Date: 5/12/25 7:31 pm From: Patty McLean <000008e6fff5e5c8-dmarc-request...> Subject: American Black Duck at Bald Knob NWR
Not very often do we get to see this duck in Arkansas, and honestly I certainly didn't expect to see one in May, but so be it. Michael and I made a late afternoon stop at the refuge today, mainly to see a Sora that's been doing some early evening feeding along a canal on the eastern portion of Huntsman Rd. Afterwards we decided to do a quick loop around the Moist Soil Units across from the grain bins to see what might be out there. In the past week a hundred-plus Black-bellied Whistling Ducks have been coming in to these cells to feed. We've learned this is a common behavior for these nocturnal feeders. Most of the water has dissipated in these cells, so the Whistlers apparently are finding another place to feed. But I digress.When we turned down the side of Cell 3, I noticed a very dark duck at the far end of the field, initially thinking it might be a Whistler...but as we approached, I could see the paler head. Excitement was brewing, and we were extra tickled when Michael's photos revealed the duck had an olive bill. So we slowly and quietly got out of the car for scope looks and photos. Maybe we were too suspicious because BAM, suddenly it took off with a male Mallard, flying past the grain bins. We spent a little more time trying to relocate it with no success.See our eBird report below for more information. Please note we now have a new sub-location called "Central Ag Fields" to help people better navigate the refuge. I hope you will use this sub-location when you bird the fields around the grain bins.https://ebird.org/checklist/S237128379Patty McLean and Michael Linz The Roadrunners
Date: 5/12/25 10:23 am From: N Rock <4rockbird...> Subject: Leucistic Grosbeak
I have had a leucistic rose-breasted grosbeak at my feeder for the past couple days. He feeds alone, or with a couple of "normal" colored rose-breasts.
Nancy Rock
Shell Knob, MO (10 miles from the Arkansas line)
Date: 5/10/25 10:08 pm From: Karen Holliday <ladyhawke1...> Subject: ASCA May field trip report
Spring migration never fails to deliver a LOT of birds! Today, May 10 was the Audubon Society of Central Arkansas (ASCA) field trip. It was World Migratory Bird Day. We started at Gillam Park, then moved to the Terry Lock and Dam park area. It took most of the day to cover both areas. It was worth it because we found a total of 81 species! Our warbler total was sixteen species. We also had five vireo species. Our final spectacular bird was an extremely cooperative Painted Bunting, showing off his gorgeous plumage. We were distracted from the Bunting when one of our group almost stepped on a Prairie Rat Snake. The snake was not at all concerned about us standing over it and watching while it slithered into a crawdad hole with the tip of a skink tail hanging out of its mouth. It was happy to go into the crawdad hole and finish eating. Gillam never disappoints in spring. We had everything from perching Wood Ducks, fourteen warbler species, a surprise Scarlet Tanager, also Chats and Grosbeaks. One gentleman spotted a Yellow-crowned Night Heron, which everyone got great looks at. The best part was it was a life bird for him! What a bonus to find your very own life bird! The Bobolinks were in the field just before you make the turn into the Terry Lock and Dam park. A very vocal big flock of Bobolinks. They won't be around long. Good birding, Karen Holliday ASCA field trip coordinator
Date: 5/10/25 8:14 pm From: Brian Carlson <brianrcarlson...> Subject: Cecil, Ar birding
I had an enjoyable afternoon birding near Cecil today. I started along Price Springs Road which is south of HWY 96 and to the east of Cecil. Then I went to Citadel Bluff Park. Here is a link to the video I made. I do not post all of my videos here so if you are interested you could subscribe to my channel. I am not monetized, I just do it for fun.
Date: 5/10/25 3:48 pm From: Allan Mueller <akcmueller...> Subject: Bobolinks at Lollie
Large number of Bobolinks at the concrete road around the airport at Lollie Bottom.
-- Allan Mueller (It) 20 Moseley Lane, Conway, AR Home of the Arkansas State Champion Winged Elm 501-339-8071 *BLOG* birdsnonsense.blogspot.com Pura Vida
Date: 5/10/25 9:28 am From: Charles H Mills <00000218c727d931-dmarc-request...> Subject: Birds of AR photo page on AAS website
I’m posting this message on behalf of Steve Warmack who was unable to post it to ARBirds yesterday.
Any responses or photo submissions should be sent to him at the address provided below.
Charles Mills
Texarkana TX 75503
Sent from my iPhone
> From: Steven Warmack <SteveWarmack...>
> Date: May 10, 2025 at 11:13:28 AM CDT
>
> Hey everyone,
>
> Michael, (with the "help" of auto-fill) accidentally forwarded a conversation we were having (about photos for the AAS website) to the whole list... so if you don't understand what in the world was going on in his post.. that's why. :-)
>
> Charles Mills has recommended, that, since I don't post very often on this (or any) listserv (for reasons that might be clear now), it might be a good idea for me to introduce myself and let you know what all that was about, and what Michael and I are up to.
>
> A few years ago, Charles asked me to be on a three-person group that consults with each other on what photos of each species are used on the "Birds of Arkansas" section of the AAS website. We basically try to find and secure permission to use the best photos of each species we can find that are, preferably, taken IN Arkansas BY Arkansas Photographers and, if possible, members of the AAS.
>
> This constantly evolves, as there are a number of good (and improving) bird photographers in the state and new photos are being taken all the time.
>
> Charles has since stepped down from this group in order to rejoin the bird records committee, and Kelly Chitwood and I have tapped Michael Linz to take his place as the third person involved in the project of voting on which photos should be used on the page. When we see a new good shot pop up on an ebird list or on one of the Facebook pages, we will contact the photographer and ask for permission to use said photograph.
>
> But we are also happy to take submissions if YOU have a great shot of a particular species you would like us to consider. Images sized at 1000X1000 pixels seem to work best most of the time.
>
> We are looking for images that have good lighting, sharpness, (natural perch preferred), and show identifying field marks that will fit a square crop (a limitation of the current website), etc. We also try to showcase a number of different photographers work on the page.
>
> Some species are so rarely seen and so rarely photographed in the state that we don't really have much to choose from and must occasionally use images captured (preferably by Arkansas photographers) in areas outside Arkansas where these species normally occur... other birds are so common and easy to photograph that we can be overwhelmed by the number of good pics we could potentially use.
>
> Additionally, some people like the "shooting" part but don't like the "image editing" part... we can handle that too, correcting color and lighting issues and optimizing the image. RAW files like .NEF or .NRW (Nikon), .CR2 or .CR3 (Canon), .ORF (Olympus), .PEF (Pentax) or .ARW (Sony) make this correction process a lot easier and more accurate. Ultimately, all images, whether shot in RAW or JPEG format, and used on the Birds of Arkansas webpage are uploaded as JPEGS. The increasing quality of camera sensors and lenses has meant they can produce some very high quality images right out of the camera. Submitting RAW images still offers more flexibility but is not required, especially if you have a great shot of a rarely photographed species.
>
> So if you look at the "Birds of Arkansas" page of the AAS website and think "I have a much better picture of a certain species" then please shoot me a message and we will be happy to take a look at it.
>
> - Steve Warmack
Yes , ARBird is where anyone can post photos. They are limited to what photos can be posted.Karen Holliday
-------- Original message --------From: Michael Linz <mplinz...> Date: 5/8/25To: <ARBIRD-L...> Subject: Re: Photo Your 1-4 and mine are the same. I Lance’s picture had been in the state I would say it was the one.Charles is sending you a grebe photo. Not to be tacky but I suspect you and I could replace all the photos with one of ours but that is what I am trying to avoid people thinking. This one just happens to be one of very favorite photos of one of my favorite birds. So I had to ask….On May 8, 2025, at 8:50 AM, Steven Warmack <SteveWarmack...> wrote:Also... if you hate the editing process I am happy to do it just like Charles... and you can send the RAW if you have it and I will do it.... but I dont think that is an issue with you. You do your own stuff just fine.On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 8:48 AM Steven Warmack <stevewarmack...> wrote:We are a team... anyone can suggest anything.... I just know how to do the actual uploading.While shots taken in Arkansas are preferable, we both know that for some species... a good pic hasnt been taken inside the state.... so yeah that would be a good one as long as you can do a square crop. I am sure Chitwood would give it her vote as well. Provided the pic is really good... I kind of rank them in this order.1. Picture taken in Arkansas by an Arkansas Photographer. (even better an AAS member)2. Picture taken in Arkansas by an Out of State Photographer.3. Picture taken out of state by an Arkansas Photographer.4. Out of state photograph and photographer.On a separate note... you might as well get a square crop of your CLGR pic ready because nobody else is even in the running.On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 8:37 AM Michael Linz <mplinz...> wrote:Steve,
In the role of approver I don’t know if I should pitch my pictures but I came across this photo. I had not suggested it in the past as it was out of state. I noticed the picture we had is already out of state. So if its legal can I suggest this photo?
Date: 5/9/25 2:16 pm From: JACQUE BROWN <bluebird2...> Subject: Re: “DOWNTOWN” CENTERTON SLATED FOR ARKANSAS IMPORTANT BIRD AREA
I found the article Joe Was referring too, there was a map, the 400 acres was colored orange, this was most of the land I mentioned in the previous email.However it also included the Babtist Church property, MCDonalds and the Walmart property, and directly across from one of the hatchery intrances in the center of the lower ponds there was a really big house and a new business built on that property last year.
I think the area behind MsDonalds and across from the Church property may be the area for the new Centerton City Offices, and the area along Holloway between Hwy 249 and s. Main will be the area planned for new businesses and shops.
Here is a copy of the map.
PS the Fish Hatchery will be surrounded but it isn't going anywhere, and really for the most part they birds using the ponds don't use the hay fields behind the hatchery.
I live in Centerton and haven't heard about a "new downtown" but the old pastures are filling with homes and new schools.
Walmart created the infrastructure for a Superstore about 10 years ago across from the Centerton Pond before they decided they had already saturated the market and never built the store.
However I have heard there is going to be a new Walmart Distribution Center on Anglin Rd at the west side of Barron Rd, also a great place for Shorebirds such as Golden-Plovers during migration. The pastures on the other side of Barron Rd is still the Anglin property where they still run cows, it holds water after 3 days of rain and shorebirds gather there as well.
I'm hearing the fish hatchery is going to do some restructuring later this year, I don't really know what that means, they have built new ponds in the upper pond area recently. Walk in traffic will not be allowed during that time. I don't think the hatchery is going anywhere since the previously planned move to Cave Springs was nixed.
Maybe walmart sold them the land on 14th street where the Superstore was supposed to go all those years ago.
Jacque Brown, Centerton
On Thursday, May 8, 2025 at 07:39:57 AM CDT, Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> wrote:
Some of you, especially around Northwest Arkansas City, may have heard plans to build a new “downtown” area for Centerton. This would include the area currently home to Craig State Fish Hatchery, one of the first Important Bird Areas declared for Arkansas.Rapid urbanization of Centerton – close to the huge new Walmart world headquarters complex under development in Bentonville -- made such development almost predictable.We could see something like this coming 21 years ago – encroachment of urbanization as it rapidly destroyed one of the best bird habitats. Habitat for numerous plant and animal species unique to the wetlands of Tallgrass Prairies. The spring runs have a population of Swamp Milkweed, important to Monarch Butterflies. There are rare Ozark Cave Fish in the undergrounds of these springs.I had hoped one of the billionaires spun off from Walmart Empire would step in and acquire available property 20 years ago to protect a natural heritage unique in our part of the world. But no.Except to see the occasional rarity (like this season’s Long-tailed Duck), I quit going to Centerton after almost being run over by a string of dump trucks speeding up Fish Hatchery Road. They were building houses. I was building a database for Swamp Milkweed/Monarchs in the spring run associated with the hatchery.My first hatchery trips occurred with my old friend Charlie Wooten in early 1980s. I subsequently made many trips with Mike Mlodinow and others. Doug James for many years took his students to see spring migration there. Some of you who read this were probably students in those classes. I have attached 4 files to this email. These are pages of an article I wrote for the Arkansas Game and Fish Magazine “Arkansas Wildife” (May/June 2003), “Sandpipers at Centerton.”Don’t weep for me. Weep for a NWA City without such a source/support for the wildlife of North America. Source for inspiration about our unique Planet Earth. We can never replace what has been lost. And, as these plans move ahead, what will be further lost.
Your 1-4 and mine are the same. I Lance’s picture had been in the state I would sa it was the one.
Charles is sending you a grebe photo.
Not to be tacky but I suspect you and I could replace all the photos with one of ours but that is what I am trying to avoid people thinking. This one just happens to be one of very favorite photos of one of my favorite birds. So I had to ask….
> On May 8, 2025, at 8:50 AM, Steven Warmack <SteveWarmack...> wrote:
>
> Also... if you hate the editing process I am happy to do it just like Charles... and you can send the RAW if you have it and I will do it....
>
> but I dont think that is an issue with you. You do your own stuff just fine.
>
> On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 8:48 AM Steven Warmack <stevewarmack...> <mailto:<stevewarmack...>> wrote:
>> We are a team... anyone can suggest anything.... I just know how to do the actual uploading.
>>
>> While shots taken in Arkansas are preferable, we both know that for some species... a good pic hasnt been taken inside the state.... so yeah that would be a good one as long as you can do a square crop. I am sure Chitwood would give it her vote as well.
>>
>> Provided the pic is really good... I kind of rank them in this order.
>>
>> 1. Picture taken in Arkansas by an Arkansas Photographer. (even better an AAS member)
>> 2. Picture taken in Arkansas by an Out of State Photographer.
>> 3. Picture taken out of state by an Arkansas Photographer.
>> 4. Out of state photograph and photographer.
>>
>> On a separate note... you might as well get a square crop of your CLGR pic ready because nobody else is even in the running.
>>
>>
>> On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 8:37 AM Michael Linz <mplinz...> <mailto:<mplinz...>> wrote:
>>> Steve,
>>> In the role of approver I don’t know if I should pitch my pictures but I came across this photo. I had not suggested it in the past as it was out of state. I noticed the picture we had is already out of state. So if its legal can I suggest this photo?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
Date: 5/8/25 5:59 pm From: <arbour...> <arbour...> Subject: Red Slough Bird Survey - May 8
Steve Metz, Peter Michael, Kevin Flanagan, and I surveyed birds today at Red Slough and found 83 species. The weather started off clear, mild, and calm and turned partly cloudy, warm, and a little windy by the afternoon. Our major emphasis was on migrant Passerines (mainly warblers) as we spent most of the survey along Red Slough road and walking "Warbler Alley" by Bittern Lake. We only made a very brief visit into the large reservoirs in the afternoon so you will notice our water bird counts are way lower than normal. "Warbler Alley" lived up to its name today and we found several really good warblers. 17 species of warblers were found today. We just received 2.4 inches of rain a couple days ago and there was some flooding on the area but Red Slough road is ok and the north parking lot is no longer under water. Blackland road still has a lot of water on it so don't come in that way if you visit this weekend. The main birding areas have been mowed and are ready for visitors. Here is our list for today:
Date: 5/8/25 5:55 pm From: <arbour...> <arbour...> Subject: Red Slough Bird Survey - May 8
Steve Metz, Peter Michael, Kevin Flanagan, and I surveyed birds today at Red Slough and found 83 species. The weather started off clear, mild, and calm and turned partly cloudy, warm, and a little windy by the afternoon. Our major emphasis was on migrant Passerines (mainly warblers) as we spent most of the survey along Red Slough road and walking "Warbler Alley" by Bittern Lake. We only made a very brief visit into the large reservoirs in the afternoon so you will notice our water bird counts are way lower than normal. "Warbler Alley" lived up to its name today and we found several really good warblers. 17 species of warblers were found today. We just received 2.4 inches of rain a couple days ago and there was some flooding on the area but Red Slough road is ok and the north parking lot is no longer under water. Blackland road still has a lot of water on it so don't come in that way if you visit this weekend. The main birding areas have been mowed and are ready for visitors. Here is our list for today:
Date: 5/8/25 2:36 pm From: Sandy Berger <sndbrgr...> Subject: Birding in and Around Fort Smith field trip
This Saturday we’re meeting at 6:00 a.m. at the WestArk church of Christ
parking lot on the corner of Grand and Waldron. We will carpool. Bring
food and drink and binocs. Dress appropriately.
We plan to drive Cartwright Mountain road and Shepherds Springs road. That
up highway 71.
Date: 5/8/25 2:29 pm From: Ragupathy Kannan <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: Most bird species declining overall
Attached is a PDF of the paper.
On Thursday 8 May, 2025 at 03:08:54 pm GMT-5, Robert Day <rhday52...> wrote:
Does anybody have a reprint of this that they can send me? I am no longer a member of AAAS and am retired, so it is inaccessible to me.
Thanks in advance.
RHD
Robert H. Day, Ph.D.6303 SW Shady Side AvenueBentonville, AR 72713cell: 907-460-7061; <rhday52...>
On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 10:50 AM Ragupathy Kannan <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> wrote:
How important is your eBird data? See this. The 2nd author of this major Science article that used 1000s of eBird records is Amanda Rodewald, a former University of Arkansas grad student and my colleague in grad school.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn4381 Editor’s summary
We know that birds are declining globally, but more fine-scale information on population trends is needed to guide conservation efforts. Johnston et al. used participatory data from eBird to track 14 years of population changes across the ranges of 495 birds in North and Central America and the Caribbean. Almost all species showed areas with population increases and areas with declines, often with the strongest declines occurring in areas where species were most abundant. Most species were declining overall, suggesting a worsening situation for birds. However, areas of population increase may offer refuge or point to conditions that could facilitate recovery. —Bianca Lopez
Date: 5/8/25 1:08 pm From: Robert Day <rhday52...> Subject: Re: Most bird species declining overall
Does anybody have a reprint of this that they can send me? I am no longer a
member of AAAS and am retired, so it is inaccessible to me.
