Photo of night: Night light.
April 10, 2013
Category: Arkansas County
Overtime = Owl.
March 22, 2013
Overtime. It’s a great word, especially since it allowed me to get out of the office early Thursday afternoon. Izzie and I headed to the Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area to see what we could find. We got pretty lucky — the highlight of the trip was a Barred Owl (above). It was my first time to see one and, I must admit, March is turning out to be a great month for spotting owls!
Besides the owl, we also spotted Blue-winged Teal, Double-crested Cormorants, snow geese, sparrows, Tufted Titmouse, Northern Cardinals and plenty of Wood Ducks. Here’s some pictures:
Related articles
- Short-eared Owls (memosforme.wordpress.com)
- Photo essay: Great Horned Owls (memosforme.wordpress.com)
First day of spring
March 20, 2013
Spring, which officially starts today, is my favorite season. To celebrate, I spent my early Tuesday evening working in my backyard. OK, it was mostly lazy yard work. I cleaned up, made plans for a proposed project and put up new hummingbird feeders.
After I finished, I just happened to glance over in time to see a bird leaving my hummingbird feeder. I. Was. Excited! Could it be a hummingbird, already? Nope. I sat by my window for an hour watching house sparrows, northern cardinals and American robins come up to feed. I’m now positive that it was a sparrow that went to the wrong feeder.
Whatever happened, I enjoyed my time outdoors and watching the birds. It’s not a bad way to pass the time. Here’s some of my visitors:
Short-eared Owls
March 20, 2013
Short-eared OwlThe Great Horned Owl sighting left me so excited that I decided to try spotting a second owl: The Short-eared Owl. The common open grasslands bird is a winter resident of the Stuttgart Municipal Airport. Past trips yielded no results so I finally got my hands on a map of where exactly to look and headed back out.
The trip lasted less than an hour and was a complete success. First, the trip started off on a great note when I discovered an airport employee was back at work after a long bout of illness. After signing in, I immediately stepped out of the airport’s office to find Northern Harriers, Killdeer and Red-winged Blackbirds.
My next stroke of luck came when the below-pictured plane took off, stirring up the owls. I counted about eight in all. According to the National Audubon Society, Short-eared Owls are in serious decline over much of its range with the primary threat being the destruction and degradation of open habitat. I think the owls are fascinating because you can find them easily throughout the day.
The Stuttgart Municipal Airport was originally prime farmland the U.S. government bought for an air force training site during WWII. After the war, the property was handed over to the City of Stuttgart for use as a municipal airport. Today, the military still uses the airport for training exercises.
The airport also remains busy with agricultural-, business- and hunting-related flights as well as birders. Audubon Arkansas and the City of Stuttgart previously started a 252 acre prairie restoration project for grassland birds. There are now prescribed fires, non-native plant control and rubble removal to benefit 13 prairie bird species of great conservation need. According to Audubon Arkansas, the project “continues a landmark collaborative working towards the long-term goal of a 2,000-acre core of contiguous native grassland suitable for the reintroduction of the Greater Prairie-Chicken to Arkansas.”
I ended the visit sighting an eastern meadowlark and the above pictured Wilson’s Snipe.Related articles
- Photo essay: Great Horned Owls (memosforme.wordpress.com)
- And the male shows up… (memosforme.wordpress.com)
All day birding
March 7, 2013
Lately, my days have been pretty bare of after hours, work-related events. I had to take advantage of my good luck by heading out to bird in Arkansas County and around Little Rock. It paid off — I rediscovered four state birds. The birds were House finches, a Brown-headed Nuthatch, the American Goldfinch, and Green-Winged Teal Ducks. The duck pictures aren’t the best since the ducks were practically on the other side of the lake. But hey, at least you can tell what they are. 🙂
Anyway, here’s my pictures of the birds plus sky pictures that I like:
Guarding the nest.
March 6, 2013
I was taking pictures for work this afternoon when I happened to notice these House Sparrows near a nest above me. The two would sit for a while, peek at each other and, then, take turns chasing each other from the nest. It was funny and cute to watch.
Looking for ducks
March 6, 2013
I’ve finally added two more ducks to my list of photographed birds. I headed to Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area’s Halowell Reservoir earlier this month to see what was there and found both of the above Ruddy and Gadwall ducks. I was also in luck for plenty of other bird sightings as well.
Cedar Waxwings practically at my door
March 5, 2013
I’ve wondered all year where my Cedar Waxwings were since I usually have a flock that stays in my backyard for a few weeks. I’ll admit that I was very disappointed especially when other Arkansas birders kept reporting seeing Cedar Waxwings in their own yards.
Well, they have finally arrived. I was about to leave for work when I looked over and found more than 30 Cedar Waxwings in my front yard. Aren’t they gorgeous?
Photo essay: A snowy morning
March 2, 2013
It was lightly snowing, but I simply couldn’t resist visiting Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area. I had the trip in mind for several days and, well, I did wake up early to take a drive with Izzie.
I was the only person out, which was fine by me. I saw plenty of birds. Here’s some of what I saw:
Shhh … I’m incognito!
February 23, 2013
Memos for Me 