow
• Indigo Bunting
• Red-winged Blackbird

I visited Holla Bend and Lake Dardanelle Saturday morning.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  I did not see large numbers of birds but I did see a variety of hawks including three unusuals plus a few first of seasons.  In Dardanelle, near the high school I saw a Peregrine Falcon as I drove by.  Later, at Holla Bend, I saw what I originally thought was another Peregrine but which turned out to be a juvenile female Boreal (or Taiga) Merlin eating a meal on the wing.  Thanks to everyone who helped with the identification.  I think the meal might be a Brown-headed Nuthatch.  Later I saw a very pale Red-tailed Hawk.  I initially thought it was a Krider’s Hawk but later had doubts. I email William S. Clark (author of several hawk books) and he told me it was not a Krider’s or light morph Harlan’s but just the palest of “normal” Red-tailed Hawks.  I also picked up five first of season Northern Pintail ducks.  At the Lake Dardanelle Dam I saw first of season Ring-billed Gulls (2) and Herring Gull (1).

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Species seen or heard at Holla Bend NWR:

• Mallard
• Northern Shoveler
• Northern Pintail
• Great Egret
• Green Heron
• Turkey Vulture
• Northern Harrier
• Red-shouldered Hawk
• Red-tailed Hawk
• American Kestrel
• Merlin
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Northern Flicker
• Pileated Woodpecker
• Eastern Phoebe
• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
• Blue Jay
• American Crow
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow
• Barn Swallow
• Carolina Chickadee
• Gray Catbird
• Northern Mockingbird
• Northern Cardinal
• Indigo Bunting
• Eastern Meadowlark