Thanks in advance.
RHD
Robert H. Day, Ph.D.
6303 SW Shady Side Avenue
Bentonville, AR 72713
cell: 907-460-7061; <rhday52...>
On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 10:50 AM Ragupathy Kannan <
<0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> wrote:
> How important is your eBird data? See this. The 2nd author of this major
> *Science* article that used 1000s of eBird records is Amanda Rodewald, a
> former University of Arkansas grad student and my colleague in grad school.
>
> https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn4381 > Editor’s summary
> We know that birds are declining globally, but more fine-scale information
> on population trends is needed to guide conservation efforts. Johnston *et
> al*. used participatory data from eBird to track 14 years of population
> changes across the ranges of 495 birds in North and Central America and the
> Caribbean. Almost all species showed areas with population increases and
> areas with declines, often with the strongest declines occurring in areas
> where species were most abundant. Most species were declining overall,
> suggesting a worsening situation for birds. However, areas of population
> increase may offer refuge or point to conditions that could facilitate
> recovery. —Bianca Lopez
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list, click the following link:
> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1 >
Date: 5/8/25 11:40 am From: Sandy Berger <sndbrgr...> Subject: The Bottoms
I could sit out here all day today. It’s incredibly beautiful. The clouds
are so puffy and there’s a nice western wind and thermals galore.
I’m sitting on East Arnold in Crawford County. There are Swainson’s Hawks
and Mississippi Kites thermalling overhead. Thermalling is my new made up
word. Dickcissels are screeching and a few shorebirds are resting alongside
the flooding oxbow.
I had 52 species on Sharp Chapel earlier. It was incredible. There were
very few shorebirds. But there were Bobolinks and there were Willow
Flycatchers. And that’s just fine with me.
Sunnymede had 58 species in the fog from 7 to 8 this morning. Best bird was
a calling Olive-sided Flycatcher. Still whiffing on the “fancy warblers”.
We will be having a field trip to Shepherd Springs and Cartwright Mt Road
this Saturday.
More info to come.
Date: 5/8/25 11:40 am From: JACQUE BROWN <bluebird2...> Subject: Birding Greater Vaughn and Centerton near the Hatchery
Yesterday I drove the usual places around Vaughn, what I call the dairy loop which includes All of Anglin Rd, Barron Rd to Opal, Opal through Barron Cemetary, and Adams rd to Anglin. I didn't see much on this loop. I was looking for Bobolinks but haven't found any around the area where I used to find them. It's still a little early. But 25 species and the Dicksissels have arrived.
After that I did the rest of Opal Rd to Rainbow Farm rds, then down to Buckhorn Flats to Daisy rd. most of what was seen was on Buckhorn Flats. I parked in one spot that is usually pretty birdy. There is a Cooper's Hawk nest, I saw two Black-bellied Whistling Ducks fly onto a snag, saw my FOS Painted Bunting male, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Parula, Great-crested Flycatchers, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, Piliated Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, White-eyed Vireo, Indigo Buntings, House Wrens, Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Kingbird, and the usual suspects that are here year round. 29 species in all.
Afterward I went to the fish hatchery, I got there about 11:15 and walked the lower ponds. The Swallow numbers were down from earlier in the week, but Barn, Northern Rough-winged, Cliff, Purple Martins, and some high up Chimney Swifts. There were Bank Swallows earlier this week but I didn't sort any out yesterday. The shorebird highlights were 2 Semipalmated Plovers, and 6 Dunlin in their spring finery. Alder, Least, Scissor-tailed, Great-crested Flaycatchers, Eastern Phoebe, and Eastern Kingbirds. White-eyed and Warbling Vireos. Gray Catbirds, Brown Thrashers, and Mockingbirds. Indigo Buntings, Orchard Oriole, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Northern Waterthrush, Cedar Waxwings testing the not ripe yet mulberries, 4 Yellow Warblers, 4 Common Yellowthroats, 2 Palm Warblers, 1 Myrtle Warbler, and 1 Blackpoll Warbler. White-throated Sparrows and White-crowned Sparrows, Savannah and Lincoln's Sparrows. I also found 2 American Pipits. and Dicksissel. There was a total of 64 species.
At my house about 1/4 from the hatchery I have 2 pair of Baltimore Orioles. One female is gathering strands from the stalks of last years Swamp Milkweed, I also have a pair of Gray Catbirds, a pair of Brown Thrashers and a pair of House Wrens have been checking out all the gourd birdhouses. I hope this year they stay. I also still see White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows, plus Lincoln's Sparrows.
What is missing are the Rose-breasted Grosebeaks and any Warblers yet this year.
Jacque Brown, Centerton.
Date: 5/8/25 10:26 am From: JACQUE BROWN <bluebird2...> Subject: Re: “DOWNTOWN” CENTERTON SLATED FOR ARKANSAS IMPORTANT BIRD AREA
I live in Centerton and haven't heard about a "new downtown" but the old pastures are filling with homes and new schools.
Walmart created the infrastructure for a Superstore about 10 years ago across from the Centerton Pond before they decided they had already saturated the market and never built the store.
However I have heard there is going to be a new Walmart Distribution Center on Anglin Rd at the west side of Barron Rd, also a great place for Shorebirds such as Golden-Plovers during migration. The pastures on the other side of Barron Rd is still the Anglin property where they still run cows, it holds water after 3 days of rain and shorebirds gather there as well.
I'm hearing the fish hatchery is going to do some restructuring later this year, I don't really know what that means, they have built new ponds in the upper pond area recently. Walk in traffic will not be allowed during that time. I don't think the hatchery is going anywhere since the previously planned move to Cave Springs was nixed.
Maybe walmart sold them the land on 14th street where the Superstore was supposed to go all those years ago.
Jacque Brown, Centerton
On Thursday, May 8, 2025 at 07:39:57 AM CDT, Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> wrote:
Some of you, especially around Northwest Arkansas City, may have heard plans to build a new “downtown” area for Centerton. This would include the area currently home to Craig State Fish Hatchery, one of the first Important Bird Areas declared for Arkansas.Rapid urbanization of Centerton – close to the huge new Walmart world headquarters complex under development in Bentonville -- made such development almost predictable.We could see something like this coming 21 years ago – encroachment of urbanization as it rapidly destroyed one of the best bird habitats. Habitat for numerous plant and animal species unique to the wetlands of Tallgrass Prairies. The spring runs have a population of Swamp Milkweed, important to Monarch Butterflies. There are rare Ozark Cave Fish in the undergrounds of these springs.I had hoped one of the billionaires spun off from Walmart Empire would step in and acquire available property 20 years ago to protect a natural heritage unique in our part of the world. But no.Except to see the occasional rarity (like this season’s Long-tailed Duck), I quit going to Centerton after almost being run over by a string of dump trucks speeding up Fish Hatchery Road. They were building houses. I was building a database for Swamp Milkweed/Monarchs in the spring run associated with the hatchery.My first hatchery trips occurred with my old friend Charlie Wooten in early 1980s. I subsequently made many trips with Mike Mlodinow and others. Doug James for many years took his students to see spring migration there. Some of you who read this were probably students in those classes. I have attached 4 files to this email. These are pages of an article I wrote for the Arkansas Game and Fish Magazine “Arkansas Wildife” (May/June 2003), “Sandpipers at Centerton.”Don’t weep for me. Weep for a NWA City without such a source/support for the wildlife of North America. Source for inspiration about our unique Planet Earth. We can never replace what has been lost. And, as these plans move ahead, what will be further lost.
Date: 5/8/25 8:50 am From: Ragupathy Kannan <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> Subject: Most bird species declining overall
How important is your eBird data? See this. The 2nd author of this major Science article that used 1000s of eBird records is Amanda Rodewald, a former University of Arkansas grad student and my colleague in grad school.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn4381 Editor’s summary
We know that birds are declining globally, but more fine-scale information on population trends is needed to guide conservation efforts. Johnston et al. used participatory data from eBird to track 14 years of population changes across the ranges of 495 birds in North and Central America and the Caribbean. Almost all species showed areas with population increases and areas with declines, often with the strongest declines occurring in areas where species were most abundant. Most species were declining overall, suggesting a worsening situation for birds. However, areas of population increase may offer refuge or point to conditions that could facilitate recovery. —Bianca Lopez
Date: 5/8/25 5:40 am From: Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> Subject: “DOWNTOWN” CENTERTON SLATED FOR ARKANSAS IMPORTANT BIRD AREA
Some of you, especially around Northwest Arkansas City, may have heard plans to build a new downtown area for Centerton. This would include the area currently home to Craig State Fish Hatchery, one of the first Important Bird Areas declared for Arkansas.
Rapid urbanization of Centerton close to the huge new Walmart world headquarters complex under development in Bentonville -- made such development almost predictable.
We could see something like this coming 21 years ago encroachment of urbanization as it rapidly destroyed one of the best bird habitats. Habitat for numerous plant and animal species unique to the wetlands of Tallgrass Prairies. The spring runs have a population of Swamp Milkweed, important to Monarch Butterflies. There are rare Ozark Cave Fish in the undergrounds of these springs.
I had hoped one of the billionaires spun off from Walmart Empire would step in and acquire available property 20 years ago to protect a natural heritage unique in our part of the world. But no.
Except to see the occasional rarity (like this seasons Long-tailed Duck), I quit going to Centerton after almost being run over by a string of dump trucks speeding up Fish Hatchery Road. They were building houses. I was building a database for Swamp Milkweed/Monarchs in the spring run associated with the hatchery.
My first hatchery trips occurred with my old friend Charlie Wooten in early 1980s. I subsequently made many trips with Mike Mlodinow and others. Doug James for many years took his students to see spring migration there. Some of you who read this were probably students in those classes.
I have attached 4 files to this email. These are pages of an article I wrote for the Arkansas Game and Fish Magazine Arkansas Wildife (May/June 2003), Sandpipers at Centerton.
Dont weep for me. Weep for a NWA City without such a source/support for the wildlife of North America. Source for inspiration about our unique Planet Earth. We can never replace what has been lost. And, as these plans move ahead, what will be further lost.
Date: 5/7/25 11:24 am From: Ed Laster <elaster523...> Subject: Sightings at Bald Knob
This morning at Bald Knob we saw lots of Blue-winged Teal, both yellowlegs, Dunlin in their spring outfits, Wilson’s Phalaropes, LeConte's sparrows and Bobolinks. Several blue grosbeaks and Indigos also.
We were hoping to see Patty’s Rail and Sora but no luck on those. It was a great outing anyway.
Date: 5/7/25 10:32 am From: Todd Ballinger <todd.ballinger...> Subject: Re: Big spring migration day at Lake Fayetteville
Thank you, Joe, for sharing some of the history of this place that has
become so special to so many of us.
On Tue, May 6, 2025 at 9:15 PM Joseph Neal <joeneal...> wrote:
> Out at Lake Fayetteville Park today I was totally overwhelmed by a storm
> of swallows – mainly Northern Rough-winged but also some Barn – filling the
> sky, and Middle Earth around the trees, and then down the rushing torrents
> below what we call “The Million Dollar Bridge” over the spillway at
> Veterans Park area of Lake Fayetteville – a Canada Warbler migrant singing
> in the willows -- Spotted Sandpiper walking limestone slabs –
> Ran into Kenny Younger there. Told me that Jeremy Cohen had yesterday
> tallied an incredible 104 species during an almost 15-hour day with
> 12-miles of mostly walking. Link to Jeremy’s eBird list: *https://ebird.org/checklist/S233743644 > <https://ebird.org/checklist/S233743644>*.
> Standing with Kenny on Million Dollar Bridge … I’m taking in the news. I’m
> imagining how Jeremy’s long birding day. How he birded from “can to can’t”
> (as coal miners used to call their work days). Also uploading into my mind:
> my old friend Mike Mlodinow.
> He used to walk the whole lake. Not owning a car, he took the bus to NWA
> Mall, walked across Highway 71 to Lake Fayetteville. Carrying his spotting
> scope, too, he was once stopped by Fayetteville police who had been called
> by someone who thought he was a terrorist carrying a machine gun! Recounted
> here in a film about Mike: *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcl7zw5xujE > <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcl7zw5xujE>*.
> Mike did the big circle around the lake. Habitat by habitat, Yellow
> Warbler by Yellow Warbler. During Empidonax season, Least Flycatcher by
> Alder Flycatcher by Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. There must be some special
> category for someone doing it all no matter what.
> Thinking about Jeremy’s 104 also got me on to Dr H. David Chapman, who
> once lived only 2-blocks from the lake. Birded it regularly enough he
> eventually produced a book, “The Bird Life of Lake Fayetteville, with a
> list of plants, mammals and reptiles.” He certainly covered the habitats.
> He also was interested in how the place became a lake at all. That’s
> covered in an article he wrote and published in Washington County
> Historical’s Society’s Flashback: “The History of Lake Fayetteville” (2011,
> Volume 61, Number 3).
> Part of what is now lake was prior to 1900 Tallgrass Prairie. Must have
> been Greater Prairie-Chickens where now we find our Empidonaxes!
> So far as I know most recent claimant to the 100 species honor at Lake
> Fayetteville is my friend and former regular birding buddy, now Dr Vivek
> Govind Kumar, who on May 3, 2020, along with Todd Ballinger (for part of
> that day) achieved 101. Here is that eBird submission: *https://ebird.org/checklist/S68347732 > <https://ebird.org/checklist/S68347732>*.
> eBird is full of records submitted by Doug James and Bill Beall in the
> early 1950s. The lake had mudflats and shorebirds. What is now forest was
> then farm.
> It’s fun to compare. The vast sweep of time. To know the park is right
> down the road. All of us birders just waiting for that next rainy spring
> day with a cold front.
>
>
>
--
Todd Ballinger, MA, NBCT
English 11/AP English Language and Composition
Fayetteville High School
Date: 5/6/25 7:16 pm From: Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> Subject: Big spring migration day at Lake Fayetteville
Out at Lake Fayetteville Park today I was totally overwhelmed by a storm of swallows mainly Northern Rough-winged but also some Barn filling the sky, and Middle Earth around the trees, and then down the rushing torrents below what we call The Million Dollar Bridge over the spillway at Veterans Park area of Lake Fayetteville a Canada Warbler migrant singing in the willows -- Spotted Sandpiper walking limestone slabs
Ran into Kenny Younger there. Told me that Jeremy Cohen had yesterday tallied an incredible 104 species during an almost 15-hour day with 12-miles of mostly walking. Link to Jeremys eBird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S233743644.
Standing with Kenny on Million Dollar Bridge Im taking in the news. Im imagining how Jeremys long birding day. How he birded from can to cant (as coal miners used to call their work days). Also uploading into my mind: my old friend Mike Mlodinow.
He used to walk the whole lake. Not owning a car, he took the bus to NWA Mall, walked across Highway 71 to Lake Fayetteville. Carrying his spotting scope, too, he was once stopped by Fayetteville police who had been called by someone who thought he was a terrorist carrying a machine gun! Recounted here in a film about Mike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcl7zw5xujE.
Mike did the big circle around the lake. Habitat by habitat, Yellow Warbler by Yellow Warbler. During Empidonax season, Least Flycatcher by Alder Flycatcher by Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. There must be some special category for someone doing it all no matter what.
Thinking about Jeremys 104 also got me on to Dr H. David Chapman, who once lived only 2-blocks from the lake. Birded it regularly enough he eventually produced a book, The Bird Life of Lake Fayetteville, with a list of plants, mammals and reptiles. He certainly covered the habitats. He also was interested in how the place became a lake at all. Thats covered in an article he wrote and published in Washington County Historicals Societys Flashback: The History of Lake Fayetteville (2011, Volume 61, Number 3).
Part of what is now lake was prior to 1900 Tallgrass Prairie. Must have been Greater Prairie-Chickens where now we find our Empidonaxes!
So far as I know most recent claimant to the 100 species honor at Lake Fayetteville is my friend and former regular birding buddy, now Dr Vivek Govind Kumar, who on May 3, 2020, along with Todd Ballinger (for part of that day) achieved 101. Here is that eBird submission: https://ebird.org/checklist/S68347732.
eBird is full of records submitted by Doug James and Bill Beall in the early 1950s. The lake had mudflats and shorebirds. What is now forest was then farm.
Its fun to compare. The vast sweep of time. To know the park is right down the road. All of us birders just waiting for that next rainy spring day with a cold front.
Date: 5/6/25 2:22 pm From: Eric Monaghen <eteranch...> Subject: Re: Requests for volunteer Cerulean Warbler surveys
Dr Boves,
I live on the edge of the National Forest above Dover. I am close to where
old Hwy 7 cuts off from Hwy 7. If there are any locations in this area you
need surveyed, I would be glad to help out.
