I visited Holla Bend and Lake Dardanelle Saturday morning. It was a beautiful sunny day. I did not see large numbers of birds but I did see a variety of hawks including three unusuals plus a few first of seasons. In Dardanelle, near the high school I saw a Peregrine Falcon as I drove by. Later, at Holla Bend, I saw what I originally thought was another Peregrine but which turned out to be a juvenile female Boreal (or Taiga) Merlin eating a meal on the wing. Thanks to everyone who helped with the identification. I think the meal might be a Brown-headed Nuthatch. Later I saw a very pale Red-tailed Hawk. I initially thought it was a Krider’s Hawk but later had doubts. I email William S. Clark (author of several hawk books) and he told me it was not a Krider’s or light morph Harlan’s but just the palest of “normal” Red-tailed Hawks. I also picked up five first of season Northern Pintail ducks. At the Lake Dardanelle Dam I saw first of season Ring-billed Gulls (2) and Herring Gull (1).
Species seen or heard at Holla Bend NWR:
- Mallard
- Northern Shoveler
- Northern Pintail
- Great Egret
- Green Heron
- Turkey Vulture
- Northern Harrier
- Red-shouldered Hawk
- Red-tailed Hawk
- American Kestrel
- Merlin
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Northern Flicker
- Pileated Woodpecker
- Eastern Phoebe
- Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
- Blue Jay
- American Crow
- Northern Rough-winged Swallow
- Barn Swallow
- Carolina Chickadee
- Gray Catbird
- Northern Mockingbird
- Northern Cardinal
- Indigo Bunting
- Eastern Meadowlark
