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It was a beautiful morning, sunny with temps in the low seventies. Weird for July but who’s complaining?  I arrived at 7:55 and started on Coal Chute Road.  I went down to the grain silos and then turned west. The first significant water was in the third row of fields west of Coal Chute. There were plenty of herons and egrets plus a few stilts and ducks including a Muscovy (not sure if that’s a goose or a big duck).  I saw at least two Northern Shovelers there.  Later I went by the Wood Stork trees mainly south of this area and saw a Black-crowned Night-heron.  I then drove the perimeter of the refuge but did not see anything else notable. I left at 11:30 having travelled 17.6 miles in the refuge.

The attached map show the location of the Black-crowned Night-heron.

35.252319
91.592454

• European Starling
• Mourning Dove
• Barn Swallow
• Common Grackle
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Northern Mockingbird
• Eurasian Collared-Dove
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Dickcissel
• Indigo Bunting
• Great Egret
• Snowy Egret
• Great Blue Heron
• Little Blue Heron
• Eastern Bluebird
• Least Sandpiper
• Killdeer
• American Crow
• White-eyed Vireo
• Muscovy
• Black-necked Stilt
• Mallard
• Northern Shoveler
• Pied-billed Grebe
• Eastern Meadowlark
• Yellow-billed Cuckoo
• Tufted Titmouse
• Carolina Wren
• Northern Parula
• Black-crowned Night-Heron
• Carolina Chickadee
• Eastern Wood-Pewee
• Blue Grosbeak
• Common Yellowthroat
• Turkey Vulture
• Yellow-breasted Chat
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Summer Tanager
• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Since I drove two hours each way yesterday, I stayed close to home today.  I arrived at 7:30, walked about a mile, and left at about 9 AM.  The birding was kind of slow and I remembered the Killdeer chicks at the commuter parking lot from yesterday and wanted to take pictures of them.

Species seen or heard:

Since I drove two hours each way yesterday, I statyed close to home today.  I arrived at 7:30, walked about a mile, and left at about 9 AM.  The birding was kind of slow and I remembered the Killdeer chicks at the commuter parking lot from yesterday and wanted to take pictures of them.

Species seen or heard:

• Eastern Meadowlark
• Killdeer
• Northern Mockingbird
• Carolina Chickadee
• Northern Cardinal
• Purple Martin
• Mourning Dove
• Fish Crow
• Blue Jay
• Eastern Bluebird
• Indigo Bunting
• American Crow
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
• Common Grackle
• Northern Bobwhite
• Dickcissel
• Orchard Oriole
• Brown Thrasher
• White-eyed Vireo
• Yellow-breasted Chat
• Carolina Wren
• Yellow-billed Cuckoo
• Eastern Phoebe
• Great Blue Heron
• Northern Flicker
• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Samantha and I and perhaps 28 other birders descended on this WMA near Hope Saturday.  Our targets were Purple Gallinule,  Common Moorhen, and hopefully an American Alligator.   We got there at about 9:30 and immediately saw the first two plus young and later saw an alligator, Samantha’s first wild gator.  We called it a short day and headed home around noon.  Unfortunately, my 200-400mm zoom started acting up and I had to put the camera away before the alligator showed up.  At the commuter parking lot, where the journey started and ended, we saw a family of Killdeer including two or three young ones.

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