Thanks,
Eric Monaghen
On Tue, May 6, 2025, 9:09 AM Than Boves <
<0000066ff0d310d7-dmarc-request...> wrote:
> Hi AR-Birders! We are currently conducting research on Cerulean Warblers
> in the Ozark National Forest and we are struggling to find them in places
> where they have historically been found in good numbers. So, I am sending
> out a request for birders to survey some areas in the Ozark NF
> looking/listening for Cerulean Warblers. If you are interested in helping
> out, please email me and I will give you more information.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Than Boves
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Than J. Boves, PhD
>
> Professor of Avian Ecology
>
> Director of Graduate Program in Biology
>
> Department of Biological Sciences
>
> Arkansas State University
>
> Office Phone: 870-972-3320
>
> Website: www.boveslab.com
>
> Facebook: @BovesLabAState
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list, click the following link:
> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1 >
Joe Neal kindly informed me: Hi Judy — There are no records of which I am aware of nesting Spotted Sandpipers in Arkansas. People have seen apparent pairs late in migration, no evidence of nests.
I was going by the range map from Cornell which shows this as part of their breeding territory. So nesting must be elsewhere.
J
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Judy Griffith <9waterfall9...>
> Subject: Recent Birds
> Date: May 6, 2025 at 11:17:56 AM CDT
> To: The Birds of Arkansas Discussion List <ARBIRD-L...>
>
> Watched a nesting pair of Blue Grosbeaks in one of the pastures this week. Female was on a tree branch discussing something with the male who was balancing on a low shrubby plant with a fat caterpillar in his beak. He bent over into the plants and when he came up the caterpillar was gone... so maybe that’s where their nest is.
>
> Yellow-throated Warblers way up in the Sycamore trees have become more abundant and vocal than they have been for a couple of weeks.
>
> Lincoln’s Sparrows sing every morning. Eastern Towhees and Blue-winged Warblers nest hidden in deep tangled patches of Coralberry and Greenbrier.
>
> Male and female Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are coming to the feeders before continuing north to their nesting grounds, and Baltimore Orioles visit the Tulip Poplar flowers as well as the grape jelly.
>
> Heard a first-of-season, “Quick, Free Beer! Quick, Free Beer!” from an Olive-sided Flycatcher perched in the canopy of an Oak while I was planting tomatoes yesterday.
>
> Don got several good photos of a Spotted Sandpiper as it bobbed and foraged along a gravel bar hunting invertebrates at the edge of Piney Creek far downstream from Ninestone. Today I learned from Cornell that they breed and nest here.
>
> Acadian Flycatchers are back. Eastern Wood Peewees are calling. Common Yellowthroats, Yellow-breasted Chats, Summer and Scarlet Tanagers sing with the Great-crested Flycatchers and Indigo Buntings.
>
> And one or two Chuck-will's-widows can be heard every night from under the native short-leaf pines or from across the creek where the forest meets the west glade.
>
> Judith
> Ninestone, Carroll County
>
>
>
Date: 5/6/25 11:29 am From: Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: Triple digit day at Lake Fayetteville
I have never thought we would ever experience another birder with the energy, knowledge, and expert skill of Mike Mlodinow, who has contributed so many exceptional records from many, many hours at Lake Fayetteville. And now along comes Dr Jeremy Cohen! I have never had the skill or the energy to perform something like this, but I have long known that if you covered all the varied habitats, and had a very good ear for bird song, something like this big day ought to be possible. So HOORAY for this achievement, Jeremy Cohen.
________________________________
From: The Birds of Arkansas Discussion List <ARBIRD-L...> on behalf of Jeremy Cohen <jeremy3cohen...>
Sent: Tuesday, May 6, 2025 10:42 AM
To: <ARBIRD-L...> <ARBIRD-L...>
Subject: Triple digit day at Lake Fayetteville
For a long time I've wanted to find 100 species on a single checklist in Arkansas or anywhere in the US. I attempted this at Lake Fayetteville (Washington co.) in 2022 (88 species) and 2024 (94 species) but everything finally came together yesterday with the right combination of peak migration, help from other birders, knowledge of the hotspot, weather and luck. I found 104 species at Lake Fayetteville over 15 hours of dawn-to-dusk birding covering 16 miles on foot, including the vireo sweep and 21 warbler species. The best finds were mourning and canada warbler, olive-sided and alder flycatchers and a least sandpiper (very unusual at this location, which has no shorebird habitat) and the biggest misses were black-and-white warbler and yellow-billed cuckoo. I got lucky with just a few lingering individuals of white-throated sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler and ruby-crowned kinglet, all of which are usually gone when the neotropical migrant diversity is peaking. The 100th bird of the day was a kingfisher at 3:30 allowing me to relax early, and the final new bird was a louisiana waterthrush singing at dusk. You can view the checklist here- https://ebird.org/checklist/S233743644
Watched a nesting pair of Blue Grosbeaks in one of the pastures this week. Female was on a tree branch discussing something with the male who was balancing on a low shrubby plant with a fat caterpillar in his beak. He bent over into the plants and when he came up the caterpillar was gone... so maybe that’s where their nest is.
Yellow-throated Warblers way up in the Sycamore trees have become more abundant and vocal than they have been for a couple of weeks.
Lincoln’s Sparrows sing every morning. Eastern Towhees and Blue-winged Warblers nest hidden in deep tangled patches of Coralberry and Greenbrier.
Male and female Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are coming to the feeders before continuing north to their nesting grounds, and Baltimore Orioles visit the Tulip Poplar flowers as well as the grape jelly.
Heard a first-of-season, “Quick, Free Beer! Quick, Free Beer!” from an Olive-sided Flycatcher perched in the canopy of an Oak while I was planting tomatoes yesterday.
Don got several good photos of a Spotted Sandpiper as it bobbed and foraged along a gravel bar hunting invertebrates at the edge of Piney Creek far downstream from Ninestone. Today I learned from Cornell that they breed and nest here.
Acadian Flycatchers are back. Eastern Wood Peewees are calling. Common Yellowthroats, Yellow-breasted Chats, Summer and Scarlet Tanagers sing with the Great-crested Flycatchers and Indigo Buntings.
And one or two Chuck-will's-widows can be heard every night from under the native short-leaf pines or from across the creek where the forest meets the west glade.
Date: 5/6/25 8:42 am From: Jeremy Cohen <jeremy3cohen...> Subject: Triple digit day at Lake Fayetteville
For a long time I've wanted to find 100 species on a single checklist in
Arkansas or anywhere in the US. I attempted this at Lake Fayetteville
(Washington co.) in 2022 (88 species) and 2024 (94 species) but everything
finally came together yesterday with the right combination of peak
migration, help from other birders, knowledge of the hotspot, weather and
luck. I found *104 species* at Lake Fayetteville over 15 hours of
dawn-to-dusk birding covering 16 miles on foot, including the vireo sweep
and 21 warbler species. The best finds were mourning and canada warbler,
olive-sided and alder flycatchers and a least sandpiper (very unusual at
this location, which has no shorebird habitat) and the biggest misses were
black-and-white warbler and yellow-billed cuckoo. I got lucky with just a
few lingering individuals of white-throated sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler
and ruby-crowned kinglet, all of which are usually gone when the
neotropical migrant diversity is peaking. The 100th bird of the day was a
kingfisher at 3:30 allowing me to relax early, and the final new bird was a
louisiana waterthrush singing at dusk. You can view the checklist here-
https://ebird.org/checklist/S233743644
Date: 5/6/25 7:09 am From: Than Boves <0000066ff0d310d7-dmarc-request...> Subject: Requests for volunteer Cerulean Warbler surveys
Hi AR-Birders! We are currently conducting research on Cerulean Warblers in the Ozark National Forest and we are struggling to find them in places where they have historically been found in good numbers. So, I am sending out a request for birders to survey some areas in the Ozark NF looking/listening for Cerulean Warblers. If you are interested in helping out, please email me and I will give you more information.
Thanks,
Than Boves
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Than J. Boves, PhD
Professor of Avian Ecology
Director of Graduate Program in Biology
Department of Biological Sciences
Arkansas State University
Office Phone: 870-972-3320
Website: www.boveslab.com<http://www.boveslab.com/> Facebook: @BovesLabAState
Date: 5/5/25 8:05 pm From: Jack and Pam <00000064a46c579c-dmarc-request...> Subject: Environmental group's insurance canceled because it "protects the environment"
This story is about an Audubon Chapter in New York State. Since this type of thing could impact us here in Arkansas, I'm bending the rule to share it.If you have questions, thoughts or other comments, please respond to me at <fellowshipofthewings...> I'm trying to avoid a discussion over this topic on the list.https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/so-adirondack-audubon-chapter-gets-surprise-20307366.php
Jack StewartNewton County, <ARfellowshipofthewing...>
Date: 5/5/25 4:40 pm From: Carol Joan Patterson <0000003a0ccbe138-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: A provision win -- for the land, the wild ones, and the people.
THANK GOD! And many thanks to all who helped.
On Friday, May 2, 2025 at 11:05:21 AM CDT, Ann Gordon <chesterann...> wrote:
Kudos to Anita to all those up in favor of wildlife and our future!
On Fri, May 2, 2025 at 9:21 AM Lynn Foster <lfoster5211...> wrote:
Beautifully written, Anita, and wonderful news. Let’s hope it holds and the Quorum Court doesn’t reverse.
Sent from my iPhone
On May 2, 2025, at 8:40 a.m., Anita Schnee <000003224553d416-dmarc-request...> wrote:
Hello birder friends. Here is my very long report on last night's conservation win for the Brown Farm and surrounding area in east Fayetteville.
It was a close vote at the Washington County Courthouse last evening. But unity won, in a collective stand for peace, for nature, for one of the last stretches of open land along the county’s eastern edge. Standing up together, speaking out against a disastrous proposed development, was a smorgasbord of suburbanites, old-family Arkansans, transplants, three women lawyers, and counter-culturites, all speaking for the voiceless in this humanocentrically devouring world – the trees, the birds, the water, the terrain. As the crow flies, proceed east-northeast from downtown, through residential areas developed years ago, past a cemetery, some schools, a commercial intersection with hardware stores and restaurants and gas stations and a coffee shop and a tailor and a grocery store and a liquor store and a bank and an ice cream parlor. Past two tightly platted residential subdivisions. Another cemetery. Fly just over the county line. Settle on 25 acres of woodland, ponds, and pasture, owned and lived-on for maybe a century by the same old Arkansas family. And then fly just a few feet to the east, to a narrow strip around eight acres long, currently occupied by a lawn, a house, a swimming pool, and some woods. Stop there.One owner. Two developers. One conditional-use proposal to put up a parking lot, so to speak, on those eight acres: to bulldoze it all for a sprawling storage facility. When the surrounding area is already dotted with storage facilities, behind the metal doors of which languishes the backwash of stuff relegated by this insatiable world of ours.Fly back, crow, fly back. As of December 2023, there were at least 19 species of birds that over-winter on the neighboring 25 acres. The acreage is a crucial stop-over for other birds that migrate through a corridor of relatively undisturbed terrain stretching from rural Madison County to the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks to Lake Fayetteville. Most of that migration happens at night, guided by the stars. But 24/7 floodlights from a storage compound would disorient the birds. Many would crash. Many would die.Not to mention the construction uproar and disruption to the residential surroundings, and a host of other problems crowding in: damage to watershed, attraction of potential criminal activity to a thinly policed edge of the county, traffic danger to schoolchildren, sinking property values, the bad precedent, the loss – the dreadful list goes on and on.All that rested in the hands of the Washington County Planning Commission. Those consequential hands. A strange thing, really. A few vibrations in the air, just a little “yea” or “nay,” and all manner of consequences tumble forward.Person after person spoke up. Homeowners. Landowners. Bird-watchers. School-children. The women lawyers. (Not to make it about gender, but as a young woman non-lawyer, there was a time in my life when segregation was legal and I couldn’t get a credit-card.) Not a single person spoke in favor, except for the developers.So this Planning Commission of five – who had just voted, again over objection, to approve conditional use of a massive RV park in the wilds around Beaver Lake – this time, enough votes swung the other way. The proposal was denied. It was a narrow vote, but it was enough.On this Mayday, in stark contrast to the tightly formalized proceedings inside the courthouse, some others of us also stood outside with a bullhorn, protesting the other oppressions we’re all being subjected to at the moment. Cars streamed by, honking in solidarity.The storage-unit developers have 30 days to appeal to Quorum Court. A venue not known for its sympathetic treatment of people like us. We will be watching closely. We will show up again if we have to. Firm resolve is the order of the day.
Date: 5/5/25 12:28 pm From: Allan Mueller <akcmueller...> Subject: Hendrix Creek Preserve
It has been a slow spring at Hendrix Creek Preserve this year, but this morning was at least a little better.
There seemed to be a Gray Catbird in every bush. Also Least Flycatcher, American Redstart, Lincoln's Sparrow, Spotted Sandpiper, and Solitary Sandpiper. The Mississippi Kites are hanging around the same tree as last year.
Be Well
-- Allan Mueller (It) 20 Moseley Lane, Conway, AR Home of the Arkansas State Champion Winged Elm 501-339-8071 *BLOG* birdsnonsense.blogspot.com Pura Vida
Date: 5/5/25 11:29 am From: Dottie Boyles <ctboyles...> Subject: Port of Little Rock Birding
Saturday, May 3rd, Karen Hart and I made a short run out to the Port of Little Rock area. I was hoping for some lingering shorebirds but found none. The three Blue-winged Teal couples, seen the week before, were found in a ditch farther down the road. Turning onto Slackwater Harbor Dr, we saw a large flock of Bobolinks, in the grassy triangle area just past the levy. We sat there for several minutes and watched the Bobolinks bob up and down in the grass, while Red-winged Blackbirds flashed their bright red epaulets. Also saw one Mississippi Kite. A FOS for me.
Leaving Slackwater, we made a left onto Frazier Pike looking for Western Kingbirds, we found two. But the real entertainment was watching a Loggerhead Shrike fly across the road, land in the gravel, and began battle with a small snake. The snake had nowhere to hide as the shrike danced around it, finally killing it. Then the shrike picked up its prize and flew back across the street. Unfortunately, just as it did, a big truck went by. We were pretty sure the bird had cleared the truck, but when we saw it again, it did not have the snake. After finding a small chain-link enclosure topped with barbed wire, I drove over to it. Sure enough, there hung the snake on one of the barbs. Sorry we missed the impaling, but the battle was fascinating to watch. Karen took a picture of the impaled snake, which will be in the next Snipe issue.
Sunday, May 4, after seeing Sarah Morris' post about the Yellow-headed Blackbird, I drove back to the port. Never did find the blackbird but spent about two hours watching the large flock of Bobolinks, Red-winged Blackbirds, and a large flock of Mississippi Kites. With all the circling and diving they were difficult to count. My last count was 41, but I know that was not all of them. While watching one kite, I saw a large kettle of raptors. Just specks in the sky, to high and far away to ID before disappearing into a cloud.
