Birding west

Another summer living the life of a bird bum, counting birds for a living for the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory (RMBO). I'll be heading up to BCR17 in the Dakotas again this year, but first it's to Fort Collins to work in the office for a couple weeks doing landowner contacts and field season prep. So I packed up my car and hit the road west from NC. I had four days to make the drive, enough time to hit several good birding areas on the way west. So, I decided to do something different this year and head out through Arkansas and Oklahoma before cutting up into Colorado. From Chattanooga, i took US72 down through northern Alabama and Mississippi before hitting Memphis. A few quick stops here and there netted me some state birds in both: now it's AL 81 and MS 63! A ways to go still. I thoroughly enjoy "state birding" on road trips, as it gets me to places I likely wouldn't go otherwise and gives me something to occupy myself with: important if you are going at it solo. I made it all the way past Little Rock, AR that first day where I found a comfy interstate rest area to park my car at for the night that was near my first destination for the following morning: Holla Bend NWR.

What a great place it was. Located in a bend in the Arkansas River, the refuge contains a wealth of habitats including bottomland forest, agricultural, second-growth, and ponds. So as a result, you can imagine that bird diversity would be quite high, particularly in spring. I had 95 species in about 4 1/2 hours of birding, which made for a dang good morning of birding! Breeders were mostly back here, with Kentucky Warblers stealing the show- there were so many of them singing in bottomland areas that I just couldn't get away from them! Transient species were coming through as well, with Nashville Warblers being numerous and Tennessee Warblers here and there as well. I left here around 10:30 or so and decided to visit Mount Magazine State Park, which is about an hour or so west of the refuge. Mount Magazine State Park is home to the highest point in Arkansas, Signal Hill at 2753 feet, as well as an isolated population of Rufous-crowned Sparrows that make their living in the arid, rocky slopes above the bluffs. The wind was killer during my visit, and the sparrows didn't show for me. But was a great place to visit nevertheless, and they have some cabins at the top which would make for a nice weekend getaway.

View from Overlook Dr. at Mount Magazine State Park (note the people on top of the bluffs for scale)

I picked up I-40 again in Fort Smith, where I picked up my state Missisippi Kite before crossing the border into Oklahoma. It wasn't long before I had a run-in with an Oklahoma state trooper, who wasn't a fan of my "I'd rather be birding" license plate frame. Actually, he didn't care what it said- just that it covered up too much of my license plate. He was nice about it and was interested in my work, and simply asked me to remove the frame before being on his way. I then stopped at nearby Sequoyah NWR where Blue-winged Teal seemingly blanketed every wetland. The wind was high, and it was mid-afternoon so songbirds weren't really all that obvious. A couple of photogenic Scissor-tailed Flycatchers entertained me for a while though, and some of the taller trees in riparian areas were hosting some vocalizing Warbling Vireos and Great Crested Flycatchers.  A Cooper's Hawk made a quick buzz-by too.

 Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in a swarm of gnats

One of hundreds of Blue-winged Teal present in the wetlands of Sequoyah NWR

From here, heading west on I-40 through one Indian Nation after another, I passed through Carrie Underwood's hometown of Checotah, OK and turned south to Lake Eufala State Park. I was hoping for a good selection of passerines here but with the wind still whipping and it being so late in the day, I didn't find much. I was excited about birding some areas around Oklahoma City the following morning and dozed off into a deep slumber as soon as I parked at the next rest area off I-40.

I was planning on birding Lake Overholser in Oklahoma City the next morning, and I arrived before dawn. But as soon as it starts to get light and the first robins and mockingbirds start to sing the skies just open up as if an act of God. Lightning constantly surrounding, and a torrential downpour- needless to say, i wasn't going to be finding any songbirds in this. What i did however, was bird my way around the lake while scanning and scoping from the car. A wet scope and binoculars was a small price to pay for the thousands of ducks, gulls, and shorebirds I found along the North side of the lake! Good shorebird diversity considering the conditions, with Least, Semipalmated, Western, Bairds, and Pectoral sandpipers along with a couple spotties. Around a hundred American Avocets were a treat. A big flock of roosting Snowy Egrets, a flock of Franklin's Gulls numbering in the thousands, and a scattered raft of a variety of waterfowl rounded out the highlights from here. I was cutting through on a nearby gravel county road when I spied a small flock of Harris's Sparrows playing along the fenceline. This is a bird that I don't get a chance to see very often, as I am seldom in their range, so I had fun watching and photographing these guys for a few minutes in the rain.

