Category: birds

The Rufous Hummingbird

September 20, 2012

On Tuesday, I saw my first Rufous Hummingbird at a nearby house in Stuttgart. A female or immature, the Rufous had a greenish gold crown and back, a white breast and dull reddish/brown sides. The males have bright orange on the back and belly with a red throat.

I originally heard of the bird through the state’s only hummingbird bander, Tana Beasley. The owner of the house with the Rufous later dropped by my work to invite me out to her house for  a look.

I couldn’t resist. Tana said it is the closest “unusual” hummingbird (meaning not the common Ruby-Throated we have here) to the Stuttgart/ Casscoe area that she has heard about. She did attempt to capture the Rufous for banding, however, the bird was not having it.

The Rufous refused to stay where it usually sat until the cage was gone. I actually stopped by the house twice before I finally saw the Rufous: Once with the cage there and once afterwards. Ruby-Throated hummingbirds swarmed the enclosed garden area on both visits.

The Ruby-Throated hummingbirds were hoarding the feeders so much that the Rufous had taken over a portion of the garden’s flowers. It was funny to watch the Rufous sit on favored spots above this section, which it guarded fiercely.

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Photo essay: Bayou Meto

September 2, 2012
Bayou Meto-1
American Black Ducks

Izzie and I needed out of the house today so we decided to head to the nearby Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area’s Brett Morgan Halowell Reservoir. Here’s some pictures from the visit:

House Sparrows
House Sparrows
Bayou Meto-3
Nutria
Bayou Meto-4
Dragonfly
Bayou Meto-6
Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds

Bayou Meto-5

Bayou Meto7

Photo essay: Enjoying fall.

September 1, 2012

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I traveled to Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge earlier today to see how it looks in the fall before ending up at a nearby park’s swimming hole. Here’s some photos.

Holla Bend2
A beautiful view.
Holla Bend3
Saw randomly on way to Holla Bend.

Holla Bend4

Holla Bend5

Holla Bend6

Holla Bend7

Holla Bend8 Hackberry Emperor
Hackberry Emperor
Holla Bend9-turkey vulture
Turkey Vulture

Holla Bend10

Holla Bend11

Holla Bend12

Swim1
Where we ended up to swim and float.

Photo essay: summer photos

August 28, 2012
After two years, I have finally upgraded my work laptop to a desktop computer. The move has uncovered these summertime photos that brought a smile to my face. The photos are all ones I took while working on stories throughout Arkansas County.
Common Grackle
Cannon demonstration at Arkansas Post.
Youth fishing derby.
An American Robin that I found in my yard at lunch one day.
A Hairy Woodpecker at Arkansas Post National Memorial.

 

 

 

The bandit

August 17, 2012

I’m not sure who was more surprised — this raccoon or I. We came across each other as I hiked to Cook’s Lake from the Potlatch Conservation Education Center in Casscoe. My first thought was “Is he alive? … IS HE STAPLED TO THE TREE?” The last thought is in response to how I first saw him (hint, it’s not the above picture but the below one).

For some reason, I never thought about raccoons climbing. Honestly, I never really gave them much thought period. Still, I liked my little bandit. I visited the center to attend its last hummingbird program of the year. I was determined to get a few better pictures of the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. I think I met my goal. 🙂

In addition to the hummingbirds, I even got a few more surprises: An immature male Indigo Bunting (first picture below) and a Red Spotted Purple butterfly.

A Brown Booby and a Mute Swan.

August 16, 2012

 

It’s been a while since I’ve been on here — this heat has kept me lazy and indoors. However, that’s slowly changing. Yesterday, I headed only an hour away to Lake Norrell, located just outside of Alexander in Saline County to photograph an unusual visitor.

According to the American Birding Association, Vickie and Pat Martin first photographed this new comer at their Lake Norrell home a week ago on Aug. 9 and sent the picture to a friend to help ID.

Who was it? An adult female Brown Booby, according to their friend, birder Dottie Boyles. It’s the first record of a Brown Booby in Arkansas (pending acceptance) and hundreds of birders had already flocked to Alexander by the time I arrived mid-afternoon Wednesday.

Lake Norrell is a municipal water supply lake for the City of Benton that is located on Bushy Creek, a North Fork Saline River tributary. The lake is released into surrounding streams as well to protect the Fat Pocketbook, a nearby endangered specie. The lake is surrounded by private property, although the city and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has since provided public access in April 2000.

Presently, water levels are extremely low — at some points its down 15 feet. The low water level didn’t seem to bother this Brown Booby. She spent most of my visit preening.

The All About Birds website describes the Brown Booby as a tropical waters seabird that ranges as far north as the Gulf of California, although it is rarely seen on both coasts of the United States.

A Lake Norrell couple (who had an awesome boat flag-see below) offered me a boat ride to see the bird as well as a detour to see a Mute Swan that first joined the lake’s duck and geese population earlier in the year. The swan appeared without its life-long mate.

Mute swans are native to both northern and central Eurasia. They were introduced to North America to inhabit ponds in parks and estates, according to All About Birds. This swan’s aggressive behavior is already known among Lake Norrell’s residents as well as its fierce protectiveness of its’ surrounding goslings and ducklings.

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