Date: 5/5/25 9:00 am From: Patty McLean <000008e6fff5e5c8-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: Bald Knob NWR
I forgot to mention where we saw the Whistling-Ducks and Rails. The rails were on the eastern portion of Huntsman Rd about 2/3rds of the way toward Ditch 13. Soras in the marshy area to the south and both Sora and Virginia in the large Ditch to the north. Also a Virginia near the white gas pipeline markers.The Whistling-Ducks moved around from Cell 1, 2 and 3, all of which are across from the silos and connected by levies. The Whistling-Ducks come in in large numbers around 7:40-8p. But there are a thousand-plus Blue-winged Teal and various duck species plus numerous shorebirds to enjoy during the day. There were two Anhinga, a male and a female, at Birch Pond yesterday. We're going to keep an eye on them to see if they might breed here. Patty
-------- Original message --------From: Patty McLean <plm108...> Date: 5/5/25 9:11 AM (GMT-06:00) To: <ARBIRD-L...> Subject: Bald Knob NWR Several of us serendipitously gathered at the refuge yesterday evening to watch the spectacle of 100+ BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKs coming in for a late day get together. Daniel Denman first observed this a few nights ago, and this is the 3rd evening in a row (that we know of) that this has occurred. I must say it was amazing to see this, and I would love to know the back story. We were hoping to see a VIRGINIA RAIL (particularly for Matt Matlock who was with us). But with 8 of us (including young children) standing by the side of the road in the open, we didn't have much chance of seeing that one. So Daniel crossed the road and looked down a ditch where we had heard one on a previous visit. And there it was, feeding in the mud along the bank with a Sora alongside! A few minutes later, Daniel and Matt flushed an American Bittern.A fun outing for sure!Patty McLean and Michael Linz The Roadrunners
Date: 5/5/25 8:11 am From: Karen Holliday <ladyhawke1...> Subject: May ASCA Field Trip Update
Below are details for our May field trip sponsored by the Audubon Society of Central Arkansas (ASCA). You don't have to be a member of ASCA to participate in the field trips. Birders of any level of experience are welcome. I have extra pairs of binoculars to share with anyone who needs them.**We will NOT be going to the Little Rock Audubon Center after we finish at Gillam. The Center is hosting a big group of Master Naturalists that day. That also means Kevin Krajcir will not be able to do his bird banding demonstration. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me off-list. Karen Holliday ASCA field trip coordinator May 10Gillam Park and David D. Terry Lock and DamLittle Rock, Pulaski Co. Join our field trip to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) and experience the excitement of spring migration. At least four thousand different species of birds are moving from their wintering grounds to their summer nesting sites. It will be a great day to be outside enjoying nature. Meet at 7:00 a.m. at Gillam Park in the far parking lot. Gillam has excellent habitat for spring warblers. There will be moderate walking on fairly level, but possibly muddy trails. We’ll then head to Industrial Harbor Road and David D. Terry Lock & Dam to look for Western Kingbirds, Great-tailed Grackles, Bobolinks, and Painted Buntings. Bring water and snacks, the trip can last into early afternoon. Wear sturdy walking shoes or hiking boots. Directions—Gillam Park is in southeast Little Rock near the airport. Address is 5300 Gillam Park Road, Little Rock. Take I-30 West heading south from Little Rock. Then exit onto I-440 going towards the airport. Take Exit 1-Springer Road. At the bottom of the exit ramp, turn left onto Springer Road. Go approximately 1 mile to just past the LRAC. Turn right onto Gillam Park Road. Follow it into the park to the last parking lot. GPS: 34.698684, -92.264514Karen Holliday ASCA field trip coordinator
Date: 5/5/25 7:11 am From: Patty McLean <000008e6fff5e5c8-dmarc-request...> Subject: Bald Knob NWR
Several of us serendipitously gathered at the refuge yesterday evening to watch the spectacle of 100+ BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKs coming in for a late day get together. Daniel Denman first observed this a few nights ago, and this is the 3rd evening in a row (that we know of) that this has occurred. I must say it was amazing to see this, and I would love to know the back story. We were hoping to see a VIRGINIA RAIL (particularly for Matt Matlock who was with us). But with 8 of us (including young children) standing by the side of the road in the open, we didn't have much chance of seeing that one. So Daniel crossed the road and looked down a ditch where we had heard one on a previous visit. And there it was, feeding in the mud along the bank with a Sora alongside! A few minutes later, Daniel and Matt flushed an American Bittern.A fun outing for sure!Patty McLean and Michael Linz The Roadrunners
Date: 5/5/25 6:40 am From: Taylor Long <00000455b6b08e87-dmarc-request...> Subject: Joining Team Sapsucker in Alaska for Global Big Day, May 10th
Greetings Birders,
This Saturday, May 10th will be the Cornell Lab or Ornithology's Global
Big Day. No matter where you are, you can join the effort to help
celebrate World Migratory Bird Day and share the birds you find with
eBird. Learn more about how to participate here:
<https://ebird.org/news/global-big-day-10-may-2025>
This year, I'll be joining the Cornell Lab's Team Sapsucker in Alaska's
Kenai Peninsula. We'll be doing a 24-hour birding marathon to find as
many species as possible and raise funds for bird conservation. If
you're inspired by the work of the lab to provide free tools like Merlin
and eBird that support science and conservation around the world, I hope
you'll consider making a gift of any size in honor of this event which
is our biggest fundraising effort of the year. Learn more about the Big
Day and how to make a gift here:
<https://dl.allaboutbirds.org/bigday2025>
I hope you’ll all consider making at least one eBird checklist this
Saturday, May 10th in honor of this global event. It’s the best time of
year to go birding, so take the excuse to get out there and find some
beautiful birds!
Date: 5/5/25 6:31 am From: Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> Subject: Swainson's Thrush migration through Northwest Arkansas City
We are hitting the peak of SWAINSONS THRUSH migration through forests and older neighborhoods with many mature trees in Northwest Arkansas City. We saw or heard at least 34 during yesterdays 4-hour slow drive of the 6.6 mile tour route through Pea Ridge National Military Park near Rogers.
On the day before, May 4, I was at Devils Den State Park to help with a field trip that is part of the Dens annual Birders Weekend. The trip started at 9. I was at the parks entrance (coming from Winslow through Blackburn) at 7:24 and spent about 1.5 hours slow-driving from the parks upper elevation forest to the bottom, at Lee Creek. I saw or heard at least 25 Swainsons Thrushes during that time, too (also Gray-cheeked Thrushes).
During trips like these, I am always reminded of why we have these parks. We have Devils Den because of response by Federal government to 1930s Great Depression. Civilian Conservation Corp hired people, like members of my family, to work on projects in the public interest. Hundreds worked on Devils Den between 1933 and 1942. My mothers father, Ernest Kennedy, worked on just such a project in building Lake Fort Smith. Our family is grateful for a government capable addressing a crisis like the Great Depression.
For Pea Ridge NMP, there is the pivotal Civil War battle, March 1862, including almost 4,000 soldiers (both sides) killed, wounded, or captured. The Norths victory kept Missouri in the Union. Over half of the Union soldiers were German immigrants -- something worth remembering in 2025 and our endless wrangling about the role of immigrants in American life.
The battlefield itself is not one endless connected subdivision like much of NWA City because civic activists. In the 1950s they waged a successful campaign to preserve the battlefield in its entirety.
And that brings us back to SWAINSONS THRUSH migrating now among us and importance of public lands. It matters for Swainsons Thrush and hundreds of other bird species.
Date: 5/5/25 5:12 am From: Ragupathy Kannan <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: Devil's Den birding May 3, 2025
I enjoy your videos, Brian. Please keep them coming.
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad
On Sunday, May 4, 2025, 9:37 PM, Brian Carlson <brianrcarlson...> wrote:
#yiv1707376431 P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}I had a wonderful time with the NW Arkansas Audubon group at Devil's Den yesterday. Thanks to Joe Neal for leading and to Mike Griffey for the Ebird checklist!
Here is a video I made of some of the birds seen at some of the various locations in the park.
https://youtu.be/RUaIU79s5WM
Date: 5/4/25 7:37 pm From: Brian Carlson <brianrcarlson...> Subject: Devil's Den birding May 3, 2025
I had a wonderful time with the NW Arkansas Audubon group at Devil's Den yesterday. Thanks to Joe Neal for leading and to Mike Griffey for the Ebird checklist!
Here is a video I made of some of the birds seen at some of the various locations in the park.
Date: 5/4/25 6:29 pm From: Brian Carlson <brianrcarlson...> Subject: Citadel Bluff birding May 4, 2025
I had a great time out there today. I saw/heard 60 species (maybe 61- I got some video of what I am pretty sure is a Least Flycatcher) which I think is a record for me in Arkansas. 16 Warbler species are among the list (if you include the Chat). Here is my checklist which has photos of some of the birds. I was really stoked to get photos of the Yellow Warbler. The Summer Tanager photo is pretty neat in that it is a half and half coloration. I think I have seen other immature males and they were more mottled, not 50/50 like this one.
Date: 5/4/25 6:14 am From: Ragupathy Kannan <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> Subject: Soundscapes, habitats, and other animals now in eBird
eBird now allows media uploads of soundscapes, habitats, other animals, and unique experiences. I tried it. It's a welcome addition.
By sheer coincidence, both my first two uploads involves the same student handling the same organism (Rat Snake) in two different places :)https://ebird.org/checklist/S229357856https://ebird.org/checklist/S219680284 KannanFt. Smith
I have had a bounty of them! Sometimes there have been so many that I cannot accurately count them. This has never happened before in the 22 years I have lived here. Every morning I wake up thinking that they will be gone, but today the over all here again! They love my spreadable suet and get a bit protective of it- aka known as some food fights. An unusual and lovely year for me. Now, after reading your post, I need to be more diligent about looking at their colors.
Debbie Balicki
Joplin, AR, Montgomery County
Sent from my iPhone
> On May 3, 2025, at 4:18 PM, Lynn Foster <lfoster5211...> wrote:
>
>
> I saw an interesting first today and am sharing it with the list.
>
> Some springs, I see rose-breasted grosbeaks at my feeders. Other springs, I do not. I had not seen any this year until today, when five grosbeaks graced me with their presence. They all landed on my feeders at once--one female and four males. One of the males appeared to be in his first year--his rose chevon was quite pale and smaller compared to the other three males. Also, he was fed seed by both the female and one of the males. I've not seen this many grosbeaks at once, and only once before have I seen a less than one-year-old male.
>
> Are they not beautiful birds?
>
> Lynn Foster
> Pulaski Cty, NW of Pinnacle Mtn
>
> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list, click the following link:
> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1
I saw an interesting first today and am sharing it with the list.
Some springs, I see rose-breasted grosbeaks at my feeders. Other springs, I do not. I had not seen any this year until today, when five grosbeaks graced me with their presence. They all landed on my feeders at once--one female and four males. One of the males appeared to be in his first year--his rose chevon was quite pale and smaller compared to the other three males. Also, he was fed seed by both the female and one of the males. I've not seen this many grosbeaks at once, and only once before have I seen a less than one-year-old male.
Date: 5/3/25 7:42 am From: Sarah Morris <saraha.morris1...> Subject: Bobolinks, Yellow-headed Blackbirds and Bobwhites
There are Bobolinks, a random Yellow-headed Blackbird and two calling Northern Bobwhites just now at Frazier Pike near the entrance to the lock and dam. Dozens of other birds along the way as well.
Lynn Christie and I made a pass through Lollie Bottoms yesterday afternoon on our way back to Little Rock after doing our group's annual survey of the Nature Conservancy's Bluffton Preserve north of Clinton.Our goal was to find Bobolinks at Lollie, a reliable site each year for Bobolinks. Around 10 Bobolinks were on the fence surrounding the sewer treatment plant. Also had several Lark Sparrows there. Nice. As Dan Scheiman always reminded us, it is a narrow window of time when the Bobolinks come through.We then birded our way through Lollie Bottoms to the east side of the Conway airport. That side is always full of Bobolinks on the big fence that runs along that side of the airport. Big surprise was there were no Bobolinks. But, we birders know that each day can be different. We also didn't find Bobolinks down at Sand Gap Road, which is normally another reliable Bobolink site at Lollie. Also, no big flocks of blackbirds, which meant no Yellow-headed Blackbirds, which we see there often this time of the year.Karen Holliday Birding Faulkner Co.
A few interesting new arrivals at the refuge today:Cell 12 Glossy Ibis, 2 Stilt Sandpipers, 7+ Wilson's Phalarope Straight down Coal Chute to the flooded field on the left: 2 Willet1 Black-necked StiltEastern section of Huntsman:Peregrine FalconSoraVirginia RailHorned LarkWe didn't see the Yellow-headed Blackbirds today but they could still be around. Patty McLean and Michael Linz The Roadrunners
Date: 5/2/25 12:13 pm From: Art Weigand <aweigand13...> Subject: Mourning Warbler with a broken eye ring?
Everything about this seems wrong. I wish I could have gotten a picture. I usually see Mourning Warblers late spring and low with no eye ring. The hood wasn’t very dark. It was higher in a tree, paler underneath with the broken eye ring. MacGillivray’s and Connecticut both seem like a serious stretch. But the paler yellow? Hummm. A song would have been nice but no such luck.
| Fifteen years ago, the BP oil spill became one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history, devastating the wildlife, ecosystems, and communities of the Gulf Coast.
More than 200 million gallons of oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico, leaving lasting impacts on birds, marine life, and coastal habitats. At Audubon Delta, we are committed to restoration and resilience across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas.
Our efforts range from rebuilding critical bird habitats to supporting coastal restoration projects, all shaped by the lessons learned from this tragedy. As we commemorate this anniversary, we honor the communities and ecosystems that are still healing and reaffirm our commitment to protecting the areas that birds—and people—need to thrive. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 15 Years Later: Reflecting, Restoring, and Rising for the Gulf |
| In recognition of the 15th anniversary of the BP oil spill, we reflect on the paper published by the National Audubon Society’s Science Team in 2021, which analyzed long-term trends in coastal bird populations using Audubon Coastal Bird Survey (ACBS) data collected in Mississippi.
The findings reveal concerning declines in Piping and Wilson’s Plovers, two species that rely heavily on healthy coastal habitats, while also documenting encouraging increases in Brown Pelican populations. These species has benefited from targeted restoration efforts.
This research underscores both the lasting impacts of the spill and the importance of ongoing conservation work. As we reflect on the progress made since the disaster, this study serves as a powerful reminder of the need for continued investment in science-driven restoration and habitat protection.
Read the report here |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| The Audubon Mississippi Team Celebrates Resilience |
| Fifteen years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Audubon team in Mississippi continues to exemplify resilience and dedication in restoring the Gulf Coast's ecosystems and communities. Their multifaceted approach combines scientific research, community engagement, and habitat restoration to address the long-term impacts of the disaster.
The team's commitment extends beyond immediate restoration. They actively participate in long-term projects aimed at enhancing coastal resilience, such as advocating for the implementation of science-based restoration strategies and securing funding for habitat conservation. Their work is integral to broader initiatives, such as the Restore the Mississippi River Delta coalition, which focuses on comprehensive ecosystem restoration and community resilience across the Gulf region.
Through education, advocacy, and hands-on conservation, the Audubon Mississippi team continues to honor the memory of the Deepwater Horizon disaster by fostering a healthier, more resilient Gulf Coast for both wildlife and people.
| Audubon chapter members and community partners play a vital role in safeguarding our coastal ecosystems, especially in regions still impacted by the BP oil spill.
Now is the time to get involved in citizen science programs, such as the Audubon Coastal Bird Survey, support habitat restoration projects, and advocate for strong coastal policies at both the local and state levels.
By volunteering for beach cleanups, monitoring bird populations, and engaging in public awareness campaigns, we can all contribute to building a more resilient and thriving Gulf Coast. Protecting these critical habitats not only supports birds and wildlife but also strengthens the communities that call the coast home. Read more |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Around the Delta: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| Little Rock’s Commitment to Gulf Coast Recovery: Supporting Restoration Beyond State Lines |
| Fifteen years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the ripple effects of the BP oil spill continue to impact the Gulf Coast's ecosystems and communities. While Arkansas was not directly affected by the spill, the Audubon Arkansas team in Little Rock has played a pivotal role in supporting restoration efforts in neighboring states like Louisiana and Mississippi.
The Little Rock team has also been instrumental in citizen science programs, such as the Audubon Coastal Bird Survey, which monitors the health of bird populations and informs conservation strategies. By engaging in these collaborative efforts, Audubon Arkansas helps ensure that the lessons learned from the BP oil spill continue to guide and improve restoration practices throughout the Gulf Coast.
The dedication of the Little Rock team exemplifies how interconnected our ecosystems are and how collective action across state lines is essential for the resilience and recovery of our natural environments. Learn More |
|
|
| |
| Little Rock’s Commitment to Gulf Coast Recovery: Supporting Restoration Beyond State Lines |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| Building a Stronger Coast: Louisiana and Audubon Lead the Way |
| Louisiana is making significant strides in coastal restoration, with the National Audubon Society playing a pivotal role in these efforts.
One of Louisiana's most ambitious projects, the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, aims to restore up to 40 square miles of wetlands over the next 50 years. This project provides crucial habitats for species like the Roseate Spoonbill and Bald Eagle while also offering natural protection against storm surges for coastal communities.
In addition, the River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp project is set to rejuvenate 45,000 acres of one of the nation's largest forested wetlands. By reestablishing the natural flow of the Mississippi River, this project will revitalize habitats for migratory birds such as the Prothonotary Warbler and bolster the swamp’s role in mitigating flood risks.
Audubon is deeply involved in these restoration efforts, contributing scientific research, policy advocacy, and on-the-ground conservation work. Through initiatives like the Restore the Mississippi River Delta Coalition, Audubon collaborates with partners to ensure that restoration projects are guided by sound science and benefit both wildlife and local communities.
These collaborative efforts between Louisiana and the National Audubon Society exemplify a commitment to building a more resilient and vibrant Gulf Coast, honoring the lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon disaster and ensuring a healthier environment for future generations. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| CONNECT WITH US |
|
|
|
|
|
| | | | |
|
|
|
|
|
| Audubon Delta - Louisiana
5615 Corporate Blvd., Suite 600B, Baton Rouge, LA 70808 USA
225-768-0820 | delta.audubon.org
Date: 5/2/25 9:05 am From: Ann Gordon <chesterann...> Subject: Re: A provision win -- for the land, the wild ones, and the people.
Kudos to Anita to all those up in favor of wildlife and our future!
On Fri, May 2, 2025 at 9:21 AM Lynn Foster <lfoster5211...> wrote:
> Beautifully written, Anita, and wonderful news. Let’s hope it holds and
> the Quorum Court doesn’t reverse.
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On May 2, 2025, at 8:40 a.m., Anita Schnee <
> <000003224553d416-dmarc-request...> wrote:
>
>
> Hello birder friends. Here is my very long report on last night's
> conservation win for the Brown Farm and surrounding area in east
> Fayetteville.
>
> It was a close vote at the Washington County Courthouse last evening. But
> unity won, in a collective stand for peace, for nature, for one of the last
> stretches of open land along the county’s eastern edge.
> Standing up together, speaking out against a disastrous proposed
> development, was a smorgasbord of suburbanites, old-family Arkansans,
> transplants, three women lawyers, and counter-culturites, all speaking
> for the voiceless in this humanocentrically devouring world – the trees,
> the birds, the water, the terrain.
> As the crow flies, proceed east-northeast from downtown, through
> residential areas developed years ago, past a cemetery, some schools, a
> commercial intersection with hardware stores and restaurants and gas
> stations and a coffee shop and a tailor and a grocery store and a liquor
> store and a bank and an ice cream parlor. Past two tightly platted
> residential subdivisions. Another cemetery. Fly just over the county line.
> Settle on 25 acres of woodland, ponds, and pasture, owned and lived-on for
> maybe a century by the same old Arkansas family. And then fly just a few
> feet to the east, to a narrow strip around eight acres long, currently
> occupied by a lawn, a house, a swimming pool, and some woods. Stop there.
