Saturday morning, September 21, twenty birders assembled at the first Bona Dea trail parking lot on the west side of Russellville. It was cloudy and very muggy but not unbearably hot. We made a quick loop of the trail. Very few birds were moving except for Blue Jays.
We then moved to the loop trail at the second parking lot hoping our luck would change. This longer loop was as slow as the first loop. Birds were few and far between. We enjoyed seeing several Brown-headed Nuthatches, Wood Ducks, Gray Catbirds, Belted Kingfishers, Green Herons, a quick fly-by of Double-crested Cormorants, White-eyed Vireos, plus more Blue Jays. We saw all the expected woodpeckers except for Northern Flicker, with several quite close. We were excited for two of our birding buddies who each saw a life bird, one a Hairy Woodpecker and the other a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Even our more common birds can still be a real treat for our newer birders.
We worked hard for every bird and managed to rustle up a total of 39 species. It was still a fun day because we did a lot visiting with each other in between the sparse bird sightings.
Submitted by,
Karen Holliday
ASCA Field Trip Coordinator
Little Rock/Pulaski County