Month: May 2022

Photo: Limpkin

May 12, 2022
Limpkin

I’ve heard about Limpkin sightings within the state; however, I didn’t expect to stumble across one myself while birding on the nature trail at Bell Slough Wildlife Management Area in Mayflower. I was walking along a dirt trail between a wooded area and a field when the limpkin just walked across the road with its head down, looking for food.

Limpkins are found year-round in South America. Limpkins look similar to herons and are typically found in tropical wetlands.

Veery

May 8, 2022
Veery

I discovered a Veery, a medium-sized thrush, in the St. Francis Sunken Lands Wildlife Management Area in Craighead County. I had just left a levee road when I heard birds singing in a swampy patch of woods.

A Veery is a small forest thrush, according to All About Birds. They migrate through Arkansas, and I hadn’t paid much attention to the species until I saw this singing one. Until I looked the bird up on All About Birds, I hadn’t realized that its population declined by about 28% between 1966 and 2019.

Alongside the Veery at the WMA were very vocal Blackpoll Warblers. These songbirds migrate through most of Arkansas from the eastern seaboard to where they winter in northern South America and the Caribbean.

Blackpoll Warbler