> One owner. Two developers. One conditional-use proposal to put up a
> parking lot, so to speak, on those eight acres: to bulldoze it all for a
> sprawling storage facility. When the surrounding area is already dotted
> with storage facilities, behind the metal doors of which languishes the
> backwash of stuff relegated by this insatiable world of ours.
> Fly back, crow, fly back. As of December 2023, there were at least 19
> species of birds that over-winter on the neighboring 25 acres. The acreage
> is a crucial stop-over for other birds that migrate through a corridor of
> relatively undisturbed terrain stretching from rural Madison County to the
> Botanical Garden of the Ozarks to Lake Fayetteville.
> Most of that migration happens at night, guided by the stars. But 24/7
> floodlights from a storage compound would disorient the birds. Many would
> crash. Many would die.
> Not to mention the construction uproar and disruption to the residential
> surroundings, and a host of other problems crowding in: damage to
> watershed, attraction of potential criminal activity to a thinly policed
> edge of the county, traffic danger to schoolchildren, sinking property
> values, the bad precedent, the loss – the dreadful list goes on and on.
> All that rested in the hands of the Washington County Planning Commission.
> Those consequential hands. A strange thing, really. A few vibrations in the
> air, just a little “yea” or “nay,” and all manner of consequences tumble
> forward.
> Person after person spoke up. Homeowners. Landowners. Bird-watchers.
> School-children. The women lawyers. (Not to make it about gender, but as a
> young woman non-lawyer, there was a time in my life when segregation was
> legal and I couldn’t get a credit-card.) Not a single person spoke in
> favor, except for the developers.
> So this Planning Commission of five – who had just voted, again over
> objection, to approve conditional use of a massive RV park in the wilds
> around Beaver Lake – this time, enough votes swung the other way. The
> proposal was denied. It was a narrow vote, but it was enough.
> On this Mayday, in stark contrast to the tightly formalized proceedings
> inside the courthouse, some others of us also stood outside with a
> bullhorn, protesting the other oppressions we’re all being subjected to at
> the moment. Cars streamed by, honking in solidarity.
> The storage-unit developers have 30 days to appeal to Quorum Court. A
> venue not known for its sympathetic treatment of people like us. We will be
> watching closely. We will show up again if we have to.
> Firm resolve is the order of the day.
>
>
> ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
>
> Anita Schnee
>
> http://catself.wordpress.com > http://afriqueaya.org >
> <http://afriqueaya.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/afriqueaya_eplogo.jpg> >
> ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
>
> ------------------------------
>
> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list, click the following link:
> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1 >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list, click the following link:
> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1 >
Date: 5/2/25 7:21 am From: JACQUE BROWN <bluebird2...> Subject: Merlin Heard
So going with the theme of what Merlin heard I didn't need to go outside my Centerton yard.
I decided to sit out on the porch to drink my coffee Monday morning. I was running the Melin App at around 7 am. It heard a Merlin, and a Bob White within seconds of each other, Followed by Yellow-breasted Chat, Rusty Blackbird and Great-tailed Grackle. During the 10 minutes it was running it also had a Pine Siskin, Swainson's Thrush, Rock Pigeon. Plus all the birds I was actually hearing.
I actually heard the Merlin KiKiKiKi but nothing else.
I live just over a 1/4 mile from the Centerton Fish Hatchery so come of these may be a possibility.
I know what Bob White males and females sound like and I really don't think we have had them around this area for quite some time otherwise people would be reporting them all the time. Although one of my neighbors had a Bob White chick show up in their yard last summer and we couldn't figure out where it came from since no one raises them around here.
Great-tailed Grackles are also seen around the dairy farms in Vaughn and have been seen at the Hatchery but I've only had one on my yard once since 2008 when I moved here and it was with a flock of Common Grackles and it was doing it's clicks and FWEEEEP call.
I've seen a Merlin at the hatchery and Swainson's Thrush there, too. I didn't have Pine Siskins at my feeders this year and usually only get a few when they are present.
Just about everyone is familiar with Starlings doing Red-shouldered Hawk screams, I have my own pair of those nesting nearby but my point is the Starlings are great Mimics, I've heard them do Bob White calls, too. Who's to say they aren't behind some of these other birds that the Merlin app id picking up.
I have House Wren, Warbling Vireo, Baltimore Oriole, Lincoln's Sparrow, Common Grackles, Starlings, Eurasian-collared Dove, Mourning Dove, plus all the usual backyard birds.
Gray Catbirds and Brown Thrashers also nest in my yard and I currently have both here.
Date: 5/2/25 6:40 am From: Anita Schnee <000003224553d416-dmarc-request...> Subject: A provision win -- for the land, the wild ones, and the people.
Hello birder friends. Here is my very long report on last night's conservation win for the Brown Farm and surrounding area in east Fayetteville.
It was a close vote at the Washington County Courthouse last evening. But unity won, in a collective stand for peace, for nature, for one of the last stretches of open land along the county’s eastern edge. Standing up together, speaking out against a disastrous proposed development, was a smorgasbord of suburbanites, old-family Arkansans, transplants, three women lawyers, and counter-culturites, all speaking for the voiceless in this humanocentrically devouring world – the trees, the birds, the water, the terrain. As the crow flies, proceed east-northeast from downtown, through residential areas developed years ago, past a cemetery, some schools, a commercial intersection with hardware stores and restaurants and gas stations and a coffee shop and a tailor and a grocery store and a liquor store and a bank and an ice cream parlor. Past two tightly platted residential subdivisions. Another cemetery. Fly just over the county line. Settle on 25 acres of woodland, ponds, and pasture, owned and lived-on for maybe a century by the same old Arkansas family. And then fly just a few feet to the east, to a narrow strip around eight acres long, currently occupied by a lawn, a house, a swimming pool, and some woods. Stop there.One owner. Two developers. One conditional-use proposal to put up a parking lot, so to speak, on those eight acres: to bulldoze it all for a sprawling storage facility. When the surrounding area is already dotted with storage facilities, behind the metal doors of which languishes the backwash of stuff relegated by this insatiable world of ours.Fly back, crow, fly back. As of December 2023, there were at least 19 species of birds that over-winter on the neighboring 25 acres. The acreage is a crucial stop-over for other birds that migrate through a corridor of relatively undisturbed terrain stretching from rural Madison County to the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks to Lake Fayetteville. Most of that migration happens at night, guided by the stars. But 24/7 floodlights from a storage compound would disorient the birds. Many would crash. Many would die.Not to mention the construction uproar and disruption to the residential surroundings, and a host of other problems crowding in: damage to watershed, attraction of potential criminal activity to a thinly policed edge of the county, traffic danger to schoolchildren, sinking property values, the bad precedent, the loss – the dreadful list goes on and on.All that rested in the hands of the Washington County Planning Commission. Those consequential hands. A strange thing, really. A few vibrations in the air, just a little “yea” or “nay,” and all manner of consequences tumble forward.Person after person spoke up. Homeowners. Landowners. Bird-watchers. School-children. The women lawyers. (Not to make it about gender, but as a young woman non-lawyer, there was a time in my life when segregation was legal and I couldn’t get a credit-card.) Not a single person spoke in favor, except for the developers.So this Planning Commission of five – who had just voted, again over objection, to approve conditional use of a massive RV park in the wilds around Beaver Lake – this time, enough votes swung the other way. The proposal was denied. It was a narrow vote, but it was enough.On this Mayday, in stark contrast to the tightly formalized proceedings inside the courthouse, some others of us also stood outside with a bullhorn, protesting the other oppressions we’re all being subjected to at the moment. Cars streamed by, honking in solidarity.The storage-unit developers have 30 days to appeal to Quorum Court. A venue not known for its sympathetic treatment of people like us. We will be watching closely. We will show up again if we have to. Firm resolve is the order of the day.
They usually show up earlier and in greater numbers. Perhaps the flooded fields kept them from visiting until now. But we had two YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDS at Bald Knob NWR today. A male and a female. Last seen mixed in a large group of Brown-headed Cowbirds, approx here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ms4Devwz6yuHRtDw5Also present in Cell 1: Wilson's Phalarope, Dunlin, both Dowitchers and both Yellowlegs. No resighting of the Fulvous Whistling Ducks nor the recently reported Anhingas. Patty McLean and Michael Linz The Roadrunners
On Thursday, May 1, 2025, 4:46 PM, Sandy Berger <sndbrgr...> wrote:
Just watched four in a thermal over my house in Fort Smith.
Sandy B.
On Thu, May 1, 2025 at 2:58 PM Claude Bonner <cbonner3...> wrote:
Sent from my iPhone. The 2025 Mississippi
Kite migration has made it to North Little Rock. Saw the first one today, May 1, in the Lakewood area - McCain Blvd and Lakeview Road intersection.
############################
Just watched four in a thermal over my house in Fort Smith.
Sandy B.
On Thu, May 1, 2025 at 2:58 PM Claude Bonner <cbonner3...> wrote:
> Sent from my iPhone. The 2025 Mississippi
> Kite migration has made it to North Little Rock. Saw the first one
> today, May 1, in the Lakewood area - McCain Blvd and Lakeview Road
> intersection.
> ############################
>
> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list:
> write to: mailto:<ARBIRD-L-SIGNOFF-REQUEST...> > or click the following link:
> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1 >
Sent from my iPhone. The 2025 Mississippi
Kite migration has made it to North Little Rock. Saw the first one today, May 1, in the Lakewood area - McCain Blvd and Lakeview Road intersection.
############################
Date: 5/1/25 11:29 am From: Ian MacGregor <00000489141846bd-dmarc-request...> Subject: The Sounds of Spring
This was going to be my twice yearly complaint of not hearing or seeing birds, whilst Merlin is having a superb day. This morning near my house Merlin heard Black-throated Green, American Redstart, and Pine. I just heard the pine. Merlin is very good at separating Pine Warber from Chipping sparrow.
I then went to Bella Vista lake where Merlin had an outstanding day racking up Black Phoebe, Couch’s Kingbird, Rock Bunting, and most remarkable of all, a Wrentit. Last time I was at Hobbes, it alerted three times to the presence of a Townsend’s Warbler. As far as I can tell, according to Merlin, Rock Bunting is rare but regular in the area.
So perhaps should discount the Redstart and the Black-throated Green as well.
Date: 4/30/25 5:44 pm From: <arbour...> <arbour...> Subject: Red Slough Bird Survey - April 30
It was overcast, mild, and windy on the bird survey today with a thunderstorm in the afternoon. 78 species were found. Not much in the way of through migrants yet. Theres a huge heronry (~ 30,000 birds) in Ward Lake this year and it looks like most of our heronry birds have moved over there to nest this year. We still have Anhingas and Neotropic Cormorants nesting on Pintail Lake as well as some Little-blue Herons but most everything else has moved over to Ward Lake. Here is my list for today:
Migration is an irresistible force for the birds so I’m wishing Jeffrey all the very best and many blessings in whatever path he’s on.
> On Apr 30, 2025, at 4:37 PM, Patty McLean <000008e6fff5e5c8-dmarc-request...> wrote:
>
> Jeffrey, our Yellow and Black visitor from Central America, has not been seen at the feeder for over a week, according to Shianne. They have cameras out front and have not seen him on any footage. He's obviously found another food source and recently quit coming to the feeders as frequently. What we don't currently know is whether he's still there or not. Shianne will let me know if she sees him again and, if so, I'll let folks know here and on Discord.
>
> We can only wish the best for this interesting bird who somehow found his way to a cattle farm south of Berryville, Arkansas. It's been fun hearing stories about seeing him ... and it's been such a treat for all of us who were so blessed to see him.
>
> Patty McLean
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Patty McLean <plm108...>
> Date: 4/21/25 7:28 AM (GMT-06:00)
> To: <ARBIRD-L...>
> Subject: RE: Yellow Grosbeak (Berryville/Carroll County)
>
> The Yellow Grosbeak continues outside Berryville; however he's not coming to the feeders as frequently. If you go, keep an eye out for him in the cedar trees or the rocky streambed along the south side of the house. Access information:
>
> Birders are welcome between 10a and sunset. There is a $25 per person access fee (cash or Venmo/Zelle).
>
> To visit, please wait until a day or two before your visit (or even the day of) and text Shianne at 417-349-2317 <tel:417-349-2317>. Let her know what time and date you plan to come. She will give you her specific address at that time. If you choose 10a, please do not show up ahead of that time.
>
> If you went earlier and signed her book but didn't see the bird, she hopes you'll come back. Let her know and I suspect she'll work something favorable out for you.
>
> When there: Keep a respectful distance from the bird and do not approach within 40-50 feet of the feeder area. The bird is very shy and will disappear into the trees when spooked.
>
> Patty McLean
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list, click the following link:
> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1 <http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1>
Jeffrey, our Yellow and Black visitor from Central America, has not been seen at the feeder for over a week, according to Shianne. They have cameras out front and have not seen him on any footage. He's obviously found another food source and recently quit coming to the feeders as frequently. What we don't currently know is whether he's still there or not. Shianne will let me know if she sees him again and, if so, I'll let folks know here and on Discord. We can only wish the best for this interesting bird who somehow found his way to a cattle farm south of Berryville, Arkansas. It's been fun hearing stories about seeing him ... and it's been such a treat for all of us who were so blessed to see him. Patty McLean
-------- Original message --------From: Patty McLean <plm108...> Date: 4/21/25 7:28 AM (GMT-06:00) To: <ARBIRD-L...> Subject: RE: Yellow Grosbeak (Berryville/Carroll County) The Yellow Grosbeak continues outside Berryville; however he's not coming to the feeders as frequently. If you go, keep an eye out for him in the cedar trees or the rocky streambed along the south side of the house. Access information:Birders are welcome between 10a and sunset. There is a $25 per person access fee (cash or Venmo/Zelle). To visit, please wait until a day or two before your visit (or even the day of) and text Shianne at 417-349-2317. Let her know what time and date you plan to come. She will give you her specific address at that time. If you choose 10a, please do not show up ahead of that time. If you went earlier and signed her book but didn't see the bird, she hopes you'll come back. Let her know and I suspect she'll work something favorable out for you.When there: Keep a respectful distance from the bird and do not approach within 40-50 feet of the feeder area. The bird is very shy and will disappear into the trees when spooked. Patty McLean
We just saw 3 Fulvous Whistling Ducks flying over the first cells at Bald Knob NWR. These cells are across from the silos on Huntsman Rd. Bobolinks are also here. The wind is awful. Patty McLean and Michael Linz The Roadrunners
Date: 4/30/25 8:23 am From: Karen Konarski-Hart <karen...> Subject: MS kites back
Evidently Entergy's efforts at tree trimming have not dissuaded my usual pair. They're definitely claiming the alley behind my house next to Montessori Children's House as their turf again.
Karen Konarski-Hart
Hillcrest. Little Rock.
Date: 4/30/25 6:47 am From: Sandy Berger <sndbrgr...> Subject: 75th BIG DAY
Fort Smith will be hosting their 75th Big Day this next Saturday, May 3.
Our fearless leader, Bill Beall, will be heading up this trip once again.
We gather at 5:15 a.m. behind Central Mall on Rogers Ave. and head out at
5:30. It’s an all day event ending in the evening at Sequoyah NWR near
Vian, Oklahoma. We carpool. Bring whatever you need to sustain you for the
day.
All are welcome.
I was inspired to get out today by Art's post about seeing a Chestnut-sided Warbler. I saw them frequently when I lived in Michigan a few years ago but had yet to see them here in Arkansas. I lucked out today at Reed Mountain Park which is above the dam by Ozark in Franklin County. I got a brief look with my binocular and knew that it was a warbler but not one I had been seeing in Arkansas. I noticed bright yellow on the top of its head but did not see the chestnut side. I then switched to my camera, hoping for some pics and video. I did not get a great photo or video but good enough to id the bird. Here is a link to the video I made from the outing.
Date: 4/29/25 8:54 am From: Art Weigand <aweigand13...> Subject: Chestnut-sided Warbler
I got a nice look after the rain. I got real birdy Perhaps more migrants are starting to arrive. If you read this soon you should get out and bird between rains!
Art Weigand
Oak Ridge Park
Beaver Lake
############################
Date: 4/29/25 7:54 am From: Taylor Long <00000455b6b08e87-dmarc-request...> Subject: NWAAS field trips in May
Greetings Birders,
What a fabulous time we had at the AAS convention in Fayetteville last weekend! The timing of this year's convention couldn't have been better, and our final tally 166 species proves it. <https://ebird.org/tripreport/355984>
HUGE thanks to all the knowledgable birders who led field trips: Jeremy Cohen, Lauren Eno, Tyler Ficker, Mollie Ficker, Joe Neal, Samantha Heller, Josh Matlock, Matt Matlock, Jen Mortensen, Kelly Mulhollan, Mitchell Pruitt, Joan Reynolds, Adam Schaffer, Ragan Sutterfield, Kenny Younger, and J.D. Willson. It's pretty remarkable we have so many birders in our region who are willing and able to lead trips. And we're always looking for more!
