nature – Memos for Me

California Gull

January 4, 2026

I didn’t expect to spend the morning of January 3, 2026, at the Crittenden County Landfill. But I did, and it paid off. I’ve now seen and photographed my first California Gull in Arkansas.

California Gulls are medium-sized gulls that are common inland and found across the western United States, with a range stretching from Canada to Mexico. This is the ninth reported sighting in Arkansas. While previous sightings have been at Lake Dardanelle, this year’s California Gull has been hanging out near the landfill. California Gulls are opportunistic and will eat anything they can catch or scavenge, including insects and garbage.

While the California Gull was a neat sighting, the search for it was not so much. I’ll admit gull searches make me grumpy. The California Gull was hidden among thousands of Ring-billed Gulls. What is the difference between a California Gull and a Ring-billed Gull? The Ring-billed Gull is slightly smaller and has a paler eye. Adult California Gulls also have a red spot on the lower bill (the Ring-billed Gull has black). However, this California Gull was a juvenile, so it had a darker brown hue on its feathers and a black spot on the bill. Fellow birders kept reminding me to look for a more tubular bill on the California Gull. This wouldn’t be so bad if there weren’t thousands of gulls to look through.

Luckily, I was with four other experienced birders who made the search more bearable.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

May 18, 2025

Yesterday, I joined some bird-watching friends visiting Stone Prairie Wildlife Management Area near Mayflower. It was my first time hiking this WMA, which consists of 989 acres with seven miles of gravel roads. It is known for its restored prairies, savannas, and oak-hickory forests. It was previously part of Camp Robinson’s World War II-era field training area.

While it will likely never become my favorite WMA to visit, it was a peaceful walk that netted us sightings of several interesting birds, such as a Painted Bunting, Prairie Warblers, an Osprey, and a Broad-winged Hawk.

We later ventured across the road to the Camp Robinson WMA and Camp Robinson Special Use Area. I’m always excited to find Northern Bobwhites here, and we discovered my first Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (pictured above).

Flycatchers in the Empidonax genus are notoriously hard to identify, but the Yellow-bellied is one of the easier ones due to its yellowish underparts and bold eyering. It helped that two of the people in our group excel at identifying them. The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher migrates through Arkansas. While common, it was my first time seeing this flycatcher, so it was my bird of the day. That was saying something because we continued to hear and see an interesting assortment of birds, such as those below.

We also found the cutest Rough Greensnake and butterflies.

Marbled Godwits

April 16, 2025

I rarely visit Two Rivers Park in Little Rock. When I do, it’s usually to the side that is closest to Pinnacle Mountain. But, I made an exception yesterday after an eBird rare bird alert reported 9 Marbled Godwits at Two Rivers Park in a section closest to Two Rivers Park Bridge near I-430.

It wasn’t long before I spotted them. Marbled Godwits are large, speckled brown shorebirds with and long, slightly upturned bills that are yellow closest to the face and then turn black. The nine godwits were feeding in the water.

Marbled Godwits are typically found along the coast and breed in the northern Great Plains. There are smaller populations that breed along the southwest coast of James Bay in Canada and on the Alaska Peninsula. While rare to Arkansas, there are still 256 observations of them within the state over the years.

A Grebe in Question

March 5, 2025

** UPDATE: The grebe has been recorded as a Clark’s Grebe – the first reported in Arkansas. **

On Monday, a fellow birder discovered a Western Grebe and Pacific Loon at Bufflehead Bay, which is part of Lake Maumelle on the outskirts of Little Rock.

While I have already seen both, I decided it’d be interesting to try and relocate them. I never found the Pacific Loon. But I eventually relocated the Western Grebe at a nearby yacht club.

I’ve now learned there is a debate happening on whether this grebe could actually be a Clark’s Grebe – which would be a first for Arkansas.

Clark’s Grebes have brighter yellow bills with a dark line along the top. The black cap of the Clark’s does not extend down to surround the eye, as it does on the Western, according to All About Birds.

Once considered the same grebe, the Clark’s and Western were separated into two different species in 19985 after scientists learned the two “rarely interbreed (despite sometimes living on the same lakes), make different calls, and have substantial DNA differences,” All About Birds reported.

For now, we’re treating the grebe as a Western. Western Grebes are still rare to Arkansas (typically found west of the state), but birdwatchers typically find one or two within the state each year.

A Lesser Goldfinch

February 22, 2025

A friend and I traveled to Pope County on Friday to find a Lesser Goldfinch that’s been visiting a birder’s feeder for the past few days. It was a lifer for me.

Lesser Goldfinches are rare to Arkansas, although some are found within the state each year. They are typically found in the western United States (most common in California and Texas). They are smaller than an American Goldfinch, typically have a darker back that can be olive green or black depending on its location, and have a fully black crown. The American Goldfinch has a partial black crown and a bright yellow back.

The Pope County bird mingled with American Goldfinches, Juncos, House Finches and Cardinals at the feeders, while various sparrows and mourning doves were below on the ground. They scattered at various points, such as when the below Red-shouldered Hawk flew by.

Healing Springs Natural Area

January 22, 2025

While in Northwest Arkansas on Tuesday, I decided to search for American Tree Sparrows. These small sparrows have gray faces with rusty caps and eyeline marks along with a bicolored bill.