Harris's Sparrow (Oklahoma City, OK). Unfortunately, my camera doesn't do so well in the rain at 1600 ISO.

 

 It was then that I decided to get off the interstate for the rest of the day and cut up through rural OK and the panhandle so that I could see some new country and do some panhandle birding around Black Mesa, the summit of which highest point in Oklahoma at 4,973 feet. It is around Black Mesa that a number of western mountain birds inhabit their only location within Oklahoma. 

Driving for hours through central and western Oklahoma, I thought it fitting to listen to classical country radio with Johnny Cash playing as I pass through the scattered small cattle and farm town. The panhandle of Oklahoma is generally a whole lot of nothing. In fact, it is nicknamed "No Man's Land" since it was one of the last places to be homesteaded and settled during westward expansion. I made it to Boise City in relatively good time, although it didn't quite seem that way as I was driving along desolate highways that went 20 miles without a curve. Boise City is 22 miles southeast of Black Mesa State Park and the closest town to the park. When I arrived here, I stopped by the water treatment plant holding ponds where a few ducks and Wilson's Phalropes were piddling as well as a single Bonaparte's Gull. The town cemetary is an oasis of a few big trees in the middle of open space, and thus has potential to hold a few migrant songbirds. Here I found a handful of Yellow-rumped Warblers as well as an Orange-crowned Warbler and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher among the House Finches and random group of House Sparrows. 

Decrepit interpretive sign at a roadside picnic table along rural US270 in the OK panhandle

As I drive west from town, I began to climb ever so slightly and see less agricultural fields and more yucca, sage, and high prairie. Not surprisingly, the birdlife began to change as well. Loggerhead Shrikes became regular fixtures on telephone lines, and a kestrel would grace me with it's presence every few miles. A beautiful light phase Ferruginous Hawk perched on a power pole signaled that I was getting into the sort of habitat I was looking for. When I arrived in the park, I first went to the campground which is along a lush riparian corridor adjoining Lake Carl Etling. Canyons and bluffs, grassy with scattered brush, border the campground on its other sides. The campground area was very birdy, with a big flock of harlequin Lark Sparrows feeding in a lawn and a huge flock of noisy finches feeding in the area as well. They were mostly House Finches (at least one or two yellow variants) and American Goldfinches, but a handful of Lesser Goldfinches were sprinkled in as well. Other southwestern species present here were Vermillion Flycatcher, Say's Phoebe, and Ash-throated Flycatcher. Lake Carl Etling was equally full of birds- scattered waterfowl and grebes, a flock of White-faced Ibis roosting in the lake, Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds feeding in the mud, and a nice group of shorebirds containing some Western Willets. 

Afterwards, I went up to the actual Black Mesa (NW of the state park) Nature Reserve, passing by the booming metropolis of Kenton- home to a one-room museum, a somehow-still-standing one room post office, and a few houses. Birds were quiet at Black Mesa, with a Canyon Wren and Golden Eagle being of the highest interest. It was late afternoon now and I needed to get on into Colorado, for I needed to be all the way up in Fort Collins around midday the next day. Looking at Google Maps, it appeared that caddy-cornering New Mexico along State Road 456 and cutting up to Branson Colorado would be quickest and easiest. Instead, that road turned out to be 17 miles of driving along a wet-in-places red dirt road down an entire canyon, and another 30 miles or so of paved nothingness. In 48 miles of driving, I saw exactly one other vehicle on the road. The clouds were ominous, and I was concerned that it would start raining and my little Corolla would become mired in the clay. I got lucky though, and eventually made it into Colorado. Branson seems like a renmant Dust Bowl community in the middle of absolutely nowhere (not sure how many people still actually live here)- it was another 45-50 miles to Trinidad from there. The next morning, I birded a couple spots around the south end of Colorado Springs before heading onto Fort Collins to begin another few months of work for RMBO. Here's to more birds and more adventures.

