My friend Allan emailed week before last to see if I’d be interested in a dash to the Gulf Coast to see a rare Black-tailed Godwit at the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge near Houston. So we left Saturday morning and arrived there at 3:15 in the afternoon. Allan had the location that the bird had been seen and within about 20 minutes the bird was spotted. This rare bird was big news and we encountered about 20 more birders while we were there and seemed like we were soon the experts. After feeling good about the identification, we took the auto tour through the refuge seeing a bunch of other birds that were common there though many were rare in Arkansas. After doing the tour we voted on whether to head back immediately or go to Port Arthur so that we could visit the Sabine Woods Sanctuary (to see an also rare Tropical Mockingbird) and Sea Rim State Park the next morning. The night in Port Arthur was unanimous and we came dragging into that town about 9:45. The next morning we visited the sanctuary which doubles as a mosquito sanctuary and soon added Tropical Mockingbird to my life list. This bird has been there all summer and in fact has mated with a regular Northern Mockingbird and produced a hybrid baby which we also saw. Sorry, no pictures of the rare mocker I was afraid to take my binos off her while trying to confirm she was the bird. Finally, at Sea Rim SP we saw plenty of shorebirds and other kinds including a third lifer for me the Seaside Sparrow. In all, we saw 75 species of birds including all of the herons and egrets and all of the godwit species.
Greater Roadrunner
I’ve seen roadrunners a few times in my life but since I got back into birding five years ago, they’ve been a nemesis bird for me. I finally got a unsatisfactory glimpse of one last year breaking the spell. Last Sunday, I was visiting Dierks Lake in SW Arkansas looking for Cerulean Warbler when I drove past one on the side of the road. I slammed on the brakes (it was a very lightly traveled road) backed up, then quietly getting out the camera and out of the car. My bird was very cooperative, maybe he likes having his picture taken. Here is the best of the lot.
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
During my first birding life, I made a trip to Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge to get a glimpse of this perhaps most threatened bird in Arkansas. Back in those days that was the only place in Arkansas or much of anywhere else they could be found due to their requirements. Perhaps the main reason for their decline was that they preferred to drill cavities in living pine trees that were old enough to get a certain disease that softened the wood, typically about 80+ years. Since the timber and paper industries cut trees more on the order of 30 years the number of habitats were devastated in the 20th century. That day I got a single glimpse of one bird. Now, at least 25 years later, things have improved for the RCW. Since that time, RCWs have been actively managed so that their numbers have increased and they can now be found in a number of locations such as Warren Prairie Natural Area, Pine City, somewhere in the Ouachitas, and other places. On June 2, ASCA went to Warren Prairie and saw three individuals including this one at an artificial nest. Since it takes 80 years to get an 80 year old tree, conservationists have started creating these artificial nests, literally bird houses inserted into the living pine tree, so that the RCW doesn’t require the years it would normally take them to excavate the dwelling. Click images for larger views.
