Thursday, December 30, 2010

Barred owl goes to work at 5 p.m. on December 29, 2010, at World Peace Wetland Prairie

Please click on link to ENLARGE view of barred owl hunting from hackberry limb over World Peace Wetland Prairie at 5 p.m. December 29, 2010.



Saturday, December 25, 2010

Buckeye butterfly on Liatris on September 19, 2010, at World Peace Wetland Prairie

Please click on image to ENLARGE view.

Immature male cardinal eating ambrosia seeds on September 16, 2010

Please click on individiual images to ENLARGE.
September and October are feasting months for locally fledged birds as well as the hoards of migrating birds that find Ambrosia trifida a special native treat in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The importance of allowing native plants to go to seed and remain standing as "feeders with legs" cannot be overemphasized.




Thursday, December 23, 2010

Monday, December 20, 2010

Joe Neal recounts news from annual Christmas bird count

It’s fun to walk around in the cold dark. We started Fayetteville’s CBC day, December 19, for owls. I had 18 layers, including 3 coats, and the 4 of us, all suited up, looked 2X our size and could have been penguins. We got the expected owls, then heard a sharp call in the dark that sounded like someone had stepped on a cat's tail. Was that a Long-eared Owl??? I stayed warm, but by mid-morning, with sun, I felt like I was wearing, or maybe cooking in, a crock pot. But, hey, it's the second half of December and who is complaining??? 
 
And:
--Despite some last minute scrambling to get parties into our traditional sectors;
--Despite some unexpected stress & illness;
--Despite remarkably mild, warm, sunny, calm weather that makes it a joy to be outdoors, BUT can really put the proverbial chill on a CBC;
--Despite missing species we expect or least sometimes "get": bobwhite, cormorant, Horned Lark, etc;
--Despite needing to arrange things so someone else plays with the kids while mom goes birding--
 
We still crossed the magic 100 species threshhold; 102 it looks like this morning. Possibly a few Count Weeks birds more to come. This is a Great Result for our count. Thanks to Doug James and Elizabeth Adam for allowing us to use their home again for the tally.
 
Big stars of the day: Anna's Hummingbird still coming to the feeder at the home of Sara and Coy Bartlett; a very yellow Palm Warbler that Mike Mlodinow has been seeing since November; a female Red-breasted Merganser tallied by Joanie Patterson's group; a Grasshopper Sparrow seen by Andrew Scaboo and Brandon Schmidt and amazingly photographed by Andy; a fine, black-necked, unmistakable Eared Grebe tallied at Lake Fayetteville, and 3 Greater White-fronted Geese, happily for us, mixed with Canadas.
 
More big stars: all of you public-spirited folks who gave a long day to record and formally document the many earth treasures in our neck of the Ozarks. Thanks for the generosity, wit, intelligence, skill. 
 
So we had a great day with relatively balmy weather, providing no support for the oft-stated hypothesis "good weather equals bad birds" or "bad weather equals good birds." If my math is correct, next year we celebrate the 50th local count, which dates to 1961. We should maybe consider a big party, since 102 (+?) species will be hard to beat.
 

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Jim Bemis speaks at Telecom Board meeting on December 16, 2010



GOVERNMENT CHANNEL SCHEDULE published Friday, December 17, 2010, the day following Telecom Board meeting, does not include Telecom Board meeting video to be run during week of 12/17/2010 through 12/12/2010. Bemis' comments, therefore, will not be shown on Cox Cable or AT&T U-verse until long after the Fayetteville City Council meeting at which the CAT contract will be voted on Tuesday, December 21, 2010.
Please click on individual pages to ENLARGE for easy reading.







Friday, December 17, 2010

Joe Neal hunting waterfowl without a gun!

Andrew Scaboo’s posting about male & female sawbills (Common Merganser) at Bob Kidd Lake near Prairie Grove got me out yesterday. He saw them in the open by the dam. The female was hidden in the shoreline lotus. She flushed suddenly, but didn’t fly. She swam, mostly underwater, across the lake and perched and preened behind a bunch of snags, along the far shoreline. Despite watching her for an hour, I never saw him. I had the impression that her left wing was injured, but I couldn’t tell for sure. Other divers: Ring-necked Duck (14), Lesser Scaup (4), Common Goldeneye (1), Ruddy Duck (17). At one point the goldeneye male swam right past our sawbill. Quite a contrast in color, shape, bill function, and life strategy. Also, one juvenile Bald Eagle.

Powerful cold is great for birding here because smaller bodies of water freeze, concentrating birds, so off I went to Lake Sequoyah. It was only half frozen and unfrozen water was waterfowl. There was constant, pleasant yacking by female Mallards, some standing and walking on ice. I got 10 duck species, with the highest numbers of Mallards and Gadwalls (combined, 300+), but I also saw a high number (74) for another sawbill species, immaculate female and male Hooded Mergansers. Also a big surprise: 3 male Wood Ducks, common through the fall, but not after such weather.

The main part of Lake Fayetteville was open. I saw an immaculate Eared Grebe -- black-looking, with white contrasts even on a heavily overcast day, and an amazingly blood red eye.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

World Peace Wetland Prairie's Earth Day 2010 celebration video

Anna's hummingbird is the star of Joe Neal's Christmas story

Joe Neal writes:
Out of the blue, out of the Far Western Ether, a star is born, a few ounces of feathered reality finds a feeder at a farm near Fayetteville: Anna’s Hummingbird. The world of the western Ozarks in Arkansas has never seen anything like it. Those of us with an interest in such undertake the journey, from afar if necessary, not on camels exactly, but we hear the message, we can’t resist the pull of celestial gravity.

