Bird Walk and Boat Trip to Bird Island

What a beautiful early morning at Lake Arrowhead State Park for the monthly bird walk. Driving into the entrance to the park, I saw a large white-tailed deer doe standing on the side of the road.

Only one person came besides me, but it was still a reasonable morning for the middle of summer. Before the other person came, I heard a painted bunting and an eastern phoebe. Unfortunately, we didn't get them again.

On our walk, we saw: green heron, great blue heron, little blue heron, snowy egret, great egret, killdeer, Canada goose, mourning dove, Eurasian collared dove, red-bellied woodpecker, northern mockingbird, house finch, red-winged blackbird, great-tailed grackle, scissor-tailed flycatcher, cliff swallow, and barn swallow. We also saw some peeps from a distance that we couldn't identify for certain.

Bill Coombs, who lives on Lake Arrowhead and is part of Friends of Lake Arrowhead State Park, volunteered his pontoon boat to take us out to "Bird Island." This is a large rookery, with nesting herons and egrets of all kinds. We added cattle egret, double crested cormorant, mallard and turkey vulture there. Bill also provided some history of the lake.

When I got back to shore, I heard a bird up in one of the mesquite trees on the way back to the car. After listening and looking carefully, I found a cardinal's nest inside a large clump of mistletoe. Driving out I noted some lark sparrows along the road.

On my way back to town, I passed a red-tailed hawk on the ground next to the road on FM 1954.

It was really getting oppressively hot by 9:00 AM when I left the park.

Good birding!

Interesting Articles on Painted Buntings and Titmice

Painted bunting photo courtesy of Doug Jenson, Wikimedia Commons.

Two wonderful little birds in our area are the Painted Bunting and Tufted Titmouse. The recent edition of the occasional Oklahoma Biological Survey Newsletter has interesting articles on each of these birds (as well as other topics.)

I had a talk with someone recently about painted buntings. Many people aren't aware of these colorful birds in our area because they inhabit the county, not the city. I have had a female at my feeders before in spring migration, but it was only for a day and she hightailed it out of town into the surrounding countryside. This is the time of year, the painted buntings are leaving us for their wintering grounds (see the article cited above).

We do get to keep the tufted titmouse all year around and we do have both the tufted and black-crested species. Whether we are in the hybridizatioin area mentioned in the newsletter article, I am not sure.

It's always a good birding day when seeing or hearing either of these birds.

By the way, if you're interested in receiving notice when the Oklahoma Biological Survey newsletter is published, you can email Amy Buthod at amybouthod@ou.edu to be placed on the distribution list.

Good birding!

Breeding Bird Survey--Charlie/Byers Area

Yesterday I dragged my husband out for the breeding bird survey of the route that begins in Charlie, TX. He's not a real morning person, but he will go with me if I am short a partner as the routes are somewhat remote.

Nothing extra special on this route, although it was still a good day. I was glad to note that the property with the prairie dog town on it had not yet plowed the field--the owner had indicated they were going to do so, and I was hoping they would hold off until after the burrowing owl nesting. It appears they did and we did see a couple of burrowing owls as a consequence--always a treat.

As with the Beaver Creek route, there were a lot of painted buntings--most heard, but several seen.

Another great morning of birding--now all I have to do is get the reports done (sigh...)

Good birding!