Hi All,

I literally just returned from a long weekend of attempted birding in and
around Brinkley, Arkansas.  I say "attempted" because I arrived in Arkansas
as nasty weather was settling into the area.  It was gray and dismal during
all of my stay, and Saturday and Sunday were punctuated with freezing rain,
snow, and sleet.  Now this weather doesn't sound like much to an Ohioan,
however to Arkansans this means the end of the world.  Arkansas is a state
that is not equipped to deal with snow and frozen, ice-covered, roads (and
don't even get me started on trying to find an ice-scraper for
windshields).  Between Brinkley, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee it was
reported that there were over 100 accidents along the interstate; mostly
because Arkansans don't know how to drive in those weather conditions (I'll
reserve my comments about their driving in general ;o).  Of course,
naturally, the day I leave Arkansas the TV weather people were forecasting
to be sunny, clear skies, with highs in the forties, and it was only
supposed to get better as the week progressed.

Weather aside I did get some birding in, and needless to say I did NOT find
the Ivory-billed Woodpecker; however I have whetted my appetite for a
future return to this amazing area.  I can't relate to you enough
how "birdy" this area is (there were birds everywhere).  One of my first
stops was to the Stuttgart airport, southeast of Little Rock.  My target
species was the Smith's Longspurs that over-winter at the airport.  I was
able to find the Longspurs pretty quickly, but, unfortunately, was unable
to get any photos of them.  Thursday was a very windy day, which made
birding and photography tricky.  Additionally, the longspurs themselves are
a little tricky to find.  You almost have to be standing on top of them
before they flush.  Once you learn the song (which is reminiscent to the
Meadowlarks...and there were LOTS of them at the airport), and learn to
recognize a few key fieldmarks and behaviors, they become relatively easy
to pull out in flight which enables you to track them to where they come
down on the ground.  Recognizing the behaviors and field marks are crucial
for rapidly sorting them out from the many Savannah sparrows that were
hanging out in the fields as well.  Smith's Longspur turned out to be the
only life bird I saw during the trip, but I had quite a few wow moments.

What were some of my wow moments?

One of my first wow moments was finding a Loggerhead Shrike at the
Stuttgart airport shortly after arriving there.  Loggerhead shrikes turned
out to be surprisingly abundant, and actually perched along powerlines much
in the same way that Kestrels do here in Ohio.  Kestrels were often seen
perched on top of telephone poles, and Red-tails were using tree snags and
man-made structures frequently (though occassionally you'd see one on top
of a telephone pole).

Another wow moment was the abundance of waterfowl in the area.  There were
millions of ducks and geese in the area, though it helps that many of the
fields are flooded so they easily harbor a wide variety of ducks and
geese.  One of the big surprises was driving along the interstate from and
seeing what I thought were thousands of Canada Geese, only to realize that
they were actually thousands of Snow Geese.  Later, on some of the back
roads, I found random fields filled with thousands upon thousands of Snow
Geese so densely packed that they looked like snow in the fields.

Another wow experience was seeing such an abundance of woodpeckers
throughout the area.  I encountered Pileateds, Red-bellieds, Downy, Hairy,
Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, and Red-headed woodpeckers all over the place.
I, unfortunately, struck out on the Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers, in spite of
visiting the area twice.

My final wow moment of the trip was finding a bird perched on top of a pole
in the middle of an agricultural field, that was bordered on all sides by
agricultural fields.  The bird looked odd, but I initially dismissed it as
a Red-tailed Hawk that was hunched over.  As I got closer I started to
realize that the bird in question was actually an owl, but not the kind of
owl I was anticipating it to be (Great Horned or Short-eared Owl).  It
turned out to be a very cooperative Barred Owl that allowed me to park and
get some photos with my scope.

In spite of losing two days to snow and ice it was still a very interesting
trip and I definitely want to return because the habitat is very
fascinating.

To take a look at some of the photos I took while I was down there visit:
http://birdingbrinkleyarkansas.blogspot.com/

I apologize for the photo quality, but like I said, it was gray and
overcast the entire time.

I'll probably be posting some more thoughts about this trip and the general
search for the Ivory-bill later, but in the meantime feel free to enjoy the
photos.

Thanks & Happy Birding!

Casey