Sara Cain-Bartlett has made her front porch available to both the bird and to visiting birders. Bob and Martha Sargent traveled from afar (Alabama) to band it and to document it in the way of scientists. Observers and photographers have turned the Bartlett front yard into a sacred space. We hope for it on the Fayetteville Christmas Bird Count on December 19.

As curator of bird records for Arkansas Audubon Society, I can tell you in a quantitative way that this bird represents one of a very few records for the whole great Natural State. Despite all the feeders, despite ardent bird watchers, despite the presence in Fayetteville of the Natural State’s greatest institution of higher learnin’, this is the first Anna’s in “these here (Ozark) parts”. So does this mean the world is warming? Does it mean Anna’s has lost its way? Does it mean we have more feeders? Does it mean that despite thinking we know EVERYTHING that needs to be known, we don’t? Maybe there’s still this one thing, a few ounces of feathers and a few thousand miles of travel, that we just don’t know the WHY of?

And, can it survive winter in the Ozarks? Those of you who are connoisseurs of the arcane may appreciate that the same Ozarks now hosting Anna’s in December has also hosted winter Say’s Phoebe, another westerner. One bird has returned three years to a farm in Boone County! We saw one in February during a Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society field trip. On 7 January 2010, I photographed Say’s Phoebe as it foraged alongside a chicken house in the middle of an ice storm. This Anna’s Hummingbird, too, may benefit from the near presence of cover, poultry houses, farm animals, and a welcoming family, not to mention a heat lamp!

As I was taught as a child, the original Christmas story extolled the virtue of hope and possibility in a world where even a pregnant young woman was denied room at the inn. Instead, she gave birth in a manger. Sara could have blocked all of us from coming to her home to see her hummingbird, but didn’t. Bob could have refused to evaluate pictures or to band the bird – but didn’t. Birdwise, it is a season of generosity.

It’s a hopeful sign, when just as we think we know it all, out of the Far West –and straight out of the heart of quantitative improbability -- comes Anna’s Hummingbird. A young male, he’s a creature with star power, on a farm, in a small community, in Arkansas. Birdwise at least, it’s a hopeful season.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Note on tomorrow and Sunday FREE activities for bird enthusiasts from Joe Neal

On Sat, Dec. 4, I am presenting a program at Shiloh Museum starting 11 AM on local birds & my new book. On Sunday, Dec. 5, there is an NWAAS meeting at Nightbird Books starting 6 PM, free & open to the public, with a program on coastal Louisiana presented by Joanie Patterson.

Joe Neal birding report from December 2, 2010

The great virtue of Maysville is that it is as far north and as far west as you can get in Arkansas. Any further north, welcome to Missouri. Any further west, welcome to Oklahoma. Not far to Kansas. When in the 1830s Cherokees were forced west, Maysville was Tallgrass Prairie, a short hop from the Great Plains. Elements of that past remain: decaying pioneer era farm houses (“little houses on the prairie”) and along fencerows and highways, poignant reminders like Big Bluestem grass and Sawtooth Sunflowers.

Some of that old prairie has been turned into soybeans. Harvested fields yesterday were packed with Lapland Longspurs, American Pipits, and Horned Larks, about in that order. I was out of the car watching a dark chocolate colored red-tail (4 for the day) when a cloud of rattling and tewing longspurs sailed over and claimed a harvested bean field. Counting longspurs like this is like counting starlings. I settled on 325, then 325-400, then after 30 minutes of trying, realized I was out of my league. I saw pipits and larks, too, but when I got my scope on the flock it was almost pure, busy longspurs. Sometimes one longspur would perch briefly on a tall bean stalk – a first for me. A quarter mile north, same thing: I counted 415 longspurs on the ground, part of a continuously moving flock.

I’m pleased to report the Maysville Handi-stop has reopened, very good news indeed, because I was ready for a break! To the north, along Wet Prairie Road, at least 43 meadowlarks flew over, including 2-3 Westerns, which were singing and chucking in the warm afternoon sun.

It was a blue sky day with wispy cloud strings and the clouds turned pink at sunset. I was in the going home traffic, but my mind was around Maysville. We live with the conceit that winter longspurs and meadowlarks are some sort of fancy ornaments or oddities in northwest Arkansas. But this is only because we assign to ourselves primary rights to the land. I’m headed to my house and heater, they are out there now, on and of the land, as night comes.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Audubon Arkansas open house coming up December 10, 2010


Audubon Arkansas - Long White
Wishing You Happy Holidays!!!


Please Join Us

Friday, December 10, 2010
From 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at
34 East Center Street
Fayetteville, Arkansas
 
For the
Audubon Arkansas
Holiday Open House
 
The staff and board of Audubon Arkansas invite you to join us for food, refreshments, conversation and conservation. Spouses, children, and friends welcome.
Please RSVP to 
mviney@audubon.org

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Joe Neal and the loons of Lake Tenkiller

  • fun with loons‏
  • Opening Day for Loon Season in Arkansas caught me unprepared. Loon Opening, often early-to-mid-October, found me with a dusty spotting scope buried deep in the closet. Loons are scope work, but with one quick shirttail wipe and my trusty black Sharpie to X out all previously agreed-to appointments written on my calendar, I was ready to go forth and screw my good right eye to the 30 power eyepiece. For sure I was late for season opening, but fear not! 

