Big Year Extravaganza

Big Year Extravaganza

As the summer of 2010 came to a close, when fall migration was almost upon us, I received an email from Jerry Butler saying that he would like to bird Craighead Forest Park to try and see some of the many warbler species the park boasts during migration. I asked my parents if I could show him around the park and they thought it would be a great idea.

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.

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.