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I arrived at 8:45 Sunday morning. The temperature was just over freezing. I started at the backwater, walked along the river’s edge until I got to Pfeifer’s Loop then walked along it until met Isabella Jo Trail and then followed that back to the river then Lake Campbell trail back to IJT to my car. I thought this path would maximize my habitats and birds.

Species seen or heard:
• Bonaparte’s Gull
• Ring-billed Gull
• Northern Mockingbird
• Great Blue Heron
• Northern Flicker
• Blue Jay
• Bufflehead
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Killdeer
• Greater Scaup
• Ring-necked Duck
• Canada Goose
• Pied-billed Grebe
• Carolina Wren
• Red-tailed Hawk
• Northern Shoveler
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Double-crested Cormorant
• American Crow
• European Starling
• Tufted Titmouse
• Carolina Chickadee
• Ruby-crowned Kinglet
• Eastern Bluebird
• Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Belted Kingfisher
• Downy Woodpecker
• Turkey Vulture
• Northern Cardinal
• White-throated Sparrow

I decided to track down reports of Laughing and Lesser Black-backed Gulls on Lake Dardanelle this morning with the option of going to Holla Bend afterward. I got a late start due mainly to sleeping in but got to the Lake Dardanelle Dam at around 9:30. Then I went to Delaware Park where I ran into the Nichols. The funny thing about that was I was spying on and photographing this odd looking and large gull, which I took to be a 1st winter Herring, when an email arrived on my cell phone. It was from Kenny to AR-Bird announcing he was at Delaware Park scoping a Thayer’s Gull. So I walked over the small hill separating us and continued to bird with Kenny & LaDonna.

After finishing there, I decided to head home with a stop at Lake Conway on the off change that there would be a Black-legged Kittiwake. Alas there was not but there was what I believe is a Common Goldeneye x Hooded Merganser hybrid.

Species seen or heard:
Lake Dardanelle
• Ring-billed Gull
• Northern Cardinal
• Dark-eyed Junco
• American White Pelican
• Great Blue Heron
• American Crow
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Laughing Gull
• Northern Mockingbird
• Eastern Phoebe
• Canvasback
• Turkey Vulture
• Herring Gull
• Lesser Black-backed Gull
• Blue Jay
• American Crow
• American Coot
• Ring-billed Gull
• Thayer’s Gull
• Bufflehead
• Black Vulture
• Pileated Woodpecker
• Carolina Chickadee
• Carolina Wren
• European Starling
• Pied-billed Grebe

Lake Conway
• Ring-billed Gull
• Great Egret
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Bonaparte’s Gull
• Common Goldeneye x Hooded Merganser Hybrid
• Bufflehead
• Common Goldeneye
• Belted Kingfisher
• Mallard
• Turkey Vulture

I went to the lake this afternoon hoping to get pictures of the recent rarities there. I was prepared to walk along the shore east of the Southern Rest Area where I had seen them then other day to get closer. Today however, I did not see the rarities at all and there was nothing over on that side of the bridge so it would gain little. Instead, I walked along the lake shore west and had the luck of seeing birds come to me. I saw a pair of Greater Scaup swim by. Not rare though perhaps uncommon compared to their “Lesser” cousins. I usually see them at a distance and realized today why they are “Greater”. She especially looked like a Dreadnought-class duck as she swam by. I saw a lot of Common Goldeneye as well and assortment of other avian life forms.

Species seen or heard:
• Lesser Scaup
• Common Goldeneye
• Pied-billed Grebe
• Ring-billed Gull
• American Crow
• Greater Scaup
• Common Loon
• Pileated Woodpecker