Now it’s ALL about cold wind, big water, objects seen and unseen and imagined, near and far, about the possibility that the Far North –or maybe it was early Santa and his reindeer -- has delivered unto us some very cool freight in the form of rare birds.

2 November at Slate Gap on north side of Beaver Lake: 2 Common Loons
11 November at Lost Bridge North and South on Beaver Lake: 5 Common Loons
18 November at Indian Creek on Beaver Lake: 17 Common Loons
20 November at Lake Fayetteville on NWA Audubon Society field trip: 1 Common Loon
22 November at Bob Kidd Lake: 1 Common Loon

For looners, or maybe I should say loonies, in northwestern Arkansas, Tenkiller Lake is a necessary evil of driving and carbon emission. Tenkiller, after all, is one stop shopping for four loon species. Jacque Brown and I made a Saturday pilgrimage, the Day After Black Friday. We got two loon species: at least 65 Common Loons and 3 Pacific Loons. Off and on during the day I was sure we had ‘em all.

For me it’s just axiomatic that with eyeball screwed to eyepiece and brain in loon over-drive, what comes upon me is a vision of almost religious certainty that the pale loon with the big upturned bill is a Yellow-billed. That is, the further away loons are – and they can get VERY far on a big lake-- the more likely I am to turn what’s common into minor miracle. Funny how the closer we get, the more we find the wide range of Common Loon ages and plumages, which is just what you’d expect if the brain’s rational side was engaged. But if it was engaged, why would you even be looking to begin with? Etc.

After all the driving and all the scope work, I’m just plain nutty. Isn’t all this pretty extreme? Edgy? Here it’s Black Friday Weekend, just a day or two before Cyber Monday, and what am I doing? Why, I’m out having fun with loons! They’ve flown a long ways to get here, out of the ice and snow, and I’ve driven long to get away, far away, reasonably and even unreasonably, from Black Friday Weekend, not to mention to upcoming Cyber Monday. 

‘Tis the season, after all, to buy-buy-buy. But all the holiday hubbub ‘mongst the superior species is not evident in a big loon raft. I don’t hear a single Christmas jingle, but loons are yodeling and barking in warm afternoon sun. Myself, I’m thinking new scope, if only in my dreams. I’m wondering if ole Saint Nick has heard about the new enviro-smily HD glass? And way, way out there, near the far shore, isn’t that a Red-throated?

Friday, November 19, 2010

Lake Fayetteville site of November 20, 2010, Audubon outing, reports Joe Neal: Outing list for 2011 available on Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society's Web site at link below.

Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society will host a field trip to Lake Fayetteville tomorrow (Saturday) starting 9 AM, with a meet-up in the parking lot on the north end of the dam. Hopefully, the cold front added waterfowl and nice weather will make it comfortable to see them.
>
> NWAAS has a field trip schedule for 2011. Our webmaster, Richard Stauffacher now has it available on the NWAAS web page. Once you get there look for the 2011 trips toward the bottom of this page: http://www.nwarkaudubon.org/id4.html




2011 FIELD TRIPS

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS AUDUBON SOCIETY



All NWAAS field trips are free and open to the public. Membership in NWAAS is not a requirement. We try to make our field trips accessible to everyone, all ages & all abilities. Additional details & updates about trips are sent via email a few weeks before the announced date. We try to have field trips on Saturdays and Sundays to accommodate different schedules. For maps and more information about these places, check the Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society web site

http://www.nwarkaudubon.org/index.html and the section “Places to bird in northwest Arkansas.”



January 22, 2010 (Saturday). Rocky Branch on Beaver Lake and Hobbes State Park-Conservation Area. Meet at 9 AM at Hobbes SP for a caravan down to Rocky Branch (5 miles). We will be looking for all kinds of water birds. We will return to the park by noon (bring your lunch if you are staying). We will bird in the upland shortleaf pines in the area near the park visitor’s center. http://media.tripod.lycos.com/2020453/1439095.pdf



February 19, 2011 (Saturday evening). American Woodcock field trip to Wedington Wildlife Management Area (Ozark NF west of Fayetteville). Field trip led by woodcock expert David Krementz. Meeting time: 5:30 PM at Wedington WMA. http://media.tripod.lycos.com/2020453/977213.pdf



March 26, 2011 (Saturday). Trip to mature shortleaf pine habitat in the Shores Lake area of Ozark National Forest. Leader is Bill Beall, veteran birder from Ft Smith (and now the NWAAS Treasurer). We will be seeking Brown-headed Nuthatches and other birds typical of pine forests. Meet at 9 AM at the Shores Lake picnic area entrance on the west side of the lake. You can show up earlier if you wish! http://media.tripod.lycos.com/2020453/1439038.pdf



April 17, 2011 (Sunday). Woolsey Wet Prairie and Wilson Springs. Meet at 8 AM in the parking area near the front gates of the wastewater treatment plant. http://media.tripod.lycos.com/2020453/1320803.pdf



May 6 & 7, 2011 (Friday and Saturday). Birder’s Weekend at Devil’s Den State Park. The field trip will be on Saturday May 6; meet at Lee Creek bridge parking area in the park at 9 AM. http://media.tripod.lycos.com/2020453/950081.pdf



May 13 & 14, 2011 (Saturday and Sunday). International Migratory Bird Day in Benton and Washington counties, with additional counts in at least Carroll County. Coordinated by Mike Mlodinow for Washington and Benton counties.



