I had trouble deciding between going to Bell Slough WMA or Gillam Park in SW Little Rock this morning. Finally I decided on the latter and I’m glad. I hadn’t gone too far into the park when a Hooded Warbler made an appearance. He was soon joined by a couple more and a Worm-eating Warbler. Further down, after the second gate I found a Louisiana Waterthrush, a Red-eyed Vireo and single Indigo Bunting. All five were first of season for me. I walked all the way down on what I consider the main trail and then back via the orange trail following the creek. I picked up 35 species in all plus four turtle, two making whoopee, all of the same as yet undetermined species, plus 9 species of butterfly and four species of dragonfly that I need to identify when I get a chance. Gillam is a great place and I don’t think I have ever been disappointed going there.
Bald Knob NWR 4/9/2011
Karen Holliday and I made the second in a series of trips to BKNWR Saturday. In a previous post I explained the survey and so won’t do so again. This time the temperature was warmer and much windier, gusting to about 20MPH. The total numbers of birds were down from last week, but hopefully that will turn around soon. In the 3.5 hours we were there, we saw 43 species of bird including the following first of season birds (for me at least): Peregrine Falcon, Black-necked Stilt, Willet, and Prothonotary Warbler. Outside of the survey, I also saw first of season Green Heron and Chimney Swift.
Bald Knob NWR 4/2/2011
Karen Holliday and I birded BKNWR Saturday as part of a shorebird monitoring program for national Audubon. Our challenge was to count everything, especially shorebirds, that was using a predetermined 200+ acre area in the national wildlife refuge. We arrived at our area at 8:55 and spent the next three hours scanning the area. The weather was great, sunny, not too hot not too cold, not too windy. The place wasn’t as birdy as it was two weeks ago when we had determined the area of the survey but still we got 40 species including breeding plumage Bonaparte’s Gull (a rarity for me since they are about to leave) and a first of season Semipalmated Sandpiper. The shore birds seen were American Golden-Plover, Killdeer, Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs, Least Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Wilson’s Snipe, and the aforementioned Semipalmated Sandpiper.
We then drove down to Saul’s Fish Farm to get another look at the Long-tailed Duck that Karen had identified there last week. That day one week ago it had been 45 degrees and a constant wind and inconstant drizzle. This day it was an order of magnitude nicer, if you could measure nice weather. The duck was there, plus a smattering of other ducks and shorebirds plus 7 first of season Baird’s Sandpiper.
