Posts

Samantha and I joined 6 other intrepid birders to brave the blue skies and mild temperatures and bird Millwood Lake Saturday morning.  We started Beard’s Bluff Recreational Area, then moved to the state park to search for the Rock Wren that Charles Mills had discovered (found it), then to Beard’s Lake for a mosquito survey, and finally a wrap up back at Beard’s Bluff.  We didn’t cover a lot of ground but we had a full day of lovely weather and my pedometer read 19,000 steps by the end of the day.

Here are some images from the day or go here for my recent images.

3262326832533259329832473244

Species seen or heard:

• American Avocet
• American Coot
• American Crow
• American Pipit
• American White Pelican
• American Wigeon
• Bald Eagle
• Belted Kingfisher
• Black Vulture
• Blue Jay
• Brown-headed Nuthatch
• Canada Goose
• Carolina Chickadee
• Carolina Wren
• Chipping Sparrow
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Eastern Bluebird
• Eastern Phoebe
• Fish Crow
• Forster’s Tern
• Franklin’s Gull
• Gadwall
• Great Blue Heron
• Great Egret
• Greater Scaup
• Horned Grebe
• Killdeer
• Mourning Dove
• Northern Flicker
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow
• Osprey
• Pied-billed Grebe
• Pine Warbler
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Redhead
• Red-shouldered Hawk
• Ring-billed Gull
• Rock Pigeon
• Rock Wren
• Ruddy Duck
• Tufted Titmouse
• Turkey Vulture
• White-breasted Nuthatch
• White-crowned Sparrow
• White-throated Sparrow
• Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

I went to TRP Saturday morning because I needed to be close to home and then again on Sunday because I just couldn’t get excited about going anywhere.  Maybe the seemingly constant cloud cover had something to do with that.  Since I had just been there, I decided to try another part of the park.  Instead of the main trail and big field surrounding it where I birded Saturday, I parked at the next area and walked toward the confluence of the two rivers.  Right at the start there is a field of tall grass and I could hear birds so I went in.  The grass was eye level but not difficult.  I followed deer tails as much as I could and soon found perhaps 30 Sedge Wrens.  They did not seem at all concerned about me and many times they landed too close for the camera.  Eventually I emerged from the tall grass and walked the rest of the length of that trail and there got a good view of an Osprey.  The interesting thing is I’ve seen an Osprey at TRP or Cook’s Landing each of the last four weekends.  Since they are in migration, I expect it’s not the same one but since this bird is not symmetrical he should be easy to spot again.

3175 3166 3172 3169

Species seen or heard at TRP on either Saturday or Sunday:

• American Crow
• Bald Eagle
• Belted Kingfisher
• Blue Jay
• Brown Thrasher
• Canada Goose
• Carolina Chickadee
• Carolina Wren
• Common Yellowthroat
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Downy Woodpecker
• Eastern Bluebird
• Eastern Phoebe
• European Starling
• Gray Catbird
• Great Blue Heron
• Great Egret
• House Finch
• House Wren
• Indigo Bunting
• Killdeer
• Lincoln’s Sparrow
• Mourning Dove
• Northern Cardinal
• Northern Flicker
• Northern Mockingbird
• Osprey
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Red-shouldered Hawk
• Red-tailed Hawk
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
• Sedge Wren
• Sharp-shinned Hawk
• Snow Goose
• Song Sparrow
• Swamp Sparrow
• Turkey Vulture

When I got up Monday morning, I heard a report of the Red Phalarope spotted at Big Lake WMA on Sunday.  Dang!  Why couldn’t it have been found on Saturday?  A little later after I got to work, I got another email saying it was still there Monday morning!  Then I started wondering if maybe I ought to try to chase it.  I asked around and found some birders interested in going and got permission to take off and the off we went.  It took us right at 3 hours to get there, arriving at 4 PM.  I saw my first Bald Eagles in a few months right off. Then we found the spot where he had been seen and from inside the car spotted the small rock colored bird swimming in the water among the rocks of the bank.

He was not in the least concerned with us and we awarded good looks for over an hour.  We checked the AAS database and this species had not been seen in Arkansas since 1988! I hope he’ll stay around for a day or more giving other people a chance to see this rare bird but its likely he’ll fly away soon.

My complete Red Phalarope album can be found here.

31453148

Here is a map showing where the bird was found.

35.866209
90.100522