A Woodpecker Reflection

I saw my first Red-cockaded Woodpeckers (RCWs) in the 1970s, in the newly organized Felsenthal NWR. Based upon what I saw there, and what I could learn from reading, I felt RCWs were heading down the same road as Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. In my early 30s, and fresh on the ecology scene, I was drawn by the drama of the bird's decline and the interesting mature pine habitat in which it lived.

Rock Wren at Pinnacle Mountain State Park

Many Arkansas birders take advantage of Kingfisher Trail at Pinnacle Mountain State Park, hoping for a chance to see a favorite bird or perhaps even a rare species seldom seen in Arkansas. We are never disappointed on our walks there. The beautiful old trees and the stream nearby are perfect habitat for so many different species of birds.

I was 14 years old the first time I visited Pinnacle Mountain.

The 300

My quest ended November 17, 2007. Standing on a gravel road ten miles from Jonesboro, Nick Anich and I had just scoped several Cackling Geese in a large flock of Greater White-fronted. After 40,000 miles on the road, endless hours of driving in the dark while fighting sleep, burying the Prius in mud three times, running the battery down once, receiving one richly deserved speeding ticket and one warning, and discovering whole new genera of DEET-swilling, biting, and orifice-seeking gnats, what did I feel at that precise moment? Relief, to be sure, but mainly I felt resolute. Arkansas year-bird 300 represented the achievement of my public goal, but the real goal, the private one, remained.

An Arkansas Big Year

My only preparation for an Arkansas Big Year (ABY) was to make sure my quest had Pat's full support. Though we had only a rough idea of what the enterprise would entail, we both knew I would approach it as I have every other challenge in our 41 years together - an all-out, 100%, obsessive compulsive, damn-the-torpedoes-full-speed-ahead effort, beginning to end! That was my only plan. At first.