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I decided to make my first trip to the lake after hearing about gulf bird like the Magnificent Frigatebird and Sooty Terns being spotted there after Hurricane Gustav. The first would be a state bird for me and the other a lifer. I left Little Rock at 5:45 and arrived at Saratoga Landing at about 7:45. I almost immediately saw the frigatebird and soon after saw the reported Laughing Gull as well. I then went to Beard’s Bluff where there is a birding platform built just for us. Then to the Millwood State Park and finally to Okay Levee where I walked to the end of the levee and back which was about a 4 mile round trip. Now that I look at the Okay peninsula in Google Earth, it looks like it is crisscrossed with trails that might be fruitful. I’ll have to find out. While on Okay Levee I saw a small plover, 3 to be exact, mixed with some Killdeers that looked like Semipalmated Plovers when they flew but had no dark band across the chest. Same size as the SP. Not sure what it was.

I’ve broken my day list into the areas.
Species seen or heard:
Saratoga Landing:
• Great Egret
• Herring Gull (with a fish too large to swallow)
• Laughing Gull
• Magnificent Frigatebird
• Great Blue Heron
• Northern Mockingbird
• Turkey Vulture
• Snowy Egret
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Canada Goose

Beard’s Bluff
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow
• Eastern Wood-Pewee
• Bank Swallow
• Cliff Swallow
• Northern Cardinal
• Carolina Wren
• Carolina Chickadee
• Blue Jay
• Red-tailed Hawk
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Turkey Vulture
• Pine Warbler

Millwood State Park
• Canada Goose
• Turkey Vulture
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Blue Jay
• American Crow
• Great Egret
• Carolina Chickadee
• Northern Mockingbird
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Okay Levee
• Turkey Vulture
• Anhinga
• Carolina Wren
• Great Egret
• Snowy Egret
• Great Blue Heron
• Little Blue Heron
• Carolina Chickadee
• Carolina Wren
• American White Pelican
• Red-eyed Vireo
• Northern Mockingbird
• Least Sandpiper
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Belted Kingfisher
• Killdeer
• Caspian Tern
• Bald Eagle (with big fish)
• Cliff Swallow
• Barn Swallow
• Solitary Sandpiper
• American Crow
• Canada Goose
• Northern Cardinal
• Mourning Dove

This was my first thorough examination of this fish hatchery near Hot Springs in years. I arrived at 8:10, about 55 minutes after leaving West Little Rock. The signs said no driving on the levees so I gathered up the spotting scope and all my equipment and walked around it. Unfortunately there was not much going on in numbers of species or individuals. The only shorebirds there were Killdeer with the exception of a single small sandpiper that disappeared before I could identify it. I did see Eurasian Collared-Doves which are locally common permanent residents of Arkansas but which I had never seen. I left around 9:45.

Species seen or heard:
• Killdeer
• Canada Goose
• Great Egret
• Pine Warbler
• Carolina Chickadee
• Tufted Titmouse
• American Robin
• Belted Kingfisher
• Eurasian Collared-Dove
• Mallard
• Great Blue Heron
• Green Heron
• Little Blue Heron
• Red-shouldered Hawk
• Snowy Egret
• American Crow
• Pileated Woodpecker
• Turkey Vulture
• White-eyed Vireo
• Northern Mockingbird
• Carolina Wren
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow

We went to this U of A facility on Lake Catherine, arriving at about 9:30. The main attraction is of course the flowers but I was ready to record the birds I encountered. Sad to say, there weren’t nearly as many flowers as there was this spring but as my son said, “It is August, Dad.” I did notice that they had plenty of naturally colorful leaves to make up for the lack of flowers. We stayed about two hours.

Species seen or heard:
• Carolina Chickadee
• Carolina Wren
• American Crow
• Tufted Titmouse
• American Robin
• Blue Jay
• Downy Woodpecker
• Pileated Woodpecker
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Mourning Dove
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Summer Tanagerr