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.
Here is a map showing where the bird was found.
35.866209
90.100522
