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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.

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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.

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We went to Magness Lake this afternoon; I was hoping to add Mute and Tundra Swans to my year list.  Unfortunately, neither was around.  I talked to a woman named Pat (I think), one of the owners, and she was very helpful.  She had not heard about the sighting of a Mute Swan earlier this week but had heard Tundra Swans several times recently.  There were about 75 swans there and I studied them all but all were Trumpeters.  No hint of yellow or orange in the bills.  I was glad to have them but I was hoping for a trifecta.

There were also one Ross’s Geese, one dark adult Snow Goose, one Snow Goose x Ross’s Goose hybrid, one Greater White-fronted Goose, about 100 Ring-necked Ducks, plus a smattering of more common birds.

I finished the year with 263 Arkansas species seen in 2009, 303 seen in Arkansas in my life list, 438 in my global life list.

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Species seen or heard:

• Greater White-fronted Goose
• Snow Goose
• Snow x Ross’s Goose (hybrid)
• Ross’s Goose
• Canada Goose
• Trumpeter Swan
• Mallard
• Ring-necked Duck
• Bufflehead
• Great Blue Heron
• Black Vulture
• Turkey Vulture
• Carolina Chickadee