Israel: A brief summary and wrap-up

Over the rest of the week in Israel, we spent a couple days birding around the Eilat area where we enjoyed more raptor migration up in the mountains, shorebirds at K-20 salt ponds, and more Sylvia warblers then you could shake a stick at. A few notable birds stand out from these couple days, including a Cyprus Wheatear that we were able to refind at the edge of a date palm plantation just North of town. Cyrus Wheatears are very closely related to the more widespread Pied Whetear, but as you can guess they only breed on the island of Cyprus, in the Mediterranean Sea. Their entire population is estimated to be around 700-800 pairs, and since they winter in east Africa there's always a chance you could intercept one in southern Israel on it's way back North. A striking Citrine Wagtail feeding right outside our minibus at the K-20 salt ponds was sure a treat, as was a striking Pied Avocet that was hanging out with a flock of shelducks and three Eurasian Spoonbills on one of the dikes. A trip to the Eilat k-19 sewage ponds to look for Dead Sea Sparrows one morning paid off with a flock of 40 or so in a brushy ditch on the backside of the property.

 Me photographing the Cyprus Wheatear against the Edom Mountains of Jordan in late afternoon light (photo: Jonathan Meyrav)

Cyprus Wheatear

One of the main highlights of the trip for me was an all day trip to the Nizanna area, about 2-3 hours northwest of Eilat. Here, while standing on bed of the old Turkish Railroad, we watched a displaying male MacQueen's Bustard and an interested female for an hour. This is one of the most reliable and accessible spots to see this species in Israel, and we sure weren't disappointing. Bustards sure are funky birds...and we even got to see both birds briefly in flight (something seldom observed). I was lucky to manage some *very* distant photographs, as the birds were probably close to a half mile away. But heck, I'll take it! Cream-coloured Coursers were scattered around the desert here as well. None ever let us approach close, but even observing them from a distance it was clear that they are some of the most dapper looking birds you may encounter out here! In the Nizanna area they are fairly common, but can be very localized and pretty hard to find throughout most other areas in the southern part of the country.

Perhaps the ultimate highlight of the trip was a night trip up to the Dead Sea to look for Desert Tawny (Hume's) Owl and Nubian Nightjar. Both of these birds are quite rare in the region and can be sensitive to excessive disturbance; so organized trips are the best way to view these birds. About 35 of us, including some seasonal volunteers from the SPNI Eilat banding station and hawkwatch, boarded a charter bus for the long drive up. Somehow, I always luck out and get one of the front seats in each bus ride- even when trying to defer the privilege to others. This setup paid off when I was one of only two people to spot a jackal crossing the road. Jonathan Meyrav, the organizer of the Eilat Birding Festival and of the upcoming Champions of the Flyway event (more on that later) met us on-site at the Desert Tawny Owl location, near the village of Kalya. After about ten to fifteen minutes of playing tape, a bird came right in--about 20m from the group! What an experience, especially to happen to a gigantic group of 35. The Nubian Nightjars were about an hour South, and they didn't disappoint either. We got looks at a couple birds, including one sitting in a dirt road 30m away.This location was in the middle of an agricultural operation- but adjacent to one of the largest salt marshes remaining in Israel, which the nightjars require. It so happens that this marsh is also an active minefield- so we were limited to walking the roads adjacent to it and through the neighboring ag area.

Desert Tawny (Hume's) Owl

I rode back to Eilat that night with Jonathan as well as a British birder, Nick, instead of taking the charter bus. We talked birds for a couple hours and I learned a lot about the Champions of the Flyway event coming up the following week- a "big day" competition in southern Israel with over 30 teams participating from all over the world. Teams from locations as diverse as Spain, South Africa, USA, Finland, and Palestine all competed. The event is designed to raise money to fight the illegal slaughter of songbirds in Cyprus, and it's raised ~ $50,000 each of it's first two years. $100,000 USD can certainly go a long way in these conservation efforts!

A fantastic trip with new friends made from the US, Britian, and Israel. I definitely will be back- and when I do, I'll have to make it across the border to Petra. Maybe I will volunteer as a bander or hawkwatcher this coming spring...we'll see what life will hold