Big Year Final Report: The Birds

I started off 2008 like I had the previous 3 years, not really sure if I should go all out and do a Big Year. That changed early in the year.

In 2007, Dennis Braddy conducted a Big Year in Arkansas and ended the year with an excellent total of 307 birds. At the end of the year, he said he wouldn't chase any birds for a while. That lasted less than one day, and he was off to chase some Common Ground-Doves found at Holla Bend by Cameron Cox on New Year's Day. I also chased those Common Ground-Doves, but not on New Year's Day because New Year's Day comes after New Year's Eve. I needed those doves for my state list, and I got them a few days later. That was my first chase.

My second chase was for Brown Pelican at Lake Dardanelle on January 12th. The pelican had flown over Bo Verser's car the day before as he drove down the highway. It was later relocated by Dennis Braddy, who had to be thinking that Common Ground-Dove and Brown Pelicans could have been more courteous and strayed during 2007.

After Kenny and LaDonna Nichols and I saw the Brown Pelican, we found a White-winged Scoter just above the Dardanelle Dam. After that, we went to the junior high in Russellville to scope the gulls. We picked through the masses once, and didn't see anything unusual, only Ring-billeds. Some yahoos pulled up in a truck and wanted to know why were wasting our time looking at sea gulls. Kenny, as he usually is, was very polite to them and started explaining that sometimes rare gulls are found with the more common ones. Just at that moment, I spotted an unusual gull- a Thayer's Gull, which is a great rarity for Arkansas, and a great addition to my year list. Feeling like we had all the luck in the world, we headed up to the Maysville area to look for a Northern Shrike that had been seen twice briefly by Mike Mlodinow, Joe Neal, Jacque Brown, and Dennis Braddy. We did not see the shrike, nor did we see a Prairie Falcon in the area. I had traveled a long distance from home to see a measly Harris's Sparrow (which I would find in March about 10 miles from my house). How can you complain on a day when you see Thayer's, Lesser Black-backed, White-winged Scoter, Brown Pelican, and Harris's Sparrow on the same day? You can't.

Sometime in January, I got word that two falconers, Chris Price and Raul Ramirez, had seen a Prairie Falcon near Osceola. I had never seen a Prairie Falcon despite looking for them in Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, and New Mexico. I really wanted to see one. Badly. I searched the spot the bird had been seen 3 times during January to no avail. On February 1st, I went to the area where the falcon had been seen weeks before. I didn't see it. However, I found a Rough-legged Hawk in the area (that would later be seen by Ron Howard). I felt pretty good about the hawk, but I still wasn't satisfied. I needed that dadgum falcon. So what did I do? I went back to Jonesboro and recruited some help.

The same afternoon (February 1st) Nick Anich and I headed out to find the falcon. We went to the spot and found the county road lined with fearless Mourning Dove. The falcon wasn't around. We decided to go look around for other northeast Arkansas specialties, like Sandhill Crane and American Black Duck. We found these with minimal effort. Nick and I had just enough time to get from the crane grounds (near Birdsong) back to the Prairie Falcon location around dusk. We turned off the highway onto the county road, and I said "we're not gonna see it." The very instant that I had given up on the Prairie Falcon, it flew across the road right in front of us! You can't make this stuff up. It lit on a telephone pole and allowed us scope views and enough time to snap a few pictures, then, it took off in a flash.

I had not really planned to do a Big Year, but I seemed to have some luck. I have no idea how many year birds I had by February 1st. I did know that I already had a ton of rarities, and Big Years are made by rarities.

From February 1st until the end of March, I added several more really good birds like Glaucous Gull, Red-throated Loon, Surf Scoter, Black Scoter, and Anna's Hummingbird. My year list totaled 169 birds on March 31st, and that seems like a bunch, but Kenny Nichols and Bo Verser saw 168 birds on one May day in Arkansas during the peak of migration.

April

20 April 2008

April 20, 2008 was one of my most memorable days of birding in Arkansas. The list of birds I saw was pretty good, but more importantly, it put a little wind in my sail leading up to the peak of migration. I started the day around 6:30 a.m. by scanning over a dried fish pond for shorebirds. I spotted Least, Semipalmated, Pectoral, and Spotted sandpipers. I also noticed a pale spot that was on the driest part of the pond bottom. When I got my binoculars up, I was happy to see a Piping Plover in breeding plumage!