June 5, 2011 (Sunday). Cave Mountain and the upper Buffalo River in Newton County. Meet at the Boxley Bridge at 8 AM.



July 10, 2011 (Sunday). Chesney Prairie Natural Area. Meet at Chesney at 8 AM.  http://media.tripod.lycos.com/2020453/957092.pdf



August 13, 2011 (Saturday). Craig State Fish Hatchery at Centerton. Meet in the parking lot at the hatchery at 8 AM. http://media.tripod.lycos.com/2020453/950078.pdf





September 11, 2011 (Sunday). Lake Atalanta in Rogers. Meet at 9 AM in the parking area near the bathrooms. http://media.tripod.lycos.com/2020453/950077.pdf



October 1, 2011 (Saturday). Ninestone Land Trust in Carroll County. Meet at 9 AM at Ninestone. http://media.tripod.lycos.com/2020453/1287399.pdf



November 20, 2011 (Sunday). Lake Fayetteville. Meet at 9 AM in parking lot on the north end of the dam (near ball fields and entrance to the boat dock). http://media.tripod.lycos.com/2020453/957091.pdf



December 2011. Fayetteville Christmas Bird Count. (Date to be announced.)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Robinville, by Joe Neal, November 17, 2010

Robinville‏

9:00 PM
Reply ▼
joe neal
To ARBIRD list discussion:
Today and for the past few weeks, robins have been our stars for sure. They have so completely occupied Fayetteville that we must change the signs: “Fayetteville, pop. 68,000” to “Robinville, pop. 6 million.” Counting robins in cedar thickets, amur honeysuckle fields, all across the trees and bushes of neighborhoods and parks – I guess it would be like counting stars in the universe. There’s a roost north of Fayetteville; maybe somebody will count them. It could be a career.

Today busy flocks I’ve been seeing and hearing at Lake Fayetteville and along the Scull Creek bike trail had full run of my yard. Robins were vigorously billing aside fall leaves for tasty bits below even in a cool light rain. Robins with swooping flights and sudden twists and turns among limbs and between bushes. Robins in twos in hard tight chases like spring. Flocks overhead in 12s and 20s. Robins in trees, colorful and animated on limbs now bare of leaves.

I’m no musician but that didn’t keep me from trying to compose what I was hearing: bek bek bek bek, gee g g g g geek! Cheery-up cheery-up, wah wah wah, ber ber, che-chet! Robinville is a mobile, seemingly limitless communal soundscape. A fine male perches up close. His is a big dark eye framed by two clean white crescents, set into a black head and an artistic throat of wavy dark and light streaks, like life itself. The “red” breast is fall orange, a harvest orange. I can see his bill opening and closing, so I assume he is singing or I suppose he could be lip synching… Cheery! Cheery! Bick bick bick…

The singing and calling happily obscures College Avenue rush hour in pre-Robinville Fayetteville. But suddenly, silence falls upon the living earth of birds and deadly rush hour resumes it dominance. Why the silence? I’m thinking it’s the little Big Bang. I can see these robins exploding out from a distant spot; maybe not 14 billion light years back as with the big Big Bang, but at least in my neighbor’s yard and out of my sight. Robinville’s Silencer must lurk in the far distant vast thicket, probably Cooper’s Hawk.

But Robinville returns to business-as-usual in 5. Singing and calling, chasing, gobbling down bright red amur honeysuckle berries – that’s the main business today in Robinville.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

aubunique: Please fill out online survey of opinion of perfor...

aubunique: Please fill out online survey of opinion of perfor...: "Greetings Everyone! CAT Performance Survey 2010 As we reach the end of 2010, Community Access Television (CAT) requests the favor of yo..."

Monday, November 8, 2010

Cox Cable pulls surprise on city of Fayetteville, Arkansas, with plan to move public-access, government channel and educational channel to EXPENSIVE digital tier of channels: So much for open government when thousands of people will not be able to afford access to the public channels

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of Cox Cable advertisement in recent issue of The Northwest Arkansas Times.
For several years I have been able to turn away phone and online salesmen wanting me to take the satellite systems and later the Uverse TV system of AT&T. But now Cox has set up a situation that will require me to drop their service and take the Uverse, which will automatically cut my cost because I have AT&T phone service already. Cox has one thing the others don't have: The local public stations at minimal cost. This is the time for the city administration to begin negotiating with COX. This is a draconian measure that will hurt COX in the long run.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Joe Neal's November 7, 2010, report from dawn birding to Lake Fayetteville

It’s on the frosty side this morning at Lake Fayetteville. I see coots and a few grebes, and Canada Geese I can’t see. Wind-wise it’s calm, and for Fayetteville-Springdale, quiet. I hear YA HONK YA HONK, punctuated by a deep, booming, resonating base: basso profondo. That voice resonates the whole world, at least the part I can see & hear. I forget how cold my hands are. Basso is the first chair bass goose in a great choir.

Just behind me and all around the Environmental Study Center are robins: 10 acres (maybe more) of caroling, chuckling, and some singing. They’re in honey suckle bushes plucking red berries, chugging down hackberries from up in trees. In bunches of 5-6 and 10, they perch and vocalize away, maybe like me, waiting for sun-up. There is welcome light above the trees by 8:00, and more robins flying in from the blue north in dozens, all silver underneath, reflecting new sun.

