Posts

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.

4049

Sam and I joined ASCA this cold Saturday for a no expense paid tour of the waste water treatment ponds and Magness Lake for swans.  It was cold, sunny but well below freezing all day long, the coldest day of winter so far and probably the coldest day of the entire winter to come.

We arrived at the sewage ponds at 12:30.  All but one of the ponds were completely frozen over and that one was mostly frozen.  Ducks and geese were mostly walking around on the ice.  No extraordinary finds but we did have 51 Hooded Mergansers, about 50 Ring-billed Gull, abound 20 each of Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, and Common Goldeneye, plus smaller numbers of Shoveler and Black Vulture.

Later we arrived at Magness Lake. As expected there were many Trumpeter Swans (good), plus many Ring-necked Ducks and Canada Goose which are also regulars.  Unusual birds there were 1 Canvasback, 1 Mute Swan, 1 maybe more Cackling Goose, 4 Ross’s Goose, 1 Snow Goose (who knew there was ever just one?), 1 Wood Duck, and 1 American Wigeon.

Due to the early date, I picked 17 year birds bringing that list to 88 by day’s end.

39743959396239833998

I wanted to check out Lake Dardanelle as I hadn’t been there in a while so Angie and I left the house early Saturday morning.  Following that axiom of land birds early, water birds later, we went to Holla Bend first.  Things were kind of slow there but I did walk down a short trail off the river section of the auto trail and found quite a few Ring-billed Gulls, cormorants and herons.  Later I was able to add Western Meadowlark to my state and year lists through their song.

At Lake Dardanelle, we saw many Ring-billed Gulls and American Coots, one Herring Gull, about 15 American White Pelicans, and a smattering of other birds.  Overall, it was kind of disappointing but better than sitting at home.

391739113914