Right on the heels of the AAS convention, we'll be offering two more NWAAS field trips in May:
Saturday, May 3rd, 2025 - Birders Weekend at Devil's Den
The Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society and Devil's Den State Park will host a field trip on Saturday, May 3, 2024, starting at 9:00 AM. This walk is part of Devil's Den's Annual Birder Weekend that takes place May 3-4, and will be led by NWA bird expert Joe Neal. This is peak migration, so we'll be on the lookout for all the dazzling warblers, tanagers, vireos, and other migrant birds that can be seen at this time of year. Expect to walk ~1 mile on paved surfaces. Meet in the parking area at the lower Devil's Den Trailhead on the south side of Lee Creek bridge on Saturday morning at 9:00 AM (GPS: 35.781349, -94.249876). The walk generally lasts a couple of hours. More details... <https://nwaas.notion.site/Birders-Weekend-at-Devil-s- Den-17411f0e048b805580a1d081586a1795?pvs=4> Saturday, May 17th, 2025 - Cerulean Warblers at Rob & Melanie Walton Preserve
At 410 acres, the Rob and Melani Walton Nature Preserve is part of a large area of undeveloped, protected woodlands along the north side of Beaver Lake. University of Arkansas Ornithology professor Jen Mortensen will lead an expedition through this preserve on Saturday, May 17th beginning at 8:00 AM. Cerulean Warbler and Worm-eating Warbler have been reliable breeders along the north-facing slopes of this preserve, as well as other typical Ozark upland breeders like Yellow-throated Vireo and Scarlet Tanager. This trip will involve 2-3 hours of hiking up to 3 miles on uneven and moderately steep terrain. Good hiking shoes, water, snacks, and insect repellent are a must. There are no restrooms at the trailhead; we recommend stopping at the nearby Short Stop General Store in Garfield for restrooms and provisions before and after the hike. The exact location of the preserve parking lot is GPS 36.442745, -93.950241. More details... <https://nwaas.notion.site/Cerulean-Warblers-at-the- Walton-Preserve-75dd1654920f4a79b8ba689c27fb2ad8?pvs=4>Neither trip is space-limited, but please RSVP to <trips...> <mailto:<trips...> just so we know how many to expect and can easily communicate last-minute changes.
Happy PEAK Spring migration! -Taylor Long NWAAS Field Trip Coordinator
Date: 4/28/25 3:22 pm From: Barry Haas <bhaas...> Subject: Please help the Arkansas Audubon Society Halberg Ecology Camp recruit current 5th, 6th or 7th grade Youth who Love Nature
Dear ARBIRDers,
Several of you have already helped us share the word about the upcoming June Halberg Ecology Camp sessions for current 5th, 6th and 7th grade boys and girls. Attached is another graphic you can use to help us get the word out in hopes of filling every available spot in both sessions.
Date: 4/27/25 6:23 pm From: Ann Gordon <chesterann...> Subject: Re: from Arkansas Audubon Society meeting
Wonderful presentation at AAS Saturday night, Joe. And it was so good to
see Bill Beall there!
Ann Gordon
On Sun, Apr 27, 2025 at 11:44 AM Joseph Neal <
<0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> wrote:
> One true memorable — among many — in just-concluded spring meeting of
> Arkansas Audubon Society on Mt Sequoyah in Fayetteville: recognition of
> Bill Beall of Fort Smith on Saturday evening, April 26. This spring marks
> AAS founding 70th anniversary. Bill was also present at that first meeting
> on Petit Jean mountain. The society celebrated with a large chocolate cake,
> of which Bill whole-heartedly approved. He said he didn’t remember too much
> of that first meeting, except someone brought fresh, home grown
> strawberries.
>
> Here’s Bill, with another AAS founder, Doug James, enjoying snacks on
> former church pews outside the Ponca store. This is in April 2007after a
> successful Buffalo River field trip to Cave Mountain in order to find and
> observe Cerulean Warblers.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list, click the following link:
> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1 >
Date: 4/27/25 3:36 pm From: Barry Haas <bhaas...> Subject: Please help the Arkansas Audubon Society recruit current 5th, 6th or 7th grade Youth who Love Nature for our Halberg Ecology Camp
Arkansas Birders,
Each summer the Arkansas Audubon Society (AAS) hosts several hands-on ecology camps. The Halberg Ecology Camp is for current 5th, 6th and 7th grade boys and girls who have a special interest in nature, its complexities and wonders. Some of these first-year campers will go on to a second or even third year of more advanced nature study at our camps.
This is where you come in- we hope. Our biggest challenge post-Covid is getting the word out to the families of these budding naturalists. One way is to make them aware of the AAS website arbirds.org <http://arbirds.org/> where they will find a camper application form and teacher recommendation form:
https://arbirds.org/EcologyCamp/https://arbirds.org/EcologyCamp/ https://arbirds.org/EcologyCamp/ Eligibility is boys and girls currently completing the 5th, 6th or 7th grades. Families can also contact executive director Tamzen Tumlison <ttumlison...> <mailto:<ttumlison...> if they need an application option other than online via the AAS website. We have a limited number of scholarships and tuition assistance available for families that can’t afford the full regular tuition of $450 for first-year campers.
If parents/grandparents ask about activities that take place during the Sunday to Friday sessions, they can view one of the two slide shows during a Halberg Ecology Camp session last June to get a really good idea what takes place at camp (Week One or Two Review Video):
Thanks for helping us get the word out via social media, family and friends. Attached is a flyer that you can share as widely as possible. If you get questions about the Halberg Ecology Camp after sharing this information, feel free to give folks my e-mail address and I will respond to them.
Thanks for helping us recruit more applicants to fill as many first-year camper openings as possible. These youth will be the future caretakers of our natural world.
Date: 4/27/25 9:44 am From: Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> Subject: from Arkansas Audubon Society meeting
One true memorable among many in just-concluded spring meeting of Arkansas Audubon Society on Mt Sequoyah in Fayetteville: recognition of Bill Beall of Fort Smith on Saturday evening, April 26. This spring marks AAS founding 70th anniversary. Bill was also present at that first meeting on Petit Jean mountain. The society celebrated with a large chocolate cake, of which Bill whole-heartedly approved. He said he didnt remember too much of that first meeting, except someone brought fresh, home grown strawberries.
Heres Bill, with another AAS founder, Doug James, enjoying snacks on former church pews outside the Ponca store. This is in April 2007after a successful Buffalo River field trip to Cave Mountain in order to find and observe Cerulean Warblers.
Date: 4/26/25 5:53 pm From: Brian Carlson <brianrcarlson...> Subject: Davis Lake
One of the places that I bird frequently is Davis Lake. It is close to where I live and is a good spot. Today I saw my FOS Baltimore Orioles, Painted Bunting, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Warbling Vireo (which I hadn't seen since living in Michigan a few years ago) and heard FOS Eastern Wood-Pewee and Yellow-billed Cuckoo.
There were also Parulas, Kentucky and Prothonotary warblers along with Red-eyed and white eyed vireos and other birds.
Along Plum Street, which leads back to Davis Lake I also saw FOS Dickcissel.
Date: 4/26/25 11:30 am From: Art Weigand <aweigand13...> Subject: Great morning for birding
The cool morning and north winds made for a beautiful day to bird.
The first checklist is from an area that really should be a hotspot on eBird. I had 14 species of warblers there this morning (if you count the Y. B. Chat) It is an area I have birded for many years. It has 10 breeding species of warblers.
When I returned home, the trees around my house were very busy, including a new migrant for me, a Blackpoll. The second checklist is from my home, which is next to an eBird hotspot called Oak Ridge Park.
Date: 4/24/25 2:22 pm From: Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> Subject: Where the toads are
In this age in which many of us worry constantly about the decline of almost everything that makes up the coat-of-many-colors of biological diversity and which data shows is not just personal paranoia things are declining we have lost three billion birds (!) (since 1970, according to Cornell Lab) and it is probably even worse for many amphibians
in this age it is refreshing to take a long, slow, methodical bird walk in a spacious environment like Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area and find numerous bird species in a relatively small area. Heres my list from this morning: https://ebird.org/checklist/S228978770.
Recent rains in Northwest Arkansas City -- including flooding from last weekend has Beaver Lake backing up into contributing creeks, including Little Clifty at Hobbs. A brilliant Prothonotary Warbler was this morning investigating all these new foraging opportunities.
Besides the fully justifiable despair about loss of three billion birds in 50 years, I must add the loss of the natural soundscape. It seems we cannot escape the roar of traffic in skies, on highways, in the endless construction of cities endless expanding all that noise blotting out all of the natural world no wonder so many of us are maddened.
We didnt involve that highly sensitive hearing ability in a world of bombs, roars, and blaring. Neither did birds. Just think about it. To find a mate they have to try and sing and hear above all that crazy noise we have loosened into the broad heavens.
But maybe last weekends floods have cut us some slack. I heard several choruses of American Toads in the fresh shallows where Beaver Lake is flooding up into the hollows. They were really up to their game. I have enjoyed the songs of toads for many years, but I have never heard them sing with such vigor. Add to toads the singing of the Prothonotary Warbler, Kentucky and Northern Parula Warblers, and something (?) to far to say but was interesting.
I sat for a while and just let it soak in. A bath in toad song. Refreshment of rare sort.
I deeply appreciate the concept of conservation area in the formal name HOBBS STATE PARK-CONSERVATION AREA. I sure felt some conserving of myself was underway within an Ozark hollow filled with a chorus of toads.
Date: 4/23/25 5:17 pm From: <arbour...> <arbour...> Subject: Red Slough Bird Survey - April 23
It was overcast and mild, with a very slight wind on the bird survey today. 86 species were found. Lots of new arrivals now. Large numbers of gallinules are now present. Don't think we have ever had so many this early before. Soras seemed everywhere. A sapsucker was a month late for us. Here is my list for today:
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks - 8
Canada Geese - 7
Wood Duck - 9
Blue-winged Teal - 58
Northern Shoveler - 7
Ring-necked Duck - 2
Hooded Merganser - 2
Ruddy Duck - 2
Pied-billed Grebe – 19
Neotropic Cormorant - 8
Anhinga - 62
Least Bittern - 6
Great-blue Heron - 2
Great Egret - 35
Snowy Egret - 7
Little-blue Heron - 28
Cattle Egret - 11
Green Heron - 21
Yellow-crowned Night Heron - 1
White Ibis - 58
Black Vulture - 4
Turkey Vulture – 7
Red-shouldered Hawk - 3
King Rail - 2
Sora - 13
Purple Gallinule - 116
Common Gallinule - 127
American Coot – 76
Sandpiper species - 19 (distant flybys)
Mourning Dove - 6
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 6
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1 (late; seen & heard.)
Date: 4/22/25 7:10 pm From: Brian Carlson <brianrcarlson...> Subject: Cherry Bend Birding April 22, 2025
I was at Cherry Bend last Tuesday and went again today. It was fantastic both days. Below is my Ebird checklist as well as a link to the YouTube video that I made. I spent 4 hours there and thoroughly enjoyed every minute and ended up with an 18:55 minute video. 9 different warbler species. Most but not all were seen.
We found at least four Swainson's Hawks today in a freshly disked agri field along the eastern portion of Atkins Bottom Road, seen from approx here:https://maps.app.goo.gl/wcErekUh8FTpurqK6Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Dickcissels have also arrived. Michael saw about a dozen Upland Sandpipers here yesterday but we were unable to relocate them today. Info about Atkins Bottoms. https://birdinghotspots.org/hotspot/L2984562Patty McLean and Michael Linz The Roadrunners
Date: 4/22/25 8:57 am From: Ragupathy Kannan <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: Sora taken by red-shouldered hawk plus unusual migrant birds in Fayetteville
Wow, nice catch, Jeremy!
On Sunday 20 April, 2025 at 12:40:05 pm GMT-5, Jeremy Cohen <jeremy3cohen...> wrote:
The storms caused an exceptional amount of unusual migrant birds to stop in Fayetteville, many of which were seen at the University experimental farm yesterday and today. At that one spot, birders found multiple yellow headed blackbirds, upland sandpipers, lark sparrows, a grasshopper sparrow, prairie and palm warblers, and hundreds of Franklin's gulls along with Forster's terns and many shorebirds. One highlight today was a red-shouldered hawk catching a Sora (a species never previously observed at this heavily birded spot) right in front of a few of us. The sora had been hiding unbeknownst to us in a flooded field, but not well enough. You can see the photos on the checklist -https://ebird.org/checklist/S227437877See you out there, Jeremy
Jeremy Cohen, Ph.D.
Associate Research Scientist
Yale Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Date: 4/21/25 9:45 am From: Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> Subject: Among known and unknown
Gray Catbirds officially returned to my yard April 18, coinciding with annual last White-throated Sparrow departure choruses. Coinciding, too, with storms flooding my backyard and tornadoes swirling Texas- Oklahoma. All this wild atmospheric upheaval pushing migrating Yellow-headed Blackbirds and Franklins Gulls through Northwest Arkansas City.
Significant storms predicted for yesterday, Easter Sunday, did not dampen our enthusiasm for travel to Tallgrass Prairies near Charleston in Franklin County. Our = two botany-oriented and bird-interested explorers in front seat, me in back. Taking off on such a day reminded me more than a little of Admiral Farraguts orders during the Civil War battle for Mobile Bay: Damn the torpedoes full speed ahead.
Up, up and away Junior Birdman! Off into a stormy day with Eastern Meadowlarks confined to flying across tops of last years grasses. And how do Turkey Vultures aerodynamically manage such winds?
Picture this: highway between Lavaca and Cherokee Prairie with acres of tiny white flowers. Many hayfields almost all white, as in snow on the prairie -- striking image coined by a front seat botanist. Snow as in a tiny white wildflower with star-shaped arrangement of petals often called Stitchwort.
And after Lark Sparrows and White-eyed Vireos and no Bells Vireos and after two Northern Bobwhites fly low across Presson-Oglesby Preserve where brilliant Yellow Wild Indigo and Indian Paintbrush are in bloom -- and a low flying Red-tailed Hawk at first looks like a Northern Harrier after all that
On our way back and lured by a Baltimore Oriole that may have flown into one of the big oaks -- we stop at Measles Cemetery in Lavaca. Bright yellow flowers -- native Golden Ragworts (Packera) --mark an unmowed part of the cemetery.
I pile down on a bench near the grave of one of the original Measels. A large granite stone with dates. Nearby, and in a neat row -- small stones inscribed Known only to God. My assumption these are baby markers???
But in a while I remember as a kid my Great Grandfather Franklins burial in Casa, Arkansas. Many markers were simple field stones. In some old cemeteries, field stone markers with no inscription with name and dates have been removed in order to make it easier to mow. And sometimes field stone markers with no families left in the area to care for graves are not replaced, or replaced with more easy to care for Known only markers. Known only to God.
Turns out, it isnt only identity of those deceased in past years now known only to god. Front seat botanists have been busy. Samantha finds Winter Grapefern, Holubiella lunaroides. Before her discovery, not known to occur in Sebastian County.
She is taking notes in a field book. In the annals of Arkansas botany, hitherto Unknown H. lunaroides joins U of A-Fayetteville Herbariums permanent botanical record.
Theres more Id like to share. But Spring migration duty calls. In the yard: Yellow Warbler, Warbling Vireo, Swainsons Thrush.
The Yellow Grosbeak continues outside Berryville; however he's not coming to the feeders as frequently. If you go, keep an eye out for him in the cedar trees or the rocky streambed along the south side of the house. Access information:Birders are welcome between 10a and sunset. There is a $25 per person access fee (cash or Venmo/Zelle). To visit, please wait until a day or two before your visit (or even the day of) and text Shianne at 417-349-2317. Let her know what time and date you plan to come. She will give you her specific address at that time. If you choose 10a, please do not show up ahead of that time. If you went earlier and signed her book but didn't see the bird, she hopes you'll come back. Let her know and I suspect she'll work something favorable out for you.When there: Keep a respectful distance from the bird and do not approach within 40-50 feet of the feeder area. The bird is very shy and will disappear into the trees when spooked. Patty McLean
Just spotted a male at my feeder. It seems as though after staying two days gorging on sugar water, preserves, grapes, and oranges, the Baltimore Oriole has left. Awaiting a Rose-breasted Grosbeak for my spring trifecta to be complete! Although two FOS Red-headed Woodpeckers showed up yesterday, the first since late fall.
