At the end of day 4 we had reached the landmark 150 species, not bad going given the coast had actually not been as productive as it could have been. We were now far inland, in Arkansas northeast of Little Rock and west of Memphis. America is such a vast country that we were probably only a third of the way to the Great Lakes - it's a 15 hour non-stop drive from New Orleans to Chicago.
Today we were starting at Bald Knob NWR, seemingly the pre-eminent birding spot in these parts. As we approached from the north along Coal Chute Road it began to live up to expectations, with Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and several Swamp Sparrows. Indigo Bunting, Blue Grosbeak and Common Yellowthroat were in the margins here, and we found Blue-winged Warbler and Barn Swallow close to the Admin compound. Gradually the landscape opened up and we left the woods behind to emerge into a huge patchwork of flooded fields. To our right one of the largest tractors I had ever seen was attempting to plough one of these, creating huge eddies and literally waves as it displaced the water. As it did so countless small Waders lifted up to resettle elsewhere, many of them Pectoral Sandpiper. This was going to be some morning.
 |
| Barn Swallow |
We stayed here until exactly midday, slowly driving around the lanes and tracks, stopping wherever it seemed good, which was basically everywhere, but once again only really covered a relatively small part of the area. Some of the fields were wetter than others, and some were shallow lakes. One of these held good sized flocks of Green-winged Teal, and on another, amongst the Blue-winged Teal and Shoveler were a handful of Pintail, two Mallard and two Ruddy Duck. On yet another we counted over 100 American Coot. A few more waders made themselves known as we slowly worked our way past each pool or field - a dozen Black-necked Stilt, a single Spotted Sandpiper, four Greater Yellowlegs and and handful of Long-billed Dowitcher. Raptors were very much in evidence as they patrolled this rich habitat, with Bald Eagle and Northern Harrier, and also Red-shouldered Hawk.
 |
| Bald Eagle |
 |
| Lesser Yellowlegs |
And this was just the open areas. Along the well vegetated ditches we found White-eyed, Warbling and Red-eyed Vireo, Baltimore Oriole, Eastern Meadowlark, White-throated Sparrow, more Swamp Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, and a Yellow-breasted Chat played very hard to get and I am not sure we ever laid eyes on it. On the Warbler front Northern Waterthrush with their sharp zik calls were quite numerous, as well as another Blue-winged Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Parula and Yellow-rumped Warbler.
 |
| Blue Grosbeak |
Right in the middle of the reserve is a farm with large grain silos, and we had seen that a flock of Yellow-headed Blackbird had been visiting the spilled grain - unusual for this area. A bit of a stakeout got us these as they came down to feed, along with Brown-headed Cowbird and White-crowned Sparrow. What I am trying to say is that Bald Knob NWR is fantastic, and our during our four hour visit we tallied 76 species, easily the largest list from any single site.
 |
| Yellow-headed Blackbird |
 |
| White-crowned Sparrow |
We spent the middle part of the day driving northeast, arriving at Otter Slough in Missouri at around 3pm. This was another spot identified via eBird as being promising. It's another big area with multiple places to go birding, and we tried a number of paths that led into the forest away from the main lake. There were what must be dodgy Snow Geese here, as well as Wood Duck and more Ruddy Duck, and some shallow reedy areas held a Stilt Sandpiper, both Yellowlegs, Dunlin, Pectoral Sandpiper, Wilson's Snipe and more Long-billed Dowitcher. There was a good selection of smaller birds here, including yet more Prothonotary Warblers which seemed to be pretty common in this part of the country, and our first Grey-cheeked Thrush. We spent nearly two hours here, finishing on 47 species. The end of the trip was on the horizon now and we were properly in the zone and trying to add as much as we could.
 |
| Grey-cheeked Thrush |
Final stop of the day was a nice boardwalk at Mingo NWR a further thirty minutes or so north. We walked the loop which took us alongside the canal where we finally got views of Yellow-breasted Chat, and Great Crested Flycatcher flicked through along with two each of Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker and Hairy Woodpecker. Somewhere a Barred Owl called, and another Bald Eagle flew over. We then drove two hours east to the town of Metropolis which is just into Illinois over the Ohio River. We had managed to see 88 species in Arkansas and 61 in Missouri in just over a day.
 |
| Yellow-breasted Chat |
No comments:
Post a Comment