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.
Memos for Me 