Category: Birding

I joined ASCA for a field trip to this site Russellville Saturday.  It was very cloudy and looked like rain was likely which kept attendance down.  In the end, 10 people attended.  We arrived at about 8:15 and walked first the “Old Shorty” section before switching to the western end.  In all we walked about 2.5 miles over four hours.  We didn’t see a lot unfortunately.

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Species seen or heard:

• Wood Duck
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Green Heron
• Red-shouldered Hawk
• Yellow-billed Cuckoo
• Barred Owl
• Belted Kingfisher
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Downy Woodpecker
• Northern Flicker
• Pileated Woodpecker
• Eastern Wood-Pewee
• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
• Yellow-throated Vireo
• Red-eyed Vireo
• Blue Jay
• American Crow
• Fish Crow
• Carolina Chickadee
• Tufted Titmouse
• Carolina Wren
• Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
• Gray Catbird
• Brown Thrasher
• Blue-winged Warbler
• Northern Parula
• Magnolia Warbler
• Pine Warbler
• Common Yellowthroat
• Wilson’s Warbler
• Northern Cardinal

I drove to Millwood Lake in SW Arkansas this morning where Charles Mills was nice enough to meet me and then help me out in my desire to add Tricolored Heron to my state list.  The day was overcast and the air was a bit hazy but there was no rain, at least then.  We walked down the Okay Levee and quickly came across first one then two more Tricolored Herons. I’m glad I had him to point them out.  I’ve seen them before, in Texas and Louisiana, but out there today they seemed tiny compared to the Great Blue Herons and I might have missed them. However, after a while I got were I could spot them easily enough.

We also saw 47 Wood Storks and 2 Roseate Spoonbills, two year birds for me.  There was also a number of American White Pelicans, a handful of Caspian and Forster’s Terns, one Sanderling, six Spotted Sandpipers, and one American Alligator.

The haze was less than ideal for photography but I had the camera so what else was I going to do?  Here are some images of pelicans and one of the Tricolored Herons.  Hope you like them.

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Species seen or heard:

• Wood Duck
• Blue-winged Teal
• Wild Turkey
• Great Blue Heron
• Great Egret
• Snowy Egret
• Little Blue Heron
• Tricolored Heron
• Roseate Spoonbill
• Wood Stork
• Turkey Vulture
• Spotted Sandpiper
• Sanderling
• Caspian Tern
• Belted Kingfisher
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Northern Flicker
• Eastern Phoebe
• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
• White-eyed Vireo
• American Crow
• American White Pelican
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Killdeer
• Least Tern
• Forster’s Tern
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Eastern Wood-Pewee
• Blue Jay
• Carolina Wren
• Magnolia Warbler
• Anhinga
• Pileated Woodpecker
• Fish Crow

I’m taking the day off from work and went to Saul’s this morning.  I went to the same pond that housed the Red-necked Phalarope last weekend.  The pond was a bit drier and a lot slower but still had about two hundred birds.  The highlight was probably the Black-bellied Plover and some Dunlin.  Besides that there the usual Pectoral, Western, Semipalmated, and Least Sandpipers, Yellowlegs of both sizes, Forster’s terns, five species of swallow, plus three but only three Semipalmated Plovers and loads of Killdeer and egrets.

Here is an image of the non-breeding plumage BBPL and another of mixed peeps:

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Species seen or heard:

• Northern Shoveler
• Great Blue Heron
• Great Egret
• Snowy Egret
• Black-bellied Plover
• Semipalmated Plover
• Killdeer
• Greater Yellowlegs
• Lesser Yellowlegs
• Semipalmated Sandpiper
• Western Sandpiper
• Least Sandpiper
• Pectoral Sandpiper
• Stilt Sandpiper
• Forster’s Tern
• Mourning Dove
• Tree Swallow
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow
• Bank Swallow
• Cliff Swallow
• Barn Swallow