Usually I don’t have trouble feeling glad to be alive, but I have my times and don’t we all? This morning there is basso profondo and Turdus migratorius as reminders, if nothing else. But I’m not done.

I heard soft WHO WHOs of a female Great Horned Owl when I first arrived. Now I hear raucous CAWs of 5 excited American Crows, coming from the same area. All the cawing tells me they found ‘em an owl. Little better defines our crows than owl parties. The resulting uproars add charm to the landscape. Mall and freeway may not be far away, but it remains a wild place with an owl and a pack of hyper excited crows.

Beyond geese, robins, and an owl-crow event lay brushy old fields. In the bright fall sunlight, Fox Sparrows sing the morning: sure cheer CHEER WEE WEE cheerEE. Then, from thickets, when I try to move in for a close look, CHOCK CHOCK.

This afternoon there is a memorial for my old friend, Eleanor Johnson, who passed at 99. I knew her for 40 years. Among many good causes she supported was Arkansas Audubon Society. Her motto was, “One person’s problem is every person’s problem.” She walked the walk. I think the singing this morning is for her, and her kind, who notice the world is a complex place, and leave it a little better than they found it.   

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Joe Neal's newest book a compilation of wonderful outdoor essays he has shared with birding friends by email in recent years

While reading a few of Joe Neal's birding essays about dawn today while wondering how many species of migrating and year-round resident birds were creating the euphony in the trees and thickets in our yard and the surrounding World Peace Wetland Prairie, I stopped to share a link for those who may want to read Joe's work, and also to mention that you too can attract more wildlife to your yard by encouraging native plants to grow to provide berries, seeds and insects.

New from Half Acre Press!

A Little Lazarus
poems by Mendy Knott

Join us for a booksigning and reception
Thursday, October 14 at 7 pm
at Nightbird Books on Dickson in Fayetteville

Mendy Knott’s poetry is full of imagery and metaphor, thick with the juicy stuff of the senses. Part narrative,part song, these are poems about the physical body, the blood of sacrifice, an unforgettable communion of spirits—human and otherwise.

Coming Soon!

The Birdside Baptist
And Other Ornithological Mysteries
by Joseph C. Neal
In The Birdside Baptist, Joe Neal sees the world through a birder’s binoculars, but also through the eyes of an Arkansan who was brought up wearing shiny black shoes to five church services every week. These collected essays, originally written for fellow subscribers of a birders’ listserve, are reports from the field spanning eight years, from 2002 to 2010. Illustrated with Neal’s crisp photographs, he paints a rich landscape of plants, animals, and human history, including the struggle of a community to balance booming development and environmental stewardship.

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Monday, October 25, 2010

Guest column from Dave's Garden newsletter

Happy Wildlife Habitat (Small birds in a small garden)

By Deb Magnes
October 19, 2010
Other than pictures, words will have to do. The main thing was this; In creating a place in the garden for them, even in this small place, a peaceful and safe habitat has grown into existence. Once you are marked on their migration map, they do not forget you.

Gardening picture
(Editor's Note: This article was originally published on October 22, 2007. Your comments are welcome, but please be aware that authors of previously published articles may not be able to promptly respond to new questions or comments.)
   From east to west small birds descend southward for the cooler months. Some make it all the way to South America, some to Mexico, and some say Texas is just right by staying for the entire winter! This has been a real joy in my most recent years of bird watching. There are four of these I will attempt to spotlight in separate articles. I have chosen certain small and very wild birds because they represent a cross section of small insect eating birds, and if you live in the US, you are bound to see at least one of these every year. The chances increase highly when some part of the garden is geared toward the lower end of the food chain. Here I have accomplished this by planting larval host plants in my back yard. All summer the benefits abound with various resident birds and native butterflies. Yet when fall and winter come there are a few new characters here in the wings that bear more distinction as you will see.
   They are mainly small non-gregarious birds, which is all the more intriguing for the fortitude and navigational skill they must have to survive flying back and forth solo over so many miles. To hear of them is a delight, to read about them is fascinating! To see them in my own back yard, priceless! This came as a surprise after many years of raising butterflies in conjunction with bird watching. By enlarging their territory it has become a reality that I look forward to every winter. When most folks are putting up their gardening tools and bundling up plants, so am I. However all the while looking over my shoulder for the return of these little garden sweethearts.
Image
   Late last summer (September 2006), I caught a glimpse of a little yellow bird in one of the front yard trees. Managing to snap a blurry picture (left), I was able to make a positive identification of him as Wilson's Warbler. He was diligently on his way to Central America, and had stopped to find food and water. Even the short visit had a very endearing effect on my memory. Possibly even capturing a bit of the excitement Alexander Wilson must have had upon seeing one of them for the first time.
   Which brings us to September 3 of this year, looking out over the small garden in back resting from the day's work. Out of my periphery I was struck by the movement of something bright and yellow in the back corner Privet shrub. I sat very still as the small yellow bird spiraled up to a tree closer to me. Right over my shoulder in fact. Here it was, a whole year later and another Wilson's!! Definitely a different one, it was a young male this time. I was able to take a series of about 10 photographs, during which he flit off the branch to capture a damselfly landing right back on the same branch. Looking for more, he was not so much worried about me there snapping the pictures.Image
   This warbler can be seen all throughout the contiguous states during spring and fall migration times. They cover inhabitable land in Canada from east to west during the summer while breeding, and spend our winter in Central America. I'm happy to add that there is no concern of them becoming extinct at this time, plus these little guys produce up to 6 eggs in a clutch. So your chances of seeing one where you live and garden are getting better all the time. Although they are more abundant in the western states. Just keep a good lookout at their migratory times at the zone you live in. You will likely learn when that time is by a significant sign of summer's, or winter's, last leg. Knowing when the last leg of those 2 seasons is up to you in your own zone. They must set out on their journey in plenty of time to cross the whole USA well before winter begins going south, and likewise way before summer begins going north.
   The secret to drawing them, if there be one, lies in the lower organisms of the garden. Planting larval host plants has been a major part of that here, and many native plants are among those. Birds can see the trails of their best habitats from the air and from far Imageaway. They will visit gardens using large trees and shrubbery for exclamation landmarks. They know that when they get to where those plants are they will find a non-toxic edible smorgasbord of protein. A few species of the smaller birds will eat meal worms from a feeder, however most of the wilder small birds enjoy a good fight before eating. This is actually quite critical to the wild birds for knowing their catch is safe to eat by how lively it is. This is also because they fancy themselves as big wild game hunters.
   It is an incredible joy to have evolved this small back yard over time, and see the free creatures where they live. Their coming here is a higher compliment to my garden than all the Jones's accolades. It is difficult to explain. Other than pictures, words will have to do. The main thing was this; In creating a place in the garden for them, even in this small place, a peaceful and safe habitat has grown into existence. Once you are marked on their migration map, they do not forget you. Better yet, keep it wild enough there in your own garden, and see for yourself!