After studying and photographing the plover, I continued down the pond levee about 100 yards or so. A bird that flew up from the grassy levee caught my eye. I noticed a lot of white in its tail, and I figured it was probably just a Vesper Sparrow, but something just didn't seem right. As I lifted my glasses, I was stunned to see a Sprague's Pipit. This bird sat motionless for what seemed like an eternity. He even allowed me to back my truck up and turn sideways, so I could photograph it out my window. Now that's a polite pipit.

Next I went to an irrigation reservoir to look for whatever might be out there. I scanned and scanned and saw lots of ducks, including Mottled, Lesser Scaup, Ruddy, Shoveler, Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, etc. Two Black-crowned Night Herons flew by. Then I managed to see a Least Bittern as it flew just above the cattails. Soras were calling everywhere, and I heard a few more Least Bitterns. I eventually spotted an American Bittern in flight.

I felt like I had seen everything from that spot, so I decided to move to a different vantage point. I first saw 5 Horned Grebes in breeding plumage. Horned Grebes are not rare by any stretch of the imagination, but they're sharp looking in late April. After about five more minutes of scanning, I found the first Eared Grebe for the county! I took some photos of the bird, which was also in breeding plumage. I scanned a little more, and eventually spotted a flock of six Fulvous Whistling Ducks on the north side of the reservoir. I managed to snap a photo through my scope, which was quite poor, but understandable because the ducks had to have been more than half a mile away.

I went back to the drained fish ponds and found several more shorebird species. The best ones were Black-necked Stilt and Dunlin. A single female Hooded Merganser was my only one of the day. An adult Bald Eagle was soaring over towards the river.

Next, I went to some other fish ponds, which were being drained to be farmed in row crops. There was a lot of good shorebird habitat in the draining ponds. I saw a single Baird's and a few Western Sandpipers in with all the Leasts and Semis. One pond had three Semipalmated Plovers. Four Black-necked Stilts dwarfed everything but the Greater Yellowlegs.

After lunch, I birded around for landbirds (even though it was the wrong time of day) and found a few good birds like Lincoln's Sparrow, Prothonotary Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, and House Wren. I heard a wren scolding me around an old shed, and I figured it was another House Wren, but it didn't sound like the one I had heard a few minutes before. I pished and a Bewick's Wren popped up, one of only a few I've seen in Arkansas. The wren flipped its tail side to side and continued to scold.

I left the wren and went back to the first fish ponds I had visited that morning to see if anything else had dropped in. As it turned out, five American Avocets and 2 Caspian Terns had stopped in, and an Osprey flew over. I checked the other drained ponds, and found two Piping Plovers in one pond. I couldn't believe there were two of them! I guess the fact that the river was up so high, and all the sandbars were underwater helped send the Pipings my way.

I finished the day off with two young Bald Eagles, another Osprey, 3 Upland Sandpipers in a plowed field, and a single Barn Owl in an old building.

Any day you see Piping Plover, Sprague's Pipit, American Avocet, Bewick's Wren, Upland Sandpiper, Mottled Duck, Least Bittern, American Bittern, Barn Owl, Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Eared Grebe, Caspian Tern, Black-crowned Night Heron, Horned Grebe, and Baird's Sandpiper ain't a bad day for Arkansas.

I ended the month of April with 256 species on my year list. May would make or break my big year.

May

Warbler May Day

On May 10, 2008, Kenny and LaDonna Nichols joined Ron Howard and me for a morning of warbler watching at Craighead Forest Park in Jonesboro. A cold front moved through the area during the night and the winds shifted from the south to the north, and the conditions led to an inland fallout. We started around 6:45a.m. and didn't quit until 5:00p.m. It was just that good. We had 22 species of warblers on the day, and other good birds like Painted Bunting, Lark Sparrow, and a couple of late Red-breasted Nuthatches. The best bird of the day award went to a totally unexpected Clay-colored Sparrow in the gravel pit adjacent to the park. That Clay-colored Sparrow saved me a bunch of grief because they are rare and unpredictable in Arkansas. But on this day, the warblers were the real show-stoppers.

When I say we had warblers, I don't mean just a few. We had tons of the things. We estimated that we had 150 Tennessee Warblers, 85 Magnolia Warblers, 75 Chestnut-sided Warblers, 30 Nashville Warblers, 30 Blackburnians, 25 Black-throated Greens, 25 Redstarts, 20 Bay-breasteds, and 20 Blackpolls. We had lesser numbers of Northern Parula, Yellow, Cape May, Yellow-rumped, Pine, Palm, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Black-and-white, Kentucky, Yellowthroat, and Wilson's Warblers. The final tally at the end of the day ended with a mind-boggling 522 individual warblers!

