Rainy Day
February 12, 2024
It was overcast and raining all weekend but that didn’t stop the constant flow of birds at my feeders. The newest visitors are American Goldfinches and a Pine Warbler. Here’s hoping to see more.
Tag: nature
Henslow Sparrow
February 7, 2024
I traveled to the southeast region of Arkansas with a conservation biologist with the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission in search of the Henslow’s Sparrow.
The biologist was studying the presence of the Henslow’s Sparrow at Warren Prairie Natural Area. Warren Prairie consists of salt slicks, saline barrens, Delta post oak flat woods, mound woodlands, pine flat woods and woodlands, and bottomland hardwood forest communities, according to ANHC. It is one of the few consistent places to find the declining Henslow’s Sparrows, which prefers thick, weedy grasslands and wetlands.
We went back and forth a flooded grassland to flush the Henslow’s sparrows. According to the biologist, these sparrows are rarely vocal so the best chance to find them is when they are flushed from the ground to nearby trees.
Warren Prairie is also home to several colonies of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, which the Continental Concern Score indicates is a species of highest conservation concern. Our first stop at Warren Prairie had us watching a Red-cockaded Woodpecker busy pecking at a tree just near a cavity.
The Red-cockaded Woodpecker used to fairly common in the southern United States, but the species is now endangered and only remain mostly in large populations on federal lands due to their dependance of old-growth southern pine forests for food and habitat.
They live in family groups that work together to dig cavities and raise young, according to AllAboutBirds.org. Breeding pairs are monogamous and often stay together for life. They live in family groups of two to five adults usually with only one female. Females will leave during their first winter. It’s neat: sons from previous breeding seasons typically stay with the parents to help incubate, brood and feed the young. When the parents finally leave, these sons will then take over the cavity and the tradition continues.
For roosts and nests, they only live in live pines, preferably ones infected with red heart fungus. The fungus softens the wood making the work of creating the cavity easier. AllAboutBirds.org reports it may take two years or more for the Red-cockaded Woodpecker to completely dig out one cavity. Due to this, family groups rarely colonize new areas.
Rare birds
February 4, 2024
My goal is to find 300 bird species in Arkansas. I’m now so close. I’m at 298 spotted and 294 photographed. My recent finds include the adorable Rock Wren pictured above. It was first spotted at Blackwell Bridge in Conway County by a fisherman who said the wren hung around for weeks before he finally identified it. And the wren was friendly. The wren popped out of the rocks near me when I went to find it and gave me excellent look of it before it finally went back down to be hidden among the rocks and nearby weeds.
While I had previously seen a Cackling Goose (pictured above alongside the larger Canada Goose), this month marked the first time I was able to get a picture of one. The Cackling Goose looks like the Canada Goose but is smaller with a shorter neck and a smaller beak.
I also found the above Tundra Swan, which looks just like the Trumpeter Swan to its right with the exception of a yellow mark next to its eye.
A Golden Eagle
January 31, 2024
It took about a decade but I finally saw my first Golden Eagle.
While Golden Eagles are spotted in Arkansas every year, these sightings are not plentiful and the eagle is typically long gone by the time another birder arrives to get a look. They are more common out west.
That is until this winter. A Golden Eagle has been hanging around Atkins Bottoms with regular sightings since January 1. After a local shared a great photo of the eagle on Facebook, a friend and I decided to make today our day to see a Golden Eagle.
Arriving early morning, we finally caught up to our Golden Eagle as it was lazily soaring high above fields and stirring up a great flock of Red-winged Blackbirds. We watched it for a good 10 minutes before it finally disappeared from sight.
The Golden Eagle, which has gold feathers on the back of its head and neck, is the largest raptor in North America. It looks similar to a juvenile Bald Eagle so you have to look closely for those gold feathers as well as study the amount of white on the wings. Golden Eagles have less white on the wings than juvenile Bald Eagles.
Cackling Geese
January 18, 2024
While I saw my first Cackling Goose several years ago, I didn’t actually have a photo of one – that is until today. There were six Cackling Geese mixed in with Canada Geese at Beaverfork Lake in Conway, Ark. Cackling Geese are similar to Canada Geese, but are half the size with a shorter neck, small bill and a steep forehead.
Cackling Geese breed in subarctic and arctic habitats in Canada and Alaska, and can be found in Arkansas during the winter months. But, they are still considered rare in the state. Not many have been spotted over the past few years. The six spotted today actually brought out several birders from Central Arkansas enticed also by reports of Common Mergansers and a Red-necked Grebe being found at the lake. Of the three reported rare birds, I only lacked photos of the Cackling Geese.
A rainy trip
October 29, 2023
Yesterday, we had the Arkansas Audubon Society of Central Arkansas’s monthly field trip. this month it was to the Joe Hogan State Fish Hatchery in Lonoke County.
While we were greeted by Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Bald Eagles, the greatest finds were Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and a large v of 100 Franklin’s Gulls flying over. It took us a while to identify the gulls – none of the trip’s 8 birders had seen that large of a group of Franklin’s before nor seen them fly in a v before.
As for the whistling ducks, they are always just a welcome sight. It was also the first time I’ve heard them whistling. A domestic mallard was hanging out with the whistling ducks.
Limpkin Spotting
October 15, 2023
It’s been the year of the Limpkins in Arkansas. They are being spotted across the state, including this one at Sunset Lake in Saline County. It was my first bird spotted on Saturday – also October Big Day. I love watching this gangly, brown-and-white shorebird. Saturday’s Limpkin – like the others – stayed busy looking for food.
Eared Grebes and more
September 29, 2023
Eared Grebes are apparently the “most abundant grebe in the word,” according to All About Birds. Monday marked the first time I spotted not just one, but four at the Boyd Point Waste Treatment Plant in Pine Bluff. One still had its breeding plumage (black head and neck with golden feathers behind the eye, which shines in the light in the above photo). The other three are non breeding or immature.
While Arkansas just fits into the Eared Grebes migration range, the small waterbird is primarily found in the western half of the United States.
My visit to the Boyd Point WTP was excellent. I also saw:
Fall Migration
September 27, 2023
This past weekend, I stopped by Gillam Park in southeast Little Rock to see if I could spot in warblers passing through. I got lucky with a great look at a Black-throated Green Warbler – a long-distance migrant that’s headed across the Gulf of Mexico for the winter.
I also spotted an American Redstart that couldn’t sit still and more:
On a neat, but disturbing note: I spotted this wandering Wolf Spider carrying tons of babies. I’m afraid of spiders and typically to avoid them and any mention of them. I didn’t realize female Wolf Spiders carry their babies on their backs for several days after they are born to guard and tend to them. They may have more than 100 babies at a time.
Hummingbirds & Tree Sap
September 25, 2023
While Ruby-throated Hummingbirds typically feed on insects and nectar from flowers, another source of food is tree sap when it is available. Tree sap is similar in sugar content to the nectar hummingbirds take from flowers. Hummingbirds drink it from holes made by woodpeckers.
This is something I didn’t realize until recently. I was looking for shorebirds at Bald Knob National Wildlife Refuge, when I discovered three Ruby-throated Hummingbirds hovering around one particular spot on a nearby tree. It was pretty interesting to watch:
Memos for Me 