Pre-migration CHIMNEY SWIFT roosts are one good sign Fall migration is underway. Another sign involves a common Arkansas nesting bird, INDIGO BUNTNG.
Buntings form sizeable flocks after the nesting season. I assume these are local birds, but maybe not just local birds. Over the years I’ve observed flocks of a dozen or more individual buntings from roughly mid-August through September into first half of October. Some of these birds are all brown or 95% brown, or with varying modest degrees of blue – a dab here, a tail there, maybe some indigo in the flanks.
Today, in habitat including scattered woods and fields in the Arkansas River Valley near Lock and Dam 13 (east of Van Buren), we found 3 or 4 flocks, including a couple that consisted of at least 30-50 individuals. They come up out of the dense vegetation, first a dozen or two, then more, and more, then scattered singles. (None of us could agree on actual number – but a lot of buntings).
I heard a grand total of one brief, scratchy, individual Indigo song.
Saw lots of buntings. Brown buntings. Patchy buntings. Nary a one all blue.
