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