May Chases

I also chased a few birds in May. Charles Mills called to say he had a Whimbrel down on the Okay Levee, so Sarah and I, along with Dennis Braddy, headed down the next morning. Big shorebirds are notorious for not sticking around unless there's inclement weather. Well, there was no inclement weather to be found. It was a bluebird day, but luck was with us, and the bird was still there. I also picked up Sanderling and Alder Flycatcher down there, which aren't rare but they can be a pain to find when you want to find one.

Kenny and LaDonna Nichols found some Swainson's Hawks over around Holla Bend. The next day, Ron Howard and I were looking at two of them.

I got word that Terry Butler had a White-winged Dove at his feeder. The next day, we were both looking at a White-winged Dove at his feeder. I headed to the Wilburn Clearcuts after leaving Terry's and found Bachman's Sparrows and a Willow Flycatcher.

May Finds

The best birds I found in May, aside from the aforementioned Cape May Warbler and Clay-colored Sparrow, were: Hudsonian Godwits, Black-bellied Plovers, Swainson's Warbler, Common Terns, and Franklin's Gull in Desha County. In Jonesboro, I think Ron Howard and I saw just about every warbler that comes through Arkansas regularly, along with all the empids, Veery, and Black-billed Cuckoo. Every bird you get is one you don't have to worry about finding later. I ended May with 290 birds.

June, July, and August

June is generally a slow birding month in Arkansas. I mopped up birds I had not seen yet, like Worm-eating Warbler, King Rail, and Louisiana Waterthrush. Can you believe that Louisiana Waterthrush was year bird #293?

In July, Ron Howard and I went to Magazine to look for Rufous-crowned Sparrows. We had driven about 4 hours from Jonesboro, and I think I heard the birds singing as soon as I opened the car door at the hang-glider spot. Ron got some really nice photos, and we high-tailed it back to J-town.

The last part of July, I found the first Wood Storks and Roseate Spoonbills of the year down in Desha County. I ended July with 296 birds.

I saw a lot of good birds in August, but most of them were birds I had already seen for the year. I heard that there was a Least Grebe at the Craig Fish Hatchery, and the next day, along with Kenny and LaDonna Nichols, Dennis Braddy, and Sarah, I too had seen Arkansas's first Least Grebe. There were 2 Buff-breasted Sandpipers up there, and they were my first for the year.

On August 25th, I got a call from Kenny that he had found a Red-necked Phalarope at Des Arc. I had been working all day, but luckily, I was working near Searcy, and Searcy is a lot closer to Des Arc than Jonesboro is. The phalarope was year bird #299. I was on cloud nine.

September

Hurricane Birds

On August 25th, Hurricane Gustav formed out in the Atlantic. It moved into the Gulf of Mexico and picked up steam. On September 1st, Gustav hit Cocodrie, Louisiana as a Category 2 storm. On the morning of September 2nd, I was at Lake Chicot looking at my life Sooty Tern. I had also broken the 300 barrier. I birded around the area looking for more hurricane birds. Late in the afternoon, I got a call from Arkansas's First Couple of Birding that there was a frigatebird perched in a cypress tree at Grand Lake. LaDonna had spotted it flying and immediately lost it, before re-finding it in the cypress tree. Kenny finally had the frigatebird for his state list.

Through the week, several storm birds were still being seen in Arkansas. There were Sooty Terns at Millwood, Dardanelle, and Beaver lakes. A Bridled Tern was at Millwood. There was a Royal Tern at Millwood and another at Centerton. I finally had time to go birding again on September 7th. Charles Mills had a jaeger and a skimmer down at Millwood on September 6th, and the other rare birds in the state had moved on, so Sarah and I headed to Millwood. We saw a Sooty Tern and the jaeger. I had never seen a jaeger before, and wanted a closer look. The only way to do that was to rent a boat. Charles, Sarah, and I took a boat out while Dennis Braddy stayed on the bank to guide us. We saw the jaeger, and it wasn't any closer than it was when we had seen it from the bank. Finally, it sat down and we were able to get fairly close to it. However, just before I shut the motor off, it took off, and since I was trying to keep the photographer in good position, I didn't get very good looks. Charles got some photos, and some experts have said Parasitic and some have said Pomarine. I didn't identify it, but I've got it as jaeger species. Just as we got back to the state park, Dennis called to tell us that there was a Black Skimmer on the Okay Levee. We raced around there to see an immature Black Skimmer, a different bird than the adult Charles had seen the day before. Three legit storm birds and a very rare jaeger can really boost a year list.