While found each year in Arkansas, the American Tree Sparrow is not a common sparrow you find just anywhere within the state. Their population is in steep decline. It took us a bit, but we eventually ran across four of these sparrows as they steadily made their way through a brushy area. One neat fact I learned through All About Birds is the American Tree Sparrow has to eat 30% of its weight each day.

We found these sparrows – as well as lots of Eastern Bluebirds – at the Healing Springs Natural Area maintained by the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission since 2020. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the natural area. It is located within the Ozark Highlands of the Springfield Plateau Ecoregion where Oak-hickory forests, oak-hickory-pine forests and, before the 19th century, savanna or tall grass prairies are common and maintained by fire. The small entrance to the natural area from the highway is just large enough to park about two vehicles. A locked gate and fence keeps people from driving into the natural area, which at first sight, contains several large fields that are being restored to native grassland and woodland habitat.

The natural area consists of several large fields separated by high fences with no gates so you can wander for nearly a mile to the springs and spring-fed streams at the back of the property. These springs and spring-fed streams support several fish and crayfish species of conservation concern, including the Arkansas Darter and Least Darter. Both are very rare to Arkansas and require a specific habitat type that is disappearing.

We couldn’t find a map of the property so we initially walked a wooded path the width of the natural area, before traveling further back into the natural area in search of the springs. We weren’t too impressed with the place until we got further back into the area where we began seeing white-tailed deer and an abundance of birds, including our target bird – the American Tree Sparrow. One surprise was the rusty blackbirds discovered in a tree near water.

A Swift Visit

December 2, 2024

A few weeks ago, a friend and I visited the Hot Springs National Park after receiving an eBird rare bird report of a White-throated Swift being sighted at the Hot Springs Mountain Tower.

The trip was unsuccessful, and we gave it no further thought. Until now, when someone, once again, reported seeing the swift. We decided to give it another try. Luck was on our side.

The White-throated Swift was flying just below the observation desk level and steadily flying around its presumed roost area at dawn and again just before dusk. I only saw one swift each time, but other birdwatchers discovered at least one more in the days following my visit.

Typically found in the cliffs and canyon walls of western North America, the White-throated Swift is an extremely rare visitor to Arkansas. This is the fifth-reported sighting of one in the state since 1935. They are also highly social creatures and sleep in roosts of hundreds of birds. This just makes our sighting even more interesting.

Bewick’s Wren

October 29, 2024

When I try my hand at bird calling, the Merlin app typically identifies my call as a Bewick’s Wren. While interesting, I’ve never actually seen a Bewick’s Wren until recently.

A Bewick’s Wren recently showed up at a bird watcher’s house in White County. He was gracious enough to let others stop by to see it. Typically found in the western United States, this rare wren is occasionally spotted in Arkansas, typically every few years. This hyperactive wren was happily feeding all over the yard and mixed in well with other birds.

Gray-cheeked Thrush

May 16, 2024

One issue I’ve always had while birding is that I have trouble distinguishing among certain species, such as thrushes. Despite this hiccup, I recently got lucky and spotted my first Gray-cheeked Thrush without an issue.

This little guy was not bothered by me at all. It was foraging on the ground near the entrance to the boardwalk at Lorance Creek Natural Area in Little Rock, and later flew to a nearby limb where I had an excellent view of it through my camera.

I identified it through its call and eBird reviewers have since confirmed my photo. Gray-cheeked Thrushes are medium-sized, without a prominent eyeing and has a grayish face with no buffy coloring. Its belly is whitish. The eyering and coloring – gray vs Buffy – are two ways to distinguish the Gray-cheeked from other thrushes.

The spotting had perfect timing. I’d just spoken to someone the day before about the ideal time to see the species. In North America, Gray-cheeked Thrushes are currently migrating through Arkansas from their wintering grounds east of the Andes from Venezuela and Colombia to their breeding grounds in western Alaska.

Picture it: 300 bird species in Arkansas

April 27, 2024

I finally saw the elusive-to-me Hooded Warbler this morning, and photographed my 300th bird species in Arkansas.

I actually got my first great look at a Hooded Warbler in Marion over 10 years ago. I was walking down the steps of my aunt’s back patio and came face to face with one. I think it shocked both of us because I just stood there with the bird fluttering just inches from my face.

But I never got a photo of it. That remained true, even after I took up birdwatching in 2012 and began my attempt to photograph as many bird species in Arkansas as I could. I heard it, but never saw it.

That luck changed Friday when a friend mentioned seeing it at the entrance of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission headquarters. Around 7:30 a.m., I made it to the AGFC entrance and I didn’t even have to get out of my car to hear two calling to each other. While I never saw one, the second was constantly on the move and easy to spot.

Hooded Warblers breed in Arkansas and most of eastern United States, and winters in Central America. It generally hands out in the understory of forests, according to AllAboutBirds.org. While I do not see them often, the Hooded Warbler is pretty common with low conservation concern.

It’s the same for Yellow Warblers, which also breeds in Arkansas in the northern part of the state. It’s not uncommon for me to see these warblers, but today did mark the first time I saw one at home. They eat mostly insects and don’t come to backyard feeders, but it seemed perfectly happy in the large oak tree in my front yard.

Memos for Me

Rediscovering Arkansas with a few detours.

Tag: nature