Wednesday, December 23 was damp and overcast, with rain expected most of the day. I drove to Heber Springs to see the Trumpeter Swans that have chosen three random ponds as their annual wintering spot. When I first visited two years ago, it was also a gloomy, damp day. There weren’t quite as many swans this year, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any.
I saw Ring-necked Ducks and Buffleheads at all three ponds, but at the third location, they paid no attention to me and allowed me to get some amazing photos.
Bufflehead
Ring-necked Ducks — Males outnumbered females by about 20-1. I wonder why?
The rain never came, so after a McRib lunch and a stop at an antique mall, I wandered around Beaverfork Lake in Conway.
On Thursday, I drove to Pine Bluff to see the Tropical Kingbird (next post). There was a twofer on rare flycatchers in Arkansas this year. Somebody found a Fork-tailed Flycatcher in rural Desha County, about half a mile west of the Mississippi. This is a South American bird, but every year one or two wander north and show up somewhere in the states. I saw one in Cook County in 2005. But I didn’t have my camera then. Since November 16, it’s been hanging around the fields along a country road — and sometimes on the road or on the wire that crosses it. There’s nothing about the spot that looks particularly inviting, particularly on this day when the wind was howling across the flats.
I parked and watched for it. Then I got out and walked. Then I got back in the car and watched some more. After perhaps 20 minutes, I figured I’d missed it. I drove south along the road for perhaps half a mile, then turned around and drove slowly back. I spotted the bird as it landed low in a bush about 25 yards off the pavement. I pulled up next to it. For the next 10 minutes, I looked at it while it looked around and tried to balance in the wind.