Dardanelle Gulls

Sabine's Gull is a very rare migrant through the interior, but the best time to see one is in the fall. In Arkansas, Charles Mills has found lots of them at Millwood, and more recently Kenny Nichols has found a few at Dardanelle. I knew that I would have to make a trip to one of those two lakes to get that bird. On September 12th, Kenny found a Sabine's at Dardanelle. I was there the next day to see it. After looking at the Sabine's, we birded around the lake to see if Huricane Ike had left any storm birds. We didn't find any storm birds other than Laughing Gulls. We went back to the Nichols Bird Observatory and spotted a strange looking gull in with a bunch of terns. It was a long way off, so we headed to Delaware Rec. Area to get a better look. We couldn't judge size, and so we were unsure if it was a Bonaparte's or Little gull. Kenny went to eat lunch (after all, he didn't need a Little Gull). Dan Scheiman and Don Simons showed up to look at the Sabine's Gull, and I got them on the other gull. The bird finally got closer, and we identified it as a Little Gull! I think half the birders in Arkansas showed up to see that thing. I ended September with 307 birds.

October and November

There were only a few birds that I could get in October and November. Yellow Rails are seen during very late rice harvests in Arkansas. It just so happened that I knew a farmer in Desha County who had planted rice after wheat, in June. They cut that rice on October 26th, and I was there watching for flushing rails. I saw a lot of Soras, and some Virginias, then I had a bobcat run right by me. I saw some more Soras, and some more Virginias, and after watching for about 3 hours, the combine flushed up a Yellow Rail. 308.

Another bird that is easiest to get in October is Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow. I thought I would try Bald Knob because there is a lot of good habitat there. I trudged through several fields that had flooded smartweeds and panicum grass without seeing any Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows. I flushed a bunch of Le Conte's, a couple of Soras, and an American Bittern. I found another field with some more good looking habitat, and after flushing some more Le Conte's, up popped a Nelson's.

November didn't give me anything but American Woodcock, and that was while I was on the job. It didn't matter, it was year bird #310.

December

When December rolled around, I had 2 "gimmes" left on my list: Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Henslow's Sparrow. I eventually got both of those. I heard that there was a Broad-billed Hummingbird, but it disappeared. Remarkably, it showed up at someone else's feeder and they graciously allowed birders to see it. One day, I emailed Nick Anich my list of most probable birds, and I added that someone out there must have a Rufous Hummingbird. Karma was on my side, and I had a message from Dan Scheiman about a Rufous Hummingbird in East End within an hour. Dennis Braddy called to report 2 Western Grebes at Lake DeGray. I ended up getting the grebes and a Pacific Loon down there that was found on the Christmas Bird Count. By hanging around Kenny Nichols and Paul Lehman, I picked up Common Merganser and Golden Eagle at Dardanelle and Holla Bend, respectively.

I ended the year with 318 birds, 23 chases, and 295 birds found on my own or by my birding party.

Misses

Every Big Year is going to have some missed birds. By my count, there were 13 species seen in Arkansas in 2008 that I did not see. Some of them, like Red Crossbill, were not chase-able. Others stuck around for a little while, but for one reason or another I did not see them. The Chestnut-collared Longspur that Charles Mills found was around for a few days, but I was working. Long-tailed Ducks showed up but both were gone the next day. The Black-legged Kittiwake found by Doris and Dottie Boyles in December 2007 was still around until early January, but I didn't know it was still there.

The biggest misses I had were Ruddy Turnstone, which I get just about every year, and the Long-tailed Duck. Another one that sticks out is the Long-billed Curlew that Joe Neal found in April that was gone the next day.

Thanks

Thanks to everyone I mentioned above for all the help. If I forgot to mention someone, I am sorry, and thank you.

Special thanks to Dennis Braddy for helping to modernize Arkansas birding. His real time reporting is very helpful to everyone who birds in Arkansas. He also found some really good birds this year, like Black Skimmer and Western Grebe.

Thanks to Ron Howard for being up for any birding trip anytime. Persistence and skill make good birders, and Ron is an excellent birder.

Thanks to Charles Mills for helping me out. Charles has a great birding spot in his neck of the woods and nothing seems to get past him.

Thanks to Kenny and LaDonna Nichols for all their help. A Big Year is not possible in Arkansas without their help. They did not have to help me, but they did. They let me know about every bird as soon as possible. Luckily, they are good friends of mine, and they realize that when they get ready to do another Big Year, I'll help them in every way I can.

Thanks to my wife, Sarah, for letting me get away with this.

Dick Baxter
Jonesboro, Arkansas
dickbaxter100@GMAIL.COM
http://www.pbase.com/dickbaxter