Links of interest:
Bird Watching Forum (right here on Dave's Garden Web)
Field Guides:

  About Deb Magnes  
Deb MagnesDebnes has been retired since her youngest of 4 was born. Now she has spent any spare moments researching every sort of life in the garden. Furthermore writing for about 10 years, on subjects of faith, plants, and wildlife, and it all revolves around the garden. In the process of pursuing several of her life's passions, she found some real treasures in practical every day life. It's where she confirmed that everything on earth, be it thought or matter, sows a seed.

Printed at http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/printstory.php?rid=201

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Joe Neal's report from Saturday

Lynn Sciumbato of Morning Star Wildlife Rehabilitation Center near Gravette brought her big birds to Shiloh Museum in Springdale yesterday. The occasion was Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society’s annual program of nature photography plus conversations with bird guys and gals. She shared an hour of fact and humor concerning birds and people. A mesmerizing story teller, Lynn has a real tale to tell about northwest Arkansas and big birds to tell it with. 
 
The core of these stories revolves around individual personalities of birds. With her favorite bird, a Turkey Vulture name Igor literally in hand, she shares Igor’s story, which began 11 years ago, when Igor was one day out of the egg. With the successful humorist’s pregnant pauses, voice inflection rising and laughing, facial features varying from remarkable to quizzical and natural timing—that chuckle or sudden silence— we learn Igor is not a buzzard and how calm Igor is compared to many other big birds. 
 
As Lynn puts it, some want raptors want to tear you up, but Igor and his kind just sort of look at you and say “duh…” Then she moves on to hawks and owls. 
 
Of yes, did I mention she is an expert, with decades of experience working with all kinds of raptors, song birds, small mammals, and the odd reptile that has come her way? And a retired school teacher?
 
She brought Ginny, a 7 year old Red-tailed Hawk. Lynn calls her the “diva bird…nothing makes her happy” and we soon have Ginny’s story. She was hand-reared for falconry and treated then like a queen. But she lost her exalted status in life in a hunting accident. No longer able to fly, the usual outcome is to be “put down.” Instead, Ginny came to Morning Star. Today Diva Bird shares the limelight with Igor. Lynn explains Igor and Ginny also share a cage. Maybe the vulture “duh” will wear off on the dethroned diva. 
 
Nancy Harris from Fayetteville asks Lynn how she protects herself pecked in the face and really hurt? Lynn responds, “Well, do you want to see the scars [much laughter]. As a matter of fact…I don’t really scar…Owls and hawks don’t think to bite. That’s not their first response…this beak is like their knife and fork. It’s for ripping food apart…” Now she segues to difficulty handling really BIG birds, like Bald Eagles, that can get you. 
 
She recalls released of a rehabbed eagle at Beaver Lake. “I was fixing to throw her up in the air and she ripped all the side of my face…I was fixing to fling the bird so I went ahead and flung her… [pause, then laughter] for SEVERAL reasons.” Then she mentions something more common: puncture wounds. “Ah, puncture wounds. You don’t get much sympathy for puncture wounds. They don’t bleed near as well as rips from eagles…” She remembers something else, too. “I have been hurt worse when bitten by a cardinal. Really and truly. I mean, that brings tears to your eyes. They always get you right there…” indicating the sensitive flap of skin between the thumb and forefinger.
 
Before you get the idea that Lynn is just a skilled talker – she’s certainly that – let me mention what a skilled observer she is as well. I noticed that Ginny didn’t have much a “belly band,” a dark band often seen on mature Red-tailed Hawks. I asked about this. They don’t all have it, she explained. In fact there is a huge amount of variation. She recalled a time in the early 1980s in Decatur, at the mega-center of Arkansas’s poultry industry.
 
