In late July, there was a horrific accident on Hwy. 165 when a vehicle crossed the center line, striking another vehicle head-on. Both vehicles caught fire with the occupants trapped inside.
This stretch of road has been the location of more than a few fatal accidents. So, naturally, my imagination got a little carried away the day I had to stare at the below sight the entire time I was on Hwy. 165. Wouldn’t you be a little jumpy?
I visited Pinnacle Mountain State Park in Little Rock for the very first time recently, and fell in love. It was peaceful, beautiful and had plenty of activities to do. During my visit, I walked the park’s Arkansas Arboretum trail. It’s an easy trail with plenty of audio sign panels to learn about the various plants and trees lining the trail. There was also a good variety of mushrooms as well. Here’s a few mushrooms that I saw.
In August, I completed my first Bird Island sunset tour at Lake Ouachita near Hot Springs. I was in awe. There were literally hundreds of Purple Martins coming in to roost for the night.
Bird Island, designated an Important Bird Area by the Audubon Society, is Arkansas’ largest known pre-migratory Purple Martin roost. It is 1,260 feet long and about 100 feet at its widest point. According to Audubon Arkansas, an estimated 8,000-50,000 birds use the area between late July and early August.
Lake Ouachita State Park now offers Purple Martin boat tours, which has the boats circling the tiny island at sunset so viewers can watch the Purple Martins and other birds come in to roost.
For my visit, one part of the island housed egrets and other larger birds, such as Little Blue Herons, Cattle Egrets and Great Egrets. The Purple Martins filled the trees and the skies covering the rest of the island. It was a nice way to end the evening — watching the birds glide across the water towards the island with a beautiful sky behind them.
To be continued …
My newspaper gave me four free tickets to Disney on Ice Friday, allowing me to take my cousin’s wife Amber and his two little girls, Brittany and Maria, on Saturday.
It was great. The girls love princesses and they couldn’t wait to see the Tangled portion of the show. Tatiana and Repunzel were the favorite princesses.
It’s been months since I last visited the White River National Wildlife Refuge. I finally decided to rectify this problem now that the weather has cooled off. Apparently, I was not the only one to decide to visit. There was plenty of wildlife there as well.
It’s been forever since my family did a mini-vacation together so we finally decided to go wild and take a Saturday trip to Blanchard Springs in the Ozark National Forest.
Its been at least 10 years since we visited the Blanchard Springs caverns. The caverns formed when rainwater soaked into the ground for millions of years, going through cracks in the limestone bedrock to dissolve the stone and slowly widen the cracks. The water remained underground until surface erosion carved valleys allowing the water to escape.
For our day trip, we took the Dripstone Trail before heading outside to explore the base of the Blanchard Springs mountain. Finally we headed to Batesville to eat dinner at Josie’s. The restaurant is next to the White River Hydroelectric Project Lock and Dam No. 1, which is really low right now meaning. The low water didn’t dull the evening though — we got to see a gorgeous sunset while watching goofy people get stuck in the sand. 🙂
Here’s some pictures from our trip (minus the stuck trucks.)
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.
Rediscovering Arkansas with a few detours.
We preserve, conserve, and study the native plants of Arkansas
Our Nicaraguan Journey
Rediscovering Arkansas with a few detours.
Think left & think right & think low & think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!" -Dr. Seuss
I previously worked as a news and sports photographer. Recently I have been enjoying wildlife photography. My approach toward bird photos is similar to sports photography. I attempt to capture mostly action and hopefully a unique perspective.
Urbanites in the woods, doing all our own stunts.
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Rediscovering Arkansas with a few detours.
Rediscovering Arkansas with a few detours.
Rediscovering Arkansas with a few detours.
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