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I just returned from Lake Maumelle.  I started at the Hundley Road Causeway where we’ve seen Pacific, Red-throated, and even Yellow-billed Loons in recent years.  No exotics there today but I did see 16 Common Loons and about as many Ring-billed Gulls.

Then I headed east and decided to stop at the old marina between the causeway I was just at and Loon Point.  There I saw about 60 Ring-billed Gulls getting ready to roost on a sandbar. I also saw about 6 Horned Grebe and about 10 Greater Scaup. A few minutes later a juvenile Bald Eagle started harassing the scaup but gave up before too long.

Finally I stopped at Loon Point which lived up to its name giving me a view of about 5 Common Loons.

The seeing was better than usual with little or no heat shimmers on the water.

I went to Two Rivers Park Sunday morning in hopes of finding winter sparrows.  I parked at the kayak launch so that I could walk up the backwater with the Sun to my back instead of in my eyes, then through the big field, and finally the horse trail loop.  I saw 29 species in all. not counting deer and butterflies, including Field Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, both Kinglets, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and an American Kestrel who seems to be hanging out at the horse trailer parking lot ( I saw him there before).  It was a beautiful fall morning, not that we couldn’t use the rain.