Date: 4/20/25 12:54 pm From: Karen Holliday <ladyhawke1...> Subject: ASCA field trip to Bell Slough WMA
Yesterday, Saturday, was the April Audubon Society of Central Arkansas (ASCA) field trip to Bell Slough Wildlife Management Area (WMA) at Mayflower. Because of recent heavy rains, the boardwalk entrance was flooded. But, we were able to enter through the yellow gate at the shale quarry entrance. We first went to the large open field with the levees. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) designates these structured areas as Moist Soil Units (MSU). It uses the same designation at all their WMAs that have the same structure. The MSUs were very overgrown with tall weeds and the levees had deep grass. We opted not to walk out into the MSUs because snakes love to hide in the grass, especially Cottonmouths. None of us wanted to accidentally step on a snake. The Units contained several Great Egrets, a few Little Blue Herons, and a Great Blue Heron. Black-bellied Whistling Ducks did a flyover along with two groups of Greater/Lesser Yellowlegs. The few areas with some open water contained Blue-winged Teal, Wood Ducks, Canada Geese, and a single Solitary Sandpiper. We were able to walk the trail to the overlook observation benches and to the photo blind. At the blind, our only Prothonotary Warbler made an up-close appearance delighting everyone.We had seven species of warblers, three Swainson's Thrush, one Gray-cheeked Thrush, a Catbird, and several Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Blue-gray Gnatcathers were everywhere. We heard and saw White-eyed, Red-eye, and Yellow-throated Vireos. Final total was 45 species. It was great that the rain was a no-show, which meant we were able to keep birding until almost noon.Karen Holliday ASCA Field Trip Coordinator
Date: 4/20/25 10:40 am From: Jeremy Cohen <jeremy3cohen...> Subject: Sora taken by red-shouldered hawk plus unusual migrant birds in Fayetteville
The storms caused an exceptional amount of unusual migrant birds to stop in Fayetteville, many of which were seen at the University experimental farm yesterday and today. At that one spot, birders found multiple yellow headed blackbirds, upland sandpipers, lark sparrows, a grasshopper sparrow, prairie and palm warblers, and hundreds of Franklin's gulls along with Forster's terns and many shorebirds. One highlight today was a red-shouldered hawk catching a Sora (a species never previously observed at this heavily birded spot) right in front of a few of us. The sora had been hiding unbeknownst to us in a flooded field, but not well enough. You can see the photos on the checklist - https://ebird.org/checklist/S227437877 See you out there, Jeremy
Jeremy Cohen, Ph.D. Associate Research Scientist Yale Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Date: 4/19/25 4:57 pm From: Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> Subject: The exuberance
After a tornado (or two);
After all night and half a day more with powerful sound winds, then 2 inches of rain;
After thunder that nearly bounces me from bed
After all that: I wake this morning with a message on my phone that former prairie farmland north of campus here in Fayetteville has more ducks, more shorebirds (10 species), and at least a Franklins Gull
Well you know all that means former Tallgrass Prairie fields around Northwest Arkansas City are likely flooded. And with wind having shifted back from the North, very likely these same flooded fields will be home briefly for exhausted northbound spring migrants. Having ridden strong South winds on their Northbound journeys they are likely grounded ...
Just waiting for birders (!). Now it is time for us, in our good ship HMS Beagle (circa 2025), to see what an April storm hath wrought birdwise
So I and a couple of friends are about birding flooded fields around NWA. We head for the Siloam Springs area the former Lindsley Prairie including roads in and around Chesney Prairie Natural Area.
First big excitement: flooded pastures NE of Chesney: at least 4 UPLAND SANDPIPERS, plus yellowlegs, BLUE-WINGED TEAL and SOLITARY SANDPIPERS. Also lots of SAVANNAH SPARROWS here there -- everywhere we go.
An extensive muddy field immediately north of Stump Prairie hosts 300 grounded, breeding season elegant to say the least -- FRANKLINS GULLS. What a sight on an otherwise gray wet day.
Now rain is fully stopped. Air is filled with exuberance of EASTERN MEADOWLARKS.
A basic heart-stopping few moments comes just south of Chesney. Partially flooded field, with cows, and with a few CANADA GEESE, now takes on the adornments of shorebirds flocks. Its so much dazzling:
HUDSONIAN GODWITS (4), YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDS (20), WILSONS PHALAROPES (12), UPLAND SANDPIPER (1) and a longer list more ...
Divine has spoken.
Suddenly, they are on the move.
Earth flashes before our eyes.
Offers us chances to behold they who descended from last nights storm clouds,
To alight among us, briefly
are beckoned North.
Date: 4/19/25 4:48 pm From: Jonathan Perry <jonathanperry24...> Subject: More FOS’s
Gosh. Backyard feeders in east Fayetteville: male Indigo Bunting and male Blue Grosbeak. Pretty astonishing to see them side by side (as in, within two feet of each other). Wildlife is good…..
Yesterday I saw Summer Tanager, Kentucky Warbler and Great Crested Flycatcher at Citadel Bluff Park and today at Reed Mountain Park I saw my FOS Indigo Bunting.
Michael and I made a late morning/early afternoon stop at the refuge today. The cloud cover made viewing so much gentler than usual and we were able to get great views and some fun photos of many of the awesome birds out there. Here's a list from two particular locations: Huntsman Road (east of the silos) and Fracken Rd (west of Coal Chute).Huntsman has not disappointed in recent days. There's a flooded and marshy area on the south side of the road that has been teeming with ducks, shorebirds, rails and waders. Some of the more unique species from Huntsman Rd -- several at corner of Coal Chute and Huntsman and most further down where the marshy area is:Sora (2)Common Gallinule (2 a few days ago)Black-necked Stilt (2)American Golden-plover (10)Short-billed Dowitcher (2)Wilson's Phalarope (4)Semipalmated Sandpiper (1)White-faced Ibis (2)American Bittern (1 today)Some of the unique birds seen in the large flooded area toward the west end of Fracken Rd:American Avocet (5)American Golden-plover (10)Wilson's Phalarope (10 -- most in breeding plumage)Baird's Sandpiper (9)Semipalmated Sandpiper (1)Just around the corner, we could hear Marsh Wrens singing, and further down the road, near Cell 4, we found two Forster's TernsWe also ran into a few birder friends: Terry and Judy Butler and also Jake Marquess. The birds are loving these flooded fields, fattening up on all kinds of treats including crawdads, tadpoles and damselflies. I know the farmers will be happy when it dries up, but fortunately the birds are gaining the energy they need to have a successful migration and breeding season. Patty McLean and Michael Linz The Roadrunners
Date: 4/19/25 1:26 pm From: Ian MacGregor <00000489141846bd-dmarc-request...> Subject: My Neighborhood this Morniing
Headed out when the rain had just about stopped. Soon, I heard a couple of Wood Thrushes singing, and paused to listen, some White-throated Sparrows began to sing. Wood Thrushes announcing their arrival, the White-throateds perhaps dreaming of “Pure Sweet Canada.”
Just before the serenade, I picked up my first humming bird of the year. I now have feeders out, and have had one visit. For me. The highlight of the day were two Broad-winged Hawks flying low. I dad one perched on a telephone pole about a week earlier. I think they are on territory. I heard a P-See call for the first time.
I did have a hawk I could not identify. It, was somewhat long-tailed, suggesting an, Accipiter, but flew with steady markedly slow wingbeats, never gliding. I wondered if it was as some sort of display flight
It didn’t strike me as a harrier or kite. Size and shape was about that of a Cooper’s. The wings were not rounded. The tail looked too long for Red-shouldered.
I was so transfixed by how it was flying,, I did not notice any plumage details
Heard the first "beez-buzz “ along the creek this morning where the Blue-winged Warblers usually arrive near the colony of Yucca arkansana. They are such beautiful birds to observe in their breeding territory here at Ninestone.
Don took photos of the second Brown Thrasher we’ve heard nearby and I've heard a couple of Red-eyed or Philadelphia Vireos whose songs I often confuse. A first Kentucky Warbler sang yesterday, and lately there have been flocks of Goldfinches twittering in treetops. Even a pair of Pine Siskins remained eating bird seed yesterday.
Earlier this week I explored a feeder creek where the Goldenseal blooms. Black & White Warblers, Northern Parula, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and a White-eyed Vireo all sang above the emerging Green Dragons, Black Cohosh, Wild Geraniums, and a newly discovered Dirca palustris shrub. Nearby along a wet shady bluff Dwarf Larkspur and Shooting Stars were in flower. Up beyond the waterfall back in the bog that is protected by tangles of Spicebush and Greenbrier, there is an Alder thicket surrounded by emerging Sensitive Ferns, unidentified Iris, and Golden Ragwort. There was a remaining Hermit Thrush, and more including a Yellow Warbler, Swainson’s Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, and Hooded Warbler… the last four species identified with the help of Merlin.
One female Three-toed Box Turtle, one Prairie Lizard, a Southern Black Racer, two Western Rat Snakes, a dramatic Hognose Snake, and one Big Brown Bat have been observed so far.
Butterflies are becoming more plentiful. Spicebush and Tiger Swallowtails on Fothergilla, a Red-Admiral on the American Bladdernut flowers, one Goatweed Leafwing sunning in a path, small Skippers and Pearl Crescents flit about, and Zebra Swallowtails nectar on False Garlic below the leafing and flowering Pawpaw trees.
The native Coral Honeysuckle, Ohio Buckeye, and a Fire Pink, all favorite native plants of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, are finally flowering!
Looking forward to what shows up after the weekend rain.
Judith
Ninestone, Carroll County
############################
Date: 4/18/25 3:23 pm From: Ian MacGregor <00000489141846bd-dmarc-request...> Subject: Pea Ridge National Military Park
I was out of state, at the beginning of the week. I checked the weather and instead of recovering, I went to Pea Ridge and added five FOSl’s: Great-crested Flycatcher Red-eyed Vireo, Swainson’s Thrush, Summer Tanager, and Indigo Bunting. Merlin heard Prairie Warbler, near stop 4 on the tour, on the stop 3 side. I could only here Field Sparrows an a WEVI. I need Prairie Warbler as a life bird. I was hearing quite well today, perhaps the warbler was just too far away,
I was in L.A., Lower Alabama, at the beginning of the week, I had about 40 minutes on Dauphin Island expecting to return the next day. A couple of male Scarlet Tanagers in the open, a flock of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks all enjoyable with the naked eye. I was going to return the next morning, but the ferry was nut running, sigh.
Date: 4/18/25 8:43 am From: Dedra Gerard <000002df2472bba2-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: 1000+ shorebirds in Sharp Chapel Rd
Thank you.
Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS
On Friday, April 18, 2025, 7:48 AM, Ragupathy Kannan <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> wrote:
My ornithology class counted more than 1,000 shorebirds, including at least 300 Greater Yellowlegs, in Sharp Chapel Road yesterday. An unforgettable experience to many in the class was a brilliant male Prothonotary Warbler posing for photos. Plus an actively hunting Peregrine Falcon.https://ebird.org/checklist/S226453943 The experience with the Prothonotary and the falcon reminded me of Maya Angelou's famous quote, "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
Thanks as always to Sandy Berger for tagging along and offering her wisdom.
KannanFt. Smith
Just this morning saw my FOS Baltimore Oriole in Garland Co!
> On Apr 18, 2025, at 9:48 AM, Renn Tumlison <TUMLISON...> wrote:
>
> This morning, FOS Baltimore Oriole and Indigo Bunting - have had Blue Grosbeak and Rubythroat Hummingbird for about a week here in Arkadelphia, Clark Co.
>
> Renn Tumlison
> Emeritus Professor of Biology and Curator of Vertebrates
> Henderson State University
> Arkadelphia, AR 71999
> <tumlison...> <mailto:<tumlison...> > 870 230 5152
>
>
> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list, click the following link:
> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1
Date: 4/18/25 7:48 am From: Renn Tumlison <TUMLISON...> Subject: FOS baltimore oriole
This morning, FOS Baltimore Oriole and Indigo Bunting - have had Blue Grosbeak and Rubythroat Hummingbird for about a week here in Arkadelphia, Clark Co.
Renn Tumlison
Emeritus Professor of Biology and Curator of Vertebrates
Henderson State University
Arkadelphia, AR 71999
<tumlison...>
870 230 5152
Date: 4/18/25 5:48 am From: Ragupathy Kannan <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> Subject: 1000+ shorebirds in Sharp Chapel Rd
My ornithology class counted more than 1,000 shorebirds, including at least 300 Greater Yellowlegs, in Sharp Chapel Road yesterday. An unforgettable experience to many in the class was a brilliant male Prothonotary Warbler posing for photos. Plus an actively hunting Peregrine Falcon.https://ebird.org/checklist/S226453943 The experience with the Prothonotary and the falcon reminded me of Maya Angelou's famous quote, "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
Thanks as always to Sandy Berger for tagging along and offering her wisdom.
KannanFt. Smith
Date: 4/17/25 4:28 pm From: Karen Holliday <ladyhawke1...> Subject: April ASCA Field Trip Update
Cindy Franklin gave me a heads-up last week that the boardwalk entrance to Bell Slough WMA was under water. Hoping a week without rain would allow the water levels to drop, I checked Bell Slough this afternoon. The boardwalk is still under water. I then checked the shale quarry entrance at the yellow gate. Dry! Yea! I walked the lower trail and the ridge trail and both are fine. Birds were singing and butterflies were checking out the flowering plants. We'll still meet at the boardwalk parking lot. But we'll consolidate into fewer cars for the short drive to the yellow gate. That parking area is very small with limited space. The other good news is the rain is predicted to not move in until late Saturday. I checked the big open field with the levees. The correct AGFC designation for those types of of structured areas is Moist Soil Units (MSU). AGFC uses this designation throughout their Wildlife Management Areas (WMA). The MSUs are full of very tall grass. Very little open water. The only birds I saw were Great Egrets. The grass on the levees is also high, so we won't walk them. No need for knee boots. The trails are dry, so regular walking shoes are fine. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me off-list. See below for more field trip information. Karen Holliday
Subject: April and May ASCA Field Trips Below are details for our April and May field trips sponsored by the Audubon Society of Central Arkansas (ASCA). You don't have to be a member of ASCA to participate in the field trips. Birders of any level of experience are welcome. I have extra pairs of binoculars to share with anyone who needs them. Spring has arrived and hopefully our spring migrants will put in an appearance. I'm also seeing butterflies. Bell Slough is good for butterflies.Come join us!Karen Holliday ASCA field trip coordinator ASCA Field Trips April and May 2025April 19Bell Slough South AGFC Wildlife Management AreaMayflower, Faulkner Co. Meet at 7:30 a.m. at the main entrance (boardwalk) to the Bell Slough Wildlife Management Area (WMA) off Hwy. 365. Our target birds will be spring migrants. Bell Slough is a mix of ecosystems consisting of 2,040 acres of woodlands and wetlands situated between Little Rock and the Mayflower/Conway region. There are 117 species of birds documented for the area, including the adjacent waterfowl resting habitat. The Bell Slough Kenny Vernon Nature Trail consists of three connecting trails, each ranging in length from about a half-mile to 2 1/4 miles. The WMA has a nice mix of wildflowers that attract numerous butterflies. Wear study walking shoes. This will be a morning trip. Directions--From Little Rock, go west on I-40. Exit I-40 at Mayflower (Exit 135) and turn east (right) at the light onto Hwy. 89. Then turn south (right) just past the commuter parking lot onto the service road. Follow the service road paralleling I-40, then veer right at the fork. Follow this road until you cross the Palarm Creek bridge. Turn left into the WMA parking lot. GPS: 34.946164, -92.407896May 10Gillam Park, Little Rock Audubon Center (LRAC) and David D. Terry Lock and DamLittle Rock, Pulaski Co. Join our field trip to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) and experience the excitement of spring migration. At least four thousand different species of birds are moving from their wintering grounds to their summer nesting sites. It will be a great day to be outside enjoying nature. Meet at 7:00 a.m. at Gillam Park in the far parking lot. Gillam has excellent habitat for spring warblers. There will be moderate walking on fairly level, but possibly muddy trails. Once finished at Gillam, we’ll drive to the LRAC and walk the wildlife observation trail. An extra bonus is Kevin Krajcir has offered to do a mist netting and banding demonstration at the Audubon Center! Last, we’ll head to Industrial Harbor Road and David D. Terry Lock & Dam to look for Western Kingbirds, Great-tailed Grackles, Bobolinks, and Painted Buntings. Bring water and snacks, the trip can last into early afternoon. Wear sturdy walking shoes or hiking boots.Directions—Gillam Park is in southeast Little Rock near the airport. Address is 5300 Gillam Park Road, Little Rock. Take I-30 West heading south from Little Rock. Then exit onto I-440 going towards the airport. Take Exit 1-Springer Road. At the bottom of the exit ramp, turn left onto Springer Road. Go approximately 1 mile to just past the LRAC. Turn right onto Gillam Park Road. Follow it into the park to the last parking lot. GPS: 34.698684, -92.264514Karen Holliday ASCA field trip coordinator
Date: 4/17/25 1:00 pm From: betty_evans <betty_evans...> Subject: Re: Black-necked Stilts at Lake Atalanta in Rogers this morning
Jen Mortensen and I also observed one at the Beaver Lake Nursery Pond. https://ebird.org/checklist/S226404083 I have been having issues with my camera and it did not have a memory card in it. I got one poor photo with my phone through the binoculars.
On Thursday, April 17, 2025 at 01:17:56 PM CDT, Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> wrote:
Samantha Heller observed and photographed two BLACK-NECKED STILTS at Lake Atalanta in Rogers this morning. These are rare birds for Northwest Arkansas City, with just a mere handful of records between mid-March and second half of May.
Date: 4/17/25 12:06 pm From: Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> Subject: Brilliant surprises on a strong south wind
This mornings weather prediction wasnt all that promising. Supposed to be a major, big wind day. So I thought I might just settle down at home and look at a couple of recent publications. For example:
Cover of Spring 2025 issue of Cornell Labs Living Bird is an in-flight image of Harlans Red-tailed Hawk, the big, often very black, excitement that has been source of many adventures into former Beaty Prairie at Maysville in western Benton County. A winter visitor from afar think Alaska.
Inside the magazine: an article exploring the numerous RTHA subspecies, including ones we typically see in Arkansas in winter. I was about to settle down with that article, but before, decided to check the revised RTHA account in Cornells Birds of the World by C. R. Preston and R. D. Beane (published October 2024).
Lead author Charles Preston came to UA-Fayetteville on a baseball scholarship, then decided he preferred biology. Finished a PhD working with our own Doug James and went on to quite a distinguished career. Retired now to a place deep in the Boston Mountains south of Fayetteville.
I was about to starting reading wind was shaking the windows swaying trees with their fresh new green leaves. Then from the world of the cell phone: a message buzz Kenny Younger had already been out in spring migration. He discovered a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck on a farm pond in Fayetteville. Loosely associated with Blue-winged Teals and Northern Shovelers. And several other shorebird species (Solitary, etc).