“They had this huge hawk die-off at this one farm. They were finding hawks everywhere, you know, down or dead. Game and fish called and said, ‘Do you have room for about 25 hawks?’ I said, ‘LUTHER! WHAT!!!???’ There were all these hawks that had gone down on this one farm and we didn’t know what the deal was. We had no idea why they’d all gone down. Finally figured out it was ‘poor poultry husbandry.’ This one farmer had dumped three truck loads of dead chickens. As the predators had gone down towards the bottom, there was botulism…and everybody who was working this pile of dead chickens was dealing with this botulism…I think I got in all totaled 26 hawks…I think 24 of them survived…”
 
“I had all of them in my big flight pen. It was a little crowded. They would all be sitting on the back perch in the back of the flight pen and you would look at all those birds and every one of them was a different color. You know what I mean…the width of the belly band different, or it was a little tiny belly band, or a kind of peachy color…every one of them was different…” 
 
Every bird she gets is an individual. And Lynn is that rare “bird” herself: an unabashed raconteur finding interesting fact and humor at every turn. We’re just fortunate she long ago chose birds in trouble as her source of inspiration. 
 Lynn Sciumbato of Morning Star Wildlife Rehabilitation Center near Gravette brought her big birds to Shiloh Museum in Springdale yesterday. The occasion was Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society’s annual program of nature photography plus conversations with bird guys and gals. She shared an hour of fact and humor concerning birds and people. A mesmerizing story teller, Lynn has a real tale to tell about northwest Arkansas and big birds to tell it with. 
 
The core of these stories revolves around individual personalities of birds. With her favorite bird, a Turkey Vulture name Igor literally in hand, she shares Igor’s story, which began 11 years ago, when Igor was one day out of the egg. With the successful humorist’s pregnant pauses, voice inflection rising and laughing, facial features varying from remarkable to quizzical and natural timing—that chuckle or sudden silence— we learn Igor is not a buzzard and how calm Igor is compared to many other big birds. 
 
As Lynn puts it, some want raptors want to tear you up, but Igor and his kind just sort of look at you and say “duh…” Then she moves on to hawks and owls. 
 
Of yes, did I mention she is an expert, with decades of experience working with all kinds of raptors, song birds, small mammals, and the odd reptile that has come her way? And a retired school teacher?
 
She brought Ginny, a 7 year old Red-tailed Hawk. Lynn calls her the “diva bird…nothing makes her happy” and we soon have Ginny’s story. She was hand-reared for falconry and treated then like a queen. But she lost her exalted status in life in a hunting accident. No longer able to fly, the usual outcome is to be “put down.” Instead, Ginny came to Morning Star. Today Diva Bird shares the limelight with Igor. Lynn explains Igor and Ginny also share a cage. Maybe the vulture “duh” will wear off on the dethroned diva. 
 
Nancy Harris from Fayetteville asks Lynn how she protects herself pecked in the face and really hurt? Lynn responds, “Well, do you want to see the scars [much laughter]. As a matter of fact…I don’t really scar…Owls and hawks don’t think to bite. That’s not their first response…this beak is like their knife and fork. It’s for ripping food apart…” Now she segues to difficulty handling really BIG birds, like Bald Eagles, that can get you. 
 
She recalls released of a rehabbed eagle at Beaver Lake. “I was fixing to throw her up in the air and she ripped all the side of my face…I was fixing to fling the bird so I went ahead and flung her… [pause, then laughter] for SEVERAL reasons.” Then she mentions something more common: puncture wounds. “Ah, puncture wounds. You don’t get much sympathy for puncture wounds. They don’t bleed near as well as rips from eagles…” She remembers something else, too. “I have been hurt worse when bitten by a cardinal. Really and truly. I mean, that brings tears to your eyes. They always get you right there…” indicating the sensitive flap of skin between the thumb and forefinger.
 
Before you get the idea that Lynn is just a skilled talker – she’s certainly that – let me mention what a skilled observer she is as well. I noticed that Ginny didn’t have much a “belly band,” a dark band often seen on mature Red-tailed Hawks. I asked about this. They don’t all have it, she explained. In fact there is a huge amount of variation. She recalled a time in the early 1980s in Decatur, at the mega-center of Arkansas’s poultry industry.
 
“They had this huge hawk die-off at this one farm. They were finding hawks everywhere, you know, down or dead. Game and fish called and said, ‘Do you have room for about 25 hawks?’ I said, ‘LUTHER! WHAT!!!???’ There were all these hawks that had gone down on this one farm and we didn’t know what the deal was. We had no idea why they’d all gone down. Finally figured out it was ‘poor poultry husbandry.’ This one farmer had dumped three truck loads of dead chickens. As the predators had gone down towards the bottom, there was botulism…and everybody who was working this pile of dead chickens was dealing with this botulism…I think I got in all totaled 26 hawks…I think 24 of them survived…”
 
“I had all of them in my big flight pen. It was a little crowded. They would all be sitting on the back perch in the back of the flight pen and you would look at all those birds and every one of them was a different color. You know what I mean…the width of the belly band different, or it was a little tiny belly band, or a kind of peachy color…every one of them was different…” 
 
Every bird she gets is an individual. And Lynn is that rare “bird” herself: an unabashed raconteur finding interesting fact and humor at every turn. We’re just fortunate she long ago chose birds in trouble as her source of inspiration. 
 

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Audubon photo contest winners' works to be on display at Shiloh Museum on Saturday


I know this is not a field trip, exactly, but in case you hadn't heard about this already:

This Saturday, October 16, 2010, 1 to 4 pm, at the Shiloh Museum in Springdale, the Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society is displaying Annual Nature Photo Contest winners. In addition, Lynn Sciumbato will present a program featuring live hawks and owls. There will also be a question and answer session by Bird Guys, Dr. Doug James and Joe Neal, authors of Arkansas Birds. The event is free and open to the public. If you have any questions, call 479-575-6364.

