I joined Karen H, Dan S & Samantha H, for a trip to Holla Bend this morning. My own Sam was away. We got there at 9 AM joining the DOBC group. Target birds were American Tree Sparrow, Townsend’s Solitaire, and Rough-legged Hawk all of which had been reported on the Holla Bend CBC. It was cloudy all day but the temperatures were moderate, especially after last weekend’s 20+ degree weather. Long story short, we spent 6 hours there mostly walking around but saw neither the sparrow nor the solitaire but literally at the end of the day we saw at a distance the Rough-legged Hawk. He disappeared when we tried to get close but we saw all the field marks including the diagnostic dark patches at the wrists. According to my records, I saw one in Arkansas in 87 but I don’t recall it so it’s almost like a life bird and was a life or state bird for the rest of us.
We also saw about ten armadillos (most alive), two opossums, and one skunk. The skunk was funny, he came jogging down the other fork of a trail we were walking on like he was late for something. Completely oblivious to us. We decided it would be best to leave him alone. He did become aware of us at about 50 feet and the walked off into the grass. We were all thankful since we had no tomato juice with us.