You never know what else might show up in mid-April, with a strong south wind call it a northbound migration wind So I had just arrived at the pond, got my spotting scope on Kennys duck as fine an example of an adult BBWD as anyone could ever desire and I was enjoying it immensely and ready to start figuring out the smaller shorebirds when, as it turns out, my phone wasnt done with buzzing
This time it was Lake Atalanta in Rogers. It was Samantha Heller with a message and a photograph. She had found two BLACK-NECKED STILTS! I know these are fairly regular in some parts of the state, but not so in Northwest Arkansas City. Brilliant black and whites and amazing pink legs standing in a few inches of water in clear shallows of Prairie Creek -- strangers in a strange land ...
But no stranger, actually, than the way I felt upon seeing them and before them, Kennys duck all these Earth riches brilliant surprises, gifts, on a strong south wind.
Date: 4/17/25 11:18 am From: Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> Subject: Black-necked Stilts at Lake Atalanta in Rogers this morning
Samantha Heller observed and photographed two BLACK-NECKED STILTS at Lake Atalanta in Rogers this morning. These are rare birds for Northwest Arkansas City, with just a mere handful of records between mid-March and second half of May.
Date: 4/16/25 7:38 pm From: Elizabeth Shores <efshores...> Subject: Re: Osprey in Maumelle
It has been fishing in the ponds on the nearby golf course, too.
Sent from my iPhone
> On Apr 16, 2025, at 8:06 PM, Karen Holliday <ladyhawke1...> wrote:
>
>
> We live on Lake Willastein, a small lake in Maumelle. This afternoon, I happened to look out our big bay window into our backyard and the green space behind our house. I watched as a very large Osprey flew into the top of one of the taller trees, which has a dead top (presumably from a lighting strike). I watched it for a few minutes then called Ray to come see it too.
> We had a great time watching the Osprey eat the fish it had caught. The Osprey spent over 10 minutes pulling the fish apart and eating pieces, some which it dropped. A couple of dropped pieces were fins and a tail, which it didn't care to eat. It also didn't eat the head. Ray identified the fish as good-sized bass.
> We are close enough to the Arkansas River that Bald Eagles and Osprey show up periodically to hunt our lake. It's not often you can include an Osprey as a yard bird!
> Karen Holliday
> Maumelle
>
> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list, click the following link:
> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1
We live on Lake Willastein, a small lake in Maumelle. This afternoon, I happened to look out our big bay window into our backyard and the green space behind our house. I watched as a very large Osprey flew into the top of one of the taller trees, which has a dead top (presumably from a lighting strike). I watched it for a few minutes then called Ray to come see it too. We had a great time watching the Osprey eat the fish it had caught. The Osprey spent over 10 minutes pulling the fish apart and eating pieces, some which it dropped. A couple of dropped pieces were fins and a tail, which it didn't care to eat. It also didn't eat the head. Ray identified the fish as good-sized bass. We are close enough to the Arkansas River that Bald Eagles and Osprey show up periodically to hunt our lake. It's not often you can include an Osprey as a yard bird! Karen Holliday Maumelle
Date: 4/16/25 3:23 pm From: Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> Subject: Devil's Den State Park
Devils Den State Park near Winslow is really one of the best or at least very accessible -- places to enjoy birds of mature hardwood forest in the Boston Mountain section of the Ozarks. Heres what I submitted to eBird for today: https://ebird.org/checklist/S226172763.
I entered the park from the south (from Winslow and Blackburn) and slowly worked my way down the mountain top forests into Lee Creek Valley. I never go to the park on the weekends anymore because the crowds can be crazy-noisy. Today, Wednesday, was like the good ole days with fewer people. More about birds and flowering trees. More about the chance to see butterflies and dragonflies.
I do the slow drive, stop, get out, and so on. Look for safe places to stop. I want safe stops, short walks, and listens. In this way I hope, maybe, I am getting a decent feel for birds in the area. As a result of hearing loss, I have also been using Merlin to back up and check.
Today there were numerous Yellow-throated Vireos, Red-eyed Vireos, Ovenbirds, Hooded Warblers, Northern Parulas, Black-and-white Warblers, and a brilliant male Scarlet Tanager.
I thoroughly enjoyed one Fish Crow that was on a branch at about eye level, calling repeatedly. Two Black Vultures were also perched on a low branch along the road. Nest nearby?
One Broad-winged Hawk flew from a low perch in the woods to another low perch. Maybe hunting chipmunks, common in the park.
Hi All! Today (April 16) if the last day to order your Gulf Of Birds Shirt if you would like it delivered to you at the AAS Conference! Use code AASCON to avoid shipping cost if you would like your shirt delivered at the conference. Any shirts ordered after today will be mailed and you'll be responsible for shipping. $10 of the purchase of every shirt before April 30 will be donated to the AAS Halberg Ecology Camp! Thank you all that have purchased shirts so far! We have raised $260 for the camp! Follow this link to place your order! https://birdythingsshop.etsy.com/listing/1878166520Donna HaynesWest Pulaski Co.
Yahoo Mail: Search, Organize, Conquer
On Sun, Apr 6, 2025 at 11:34 PM, Donna Haynes<00000003bd9d64d2-dmarc-request...> wrote: Hi all, we have raised $200 for the Halberg Ecology Camp with our Gulf Of The Birds Shirts! If you haven't ordered, please follow the link to get yours! They can be shipped OR picked up at the AAS Conferences if ordered before April 16th! Thank you everyone! https://birdythingsshop.etsy.com/listing/1878166520
I would like to ask those that have received their shirts to please leave a review on the Etsy Store. Someone on this Listserve left a 3 star review based on how she thinks the graphic will wear through washings. This is extremely detrimental to our fundraiser for the Halberg Ecology Camp and to a very small business owner. I have been making shirts for my family since fall and they have been washed repeatedly and have done great. I did this before doing shirts for the public so I could be certain of quality. Please wash inside out, cold and remove promptly from dryer.
Thanks again to all who have ordered and supported the Halberg Camp! Donna HaynesWest Pulaski Co.
Date: 4/15/25 7:53 pm From: <arbour...> <arbour...> Subject: Red Slough Bird Survey - April 15
It was partly cloudy, mild, and a little windy on the bird survey today. 66 species were found. Numerous Anhingas, Neotropic Cormorants, and Little-blue Herons are now sitting on nests on Pintail Lake. Gallinule numbers are increasing. Here is my list for today:
The Yellow Grosbeak continues and was seen Apr 14 and 15. Access information:. Birders are welcome between 10a and sunset. There is a $25 per person access fee (cash or Venmo/Zelle). To visit, please wait until a day or two before your visit (or even the day of) and text Shianne at 417-349-2317. Let her know what time and date you plan to come. She will give you her specific address at that time. If you choose 10a, please do not show up ahead of that time. She's got a family to get ready for the day -- and she's busy trying to get this and other things done before folks show up. When there: Keep a respectful distance from the bird and do not approach within 40-50 feet of the feeder area. He is very shy and will disappear into the trees when spooked, making him more difficult for everyone to see. Be sure to check the cedar trees and the rocky stream bed to the left of the house. He's often been seen in that area, too. Patty McLean
Date: 4/15/25 4:00 pm From: Brian Carlson <brianrcarlson...> Subject: Cherry Bend birding 4.15.25
After reading Joe Neal's account of his outing to Cherry Bend I was champing at the bit. I had planned to go there this coming Saturday but the weather is not looking good and I had today off, so I decided to go today. I was not able to see or hear the Cerulean or Worm-eating Warblers today or the Scarlet Tanager, but I did see them there last year and had a great time there today anyway. I got some good video of some of the birds I saw. My Ebird checklist is below as well as my YouTube video for those who care to have a look.
Date: 4/15/25 1:31 am From: Brian Carlson <brianrcarlson...> Subject: Re: CHERRY BEND, OZARK NATIONAL FOREST
Joe, what a special treat to see that banded bird. I remember seeing one their last year with nesting material in its beak. I am going to try to visit Cherry Bend on Saturday.
________________________________
From: The Birds of Arkansas Discussion List <ARBIRD-L...> on behalf of Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...>
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2025 4:12 PM
To: <ARBIRD-L...> <ARBIRD-L...>
Subject: CHERRY BEND, OZARK NATIONAL FOREST
Overcast, calm, and White-throated Sparrows singing their good bye see-ya-laters in my Fayetteville neighborhood this morning. I was meeting David Oakley.
While waiting isnt that a Nashville Warbler singing in the leafing-out canopy ?
About 45 minutes SE of Fayetteville is the old Cherry Bend Rec Area in Ozark NF. My friends J & S had been out there on Saturday. Reported the steep hillside forest ringing with singing by neotropical migratory birds. Good report from them. Heres what David and I found today: https://ebird.org/checklist/S225651399.
There are so many First-Of-Season birds for me. Ill just mention being especially glad for Wood Thrushes, Scarlet Tanagers, and our old friend the Red-eyed Vireo. I was also glad for black flies. There werent as many black flies as there will be in a few weeks, but still enough to appreciate. Black flies go with good birding at Cherry Bend.
David and I had a big surprise on the Ozark Highlands Trail. We encountered Dr Than Boves and graduate student Ethan Saffle who had just caught and banded a Black-throated Green Warbler. You can take this to the bank: view of this bird in hand is way different than on that rare occasion when we have gotten lucky enough to spot one up in the way-way overhead canopy.
We really lucked-out on that one! They have all the permits and protocols for a project that will shine some scientific light on relationships between B-throated Green and Cerulean Warblers.
One of the most important parts of the book Arkansas Birds, Their Distribution and Abundance (1986) is the section on summer birds prepared by Doug James. Cherry Bend was his special research site. Here he studied birds of Ozark forests 70 years ago. Of course, some of this has changed, but much remains as he knew it. You can get a feel for Cherry Bend in those years in Forest Bird Populations starting page 37.
On the way out today we spent a few minutes on Fly Gap Road. Long enough that David Oakley, the Odonator, spotted what was probably Uhlers Sundragon. Not a bird, but a dragonfly that is a good find in our neck of the woods. It got away without confirmation, but reality enough well likely be on this task next time around Cherry Bend.
s
Date: 4/14/25 5:18 pm From: Patty McLean <000008e6fff5e5c8-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: American Bittern at Bald Knob NWR
Also American Avocets. Patty
-------- Original message --------From: Patty McLean <plm108...> Date: 4/14/25 7:15 PM (GMT-06:00) To: <ARBIRD-L...> Subject: American Bittern at Bald Knob NWR Several folks spotted TWO American Bittern at the refuge, to the east of the silos on Huntsman Rd. Patty
Date: 4/14/25 2:12 pm From: Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> Subject: CHERRY BEND, OZARK NATIONAL FOREST
Overcast, calm, and White-throated Sparrows singing their good bye see-ya-laters in my Fayetteville neighborhood this morning. I was meeting David Oakley.
While waiting isnt that a Nashville Warbler singing in the leafing-out canopy ?
About 45 minutes SE of Fayetteville is the old Cherry Bend Rec Area in Ozark NF. My friends J & S had been out there on Saturday. Reported the steep hillside forest ringing with singing by neotropical migratory birds. Good report from them. Heres what David and I found today: https://ebird.org/checklist/S225651399.
There are so many First-Of-Season birds for me. Ill just mention being especially glad for Wood Thrushes, Scarlet Tanagers, and our old friend the Red-eyed Vireo. I was also glad for black flies. There werent as many black flies as there will be in a few weeks, but still enough to appreciate. Black flies go with good birding at Cherry Bend.
David and I had a big surprise on the Ozark Highlands Trail. We encountered Dr Than Boves and graduate student Ethan Saffle who had just caught and banded a Black-throated Green Warbler. You can take this to the bank: view of this bird in hand is way different than on that rare occasion when we have gotten lucky enough to spot one up in the way-way overhead canopy.
We really lucked-out on that one! They have all the permits and protocols for a project that will shine some scientific light on relationships between B-throated Green and Cerulean Warblers.
One of the most important parts of the book Arkansas Birds, Their Distribution and Abundance (1986) is the section on summer birds prepared by Doug James. Cherry Bend was his special research site. Here he studied birds of Ozark forests 70 years ago. Of course, some of this has changed, but much remains as he knew it. You can get a feel for Cherry Bend in those years in Forest Bird Populations starting page 37.
On the way out today we spent a few minutes on Fly Gap Road. Long enough that David Oakley, the Odonator, spotted what was probably Uhlers Sundragon. Not a bird, but a dragonfly that is a good find in our neck of the woods. It got away without confirmation, but reality enough well likely be on this task next time around Cherry Bend.
s
Date: 4/14/25 7:50 am From: Sandy Berger <sndbrgr...> Subject: Sunnymede Field Trip
Birding In and Around Fort Smith is hosting a field trip to Sunnymede Park in Fort Smith on Saturday the 19th, weather permitting. We will be meeting at 7:00 a.m. in the parking lot. The park is at the far east end of Grand Avenue, past the Jam Mart, liquor store, and UHaul. There are no amenities at the park, but there are at Jam Mart. 220 bird species have been recorded at Sunnymede over the years. The latest addition was an unexpected Barn Owl.
Date: 4/13/25 7:10 pm From: Brian Carlson <brianrcarlson...> Subject: Prothonotary Warblers back at Citadel Bluff
This afternoon I did some birding at my favorite local to me hotspot and for the first time this year I heard and saw Prothonotary Warblers and an Eastern Kingbird. Ebird checklist below as well as my video for those of you who might be interested. Brian
Date: 4/13/25 7:28 am From: Ragupathy Kannan <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: Birding in Ouachita NF--Pine-Bluestem Buffalo Rd.
I took pride in telling that class that some of the pioneers who spearheaded the restrictors and snake excluding devices in RCW nests were our own Joe Neal and Barbara Raulston, both Doug James's graduate students in the 1990s.
On Thursday 10 April, 2025 at 11:12:40 pm GMT-5, Ciera Grijalva <cgrijalva2004...> wrote:
April 10, 2025
I had a fantastic time birding today with my Ornithology class, led by Dr. Kannan. We took a trip down to the Ouachita National Forest, specifically to Upper Buffalo Road in Scott County. The main goal of our outing was to check out the snake excluders and restrictors used to protect Red-cockaded Woodpecker nests.
We had an in-depth discussion about the role of prescribed burns in maintaining the woodpecker’s habitat, and how these controlled fires benefit many other species and the ecosystem as a whole. While we saw several nests dripping pinesap, we didn’t spot any RCWs this time.
That said, the trip was far from uneventful! We were thrilled to spot a Broad-winged Hawk, the first one reported in Arkansas this season to our knowledge. We also spotted a Bachman’s Sparrow, which was absolutely amazing to see.
I've linked our full eBird checklist below for anyone interested in seeing the complete list of species we observed.
Date: 4/12/25 4:16 pm From: Brian Carlson <brianrcarlson...> Subject: Nashville Warblers at Shores Lake
My wife and I went to Shores Lake this morning for some bird watching. It was glorious. Here is my Ebird checklist link and a link to my Youtube video.
Date: 4/12/25 3:34 pm From: Ragupathy Kannan <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: Does this Upland Sandpiper have a normal bill
The bill looks normal to me. I was telling Joe Neal that this bird reminds me of a small old world Bustard, especially when it extends its thin neck as in Ian's photo. That plus the open grassland habitat. Nice photo.
On Thursday 10 April, 2025 at 08:40:42 pm GMT-5, Ian MacGregor <00000489141846bd-dmarc-request...> wrote:
Went to Siloam Springs City lake and had my FOS Prothonotary Warbler, then over to Chesney Prairie and had finally saw Greater Roadrunner in Arkansas, then drove several backroads where the only thing of note were a couple of FOs Lark Sparrows, and finally Shay Acres Road in Centerville for my FOS Upland Sandiper.
I took pictures of the Roadrunners, an assumed pair, the Lark Sparrows. and the Sandpiper.All were very much out of focus and/or the bird was positioned in such a way as to hide its field marks. Roadrunners have such a unique shape , they are identifiable in very poor photographs.
I did manage a decent picture of the Upland Sandpiper, which I am attaching. Upland'd are strange looking birds, and this one particulary so. I'm trying to decide if the birds bill is normal.
Ian MacGtregor Bella Vista
Date: 4/12/25 12:53 pm From: Ian MacGregor <00000489141846bd-dmarc-request...> Subject: A Bittersweet Morning
I got up early and went to Hobbes. I started hiking the Sinking Stream trail about an hour before sunrise. I looked at Merlin and it was claiming to have heard a whip-poor-will. About 15 minutes later I too heard one, but I could not hear the entire song. It called about half dozen times, and Merlin was highlight Eastern Whip-poor-will each time. I could tell it was not a chuck-wills-widow, and the guttural tone suggested goatsucker. This and Michael Pruitt hearing three there this morning this month on two occasions made me 100% confident it was indeed an Eastern Whip-poor-will. But not a very satisfactory life bird
I went back to the cat and waited until 10 minutes after the sun was supposed to rise. It would be about thirty minutes more before it was visible. I started to walk the Van Winkle Trail. Almost as sooon as I got out of the car, a bird with short, and to me overly-broad wings, flew by. It had no, noticeable tail. Size, shape, and broad wings, make it a Screech Owl. That’s all I saw of the bird. I was about 90% sure I heard one a couple of years ago, but I removed it from my life list. So this bird was a lifer. It would have been nice to see it better.