Since the program doesn't start until 1 PM, there's PLENTY of time for some good early morning birding before Shiloh.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Field trip to Woolsey Wet Prairie


NWAAS Field Trip to Woolsey Wet Prairie
Share · Public Event


Time
Sunday, October 17 · 9:00am - 5:30pm

LocationBroyles Ave - Fayetteville

Created By

More InfoNorthwest Arkansas Audubon Society will host a field trip to Woolsey Wet Prairie in Fayetteville on Sunday October 17, 2010. Meet on site at 9 AM.

The trip will be lead by Dr Andrew Scaboo, who has studied birds there from the beginning. This is an open brushy and grassy area with shallow pools. All kinds of open country species can be expected. Expect easy walking on earthen levees; boots are a good idea, but not necessary.

The meeting place is in front of the main gate area of the westside wastewater treatment plant on Broyles Ave. There's lots more information and directions on the NWAAS website. Go to nwarkaudubon.org; when you get there, look on the left hand side for Places to bird in Northwest Arkansas. Go there and look for the Woolsey Wet Prairie guide. Lots more information on what birds to expect are in National Audubon's ebird site (look for WWP in the Arkansas hot spots).

*Photo: Nelson's Sparrow at Woolsey Wet Prairie by Joe Neal*

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Joe Neal's report for October 9, 2010


  • love in the wasteland (Vaughn 9 Oct 2010)‏

12:24 PM
To ARBIRD list discussion, Aubrey Shepherd, Beth Lowrey, BEVERLY MADDOX, Bill Beall, Burnetta Hinterthuer, Chris Kellner, Douglas A. James, geddessylvia@yahoo.com, Jacqueline Froelich, Joe Woolbright, Joel Funk, lisa riley, Louise Mann, Lynn Armstrong, Mary Bess Mulhollan, Nancy Harris, Paige Mulhollan, R and M Stauffacher, Shane Woolbright, Susan And Liz, Susan Young, TERRY STANFILL, VINEY, Michelle, Warren Fields
My ambition this morning was to get up to Centerton for sparrows, and maybe a Dunlin, but never made it, waylaid instead by reality. First, it was foggy. Around the time I reached Vaughn the sun was just barely up, and a kind of pink light suffused the fog. I passed an old chicken house, admiring the broad old artistically weathered boards exposed when the tin siding fell off. A big hole that used to be a window was filled with pink light, except for the space occupied by the head of a black and white milk cow. This seemed a promising start.

I still couldn’t see anything across the big fields, but I could hear the Eastern Meadowlark version of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They sang all around (“surround sound” is how they market this, I think), with support from KEE DEE KEE DEE – Killdeers from an invisible, but audible, farm pond. I pulled up right there and listened for a while, thinking I might hear a first of season Western Meadowlark, but didn’t. A few sparrows flushed up on the barbed wire, near enough that I could see them – Savannah Sparrow (2), Grasshopper Sparrow (1).

Still not to Centerton, BUT the day is young, and it’s not so far to “Weedy Estates,” a big flopped subdivision where in the get-rich-quick daze of three years ago, 80 acres were dozed to bare red dirt, streets pushed in, curbed but not paved, forlorn utility hook-ups marooned and deteriorating, plumbing scattered all over the place. So instead of Centerton, I’m headed for Weedy Estates.

The joys of trash dumping in Weedy Estates have been discovered (tires, car parts, yard waste). The unpaved streets are growing gullies. Spaces dozed and flattened for mansionettes are festively decked out in a variety of composities (daisy fleabane, for example), plus poke, persimmon sprouts, and the odd, isolated oak tree. The open country birds obviously love the place. I saw 15 Scissor-tailed Flycatchers carrying on in a fine racket in one tiny tree out in the middle. Enjoying them, I noticed one small bird tail-flipping, then a second, and soon had 2-3 more – Palm Warblers (4-5). Composites sheltered Common Yellowthroats, House Wrens, a Marsh Wren, several Indigo Buntings (including one with a lot of blue), Lincoln’s Sparrow, and other stuff I missed. 

Mentally I took note of the obvious beauties of a seemingly bankrupted subdivision. I summarize as follows: (1) lots of interesting weeds (butterflies and botany); (2) rocky bare dirt (Lark Sparrows); (3) very open (American kestrel); (4) relatively quiet – no lawn mowers, leaf blowers, weed eaters, or Harleys; (5) unfinished roads perfect for easy slow-walk sparrow birding; (6) isolated trees great for hawk perches; (7) a moonscape, a wilderness uninhabited as the moon itself; (8) big open weedy fields perfect for Savannah Sparrows – oops! – just saw 3 in one of those dried up composites! (9) scattered poke bushes (there are 2 Palm Warblers!); (10) no street signs, so I make ‘em up as I go: “Scissor-tailed Perch,” “Palm Warbler Poke,” “Kestrel Vista.” Long may they show the way.

It’s up to mid-morning and the illustrious pink fog is gone -- in fact all of the fog is gone. It’s another drop-dead-beautiful fall day. Then, in the warm light, monarchs stir in the low sheltering atmospheres of tall weeds not planned for these 80 acres, but which now belong almost exclusively to them.