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Subject:

Ivory-bill search: Arkansas sojourn, part 2

From:

Henry Armistead

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Henry Armistead

Date:

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 20:12:25 -0500

IVORY-BILL SEARCH: ARKANSAS SOJOURN (part 2):

Feb. 22, Wed.  A rain day.  We do not deploy.  Bob, Bonnie & I practice
with our GPSs, do a walk S of Robinson House, have a look at a sprucy Fox
Sparrow.  Some of us go in Marty's car to Brinkley, where we see a Fox
Squirrel and an Eurasian Collared-Dove.  Armadillo in the Robinson House
yard, referred to by some as possum-on-the-half-shell.  We buy various
buttons, T-shirts, trinkets, doodads, and books in Brinkley, pick up
freebies, most of these at the Ivory-bill Nest.  Gordon gives me an
autographed and remarked copy of Jerome Jackson's book.  Stock up on food
and beverages.  

Feb. 23, Thu.  Dodson Lake with Bob.  Was on the NW platform.  My only
3-owl day: 4 Barreds, 1 Great Horned (this species seems to call from the
field edges of the bottomland) and 1 screech.  70 Greater White-fronted
Geese, their flocks make rather neat, uniform V's as Canadas do, not like
the rounded, more irregular formations of Snows.  My first experience with
GWFG is here, having only seen a few strays on the East Coast.  Their call,
2 or 3 notes, easily-whistled in imitation of how they sound from a
distance, is distinctive and unique.  Speckle-bellies.  6 Ross's Geese
sightings.  Now that it is warming up, and the photoperiod is slouching
towards equinox, the woods throng with morning song, in descending order of
volume:  titmice, nuthatches, Carolina Wrens, chickadees & cardinals.  A
woodcock (mud bat) at dusk at the Rt. 17 bridge.  Coyotes, Spring Peepers,
and Southern Leopard Frogs calling back at Robinson House.      

Feb. 24, Fri.  Paw Paw Lake with Gordon & Joe (in his own canoe).  My only
day with 7 species of woodpeckers.  Good views of a Mink.  Most of the day
on the stand with Gordon but we did a lovely exploratory in the canoe for
several hours down south of the lake and deep into Dagmar Wildlife
Management Area, past where the last ribbons had been placed marking the
"channel."  Several big Beaver lodges.  3 Ross's Goose sightings.  A
Red-eared Slider in the water, my first "turkle" here, many more to come. 
A singing Winter Wren.  The first mosquito.  A woodcock ("Labrador
Twister") at dusk at the Woodfin launching area.  An armadillo by the road
side on the way out.          

Feb. 25, Sat.  Day off.  To Stuttgart airport with Bob.  Overcast and cool.
 The route down is through country about as flat as I've ever seen.  A
muddy field that has been worked is full of white-fronted geese, seen at
close range.  The airport is a strange affair, some runways over 100 yards
wide, other old runways overgrown, and with lovely areas off to the sides
with nice growths of various grasses and low, little wet areas.  There is
just one person running the facility, which has a mounted Bobcat and
numerous gamebirds.  We put up 10 Short-eared Owls.  The highlight are 11
Smith's Longspurs in breeding plumage.  Bob investigates another mixed
flock that has 25 birds, mostly Smith's but with some Laplands.  We also
see 2 Sedge Wrens, a Vesper and 165 (at least) Savannah Sparrows plus a few
White-crowneds, 40 Eastern Meadowlarks (some singing), 3 harriers, 6 snipe,
2 Long-billed Dowitchers nearby, 975 Snows/Blues and 55 white-fronted
geese.  While there we see a corporate jet take off, the only aircraft on
the move.  Get back to Brinkley in time for the festival.  After that
Gordon takes off in the 'Osprey' for 3 days at White River    

Feb. 26, Sun.  Sunny, clear, 34-50 degrees F., winds NW 5-10-calm.  Dodson
Lake with Terry.  I was on the NW platform most of the day but did canoe
upstream solo to the 17 Powerline.  Watched a Winter Wren very close by
apparently fishing (There was an article years ago about WIWR fishing
published in "The Kingbird").  2 Red-headed Woodpeckers.  Saw a Barred Owl
flying around in mid-afternoon.  Found a Water Locust - has long, nasty
clusters of thorns all over the bark.  Took my first photographs with the
trusty, old, Nikkormat FTN - color prints.  Terry & I returned to Rt. 17
bridge in near total darkness with small bats skimming and dipping in front
of us only inches over the river's surface.  Just N of the bridge a Beaver
slapped its tail 4 times, real loud.      

Feb. 27, Mon.  Blue Hole with Joe.  First Sharp-shinned Hawk.  Barred Owl
calls spontaneously in the sunshine at 10:30 and 3:30.  Joe sees a Mourning
Cloak and 11 kettling Sandhill Cranes.  A striking pair of Hooded
Mergansers shared the Blue Hole with me for an hour plus.  Pair of Wood
Ducks, too.  We do a watch at a nearby cavity.  Up to 66 degrees today with
healthy S winds.  5 Red-eared Sliders sunning.  Joe does extensive canoe
trips.  We lug a heavy battery in to the stand.  Nice walk through upland
area with fields, ponds, a long dirt road and many small oaks to get to the
launch site.  Mucho mosquito.  In stand 7:45-4:45, cavity watch 4:45-5:45. 
I do not get bored or fidgety doing such lengthy stand watches.  In fact,
the day passes swiftly.

Feb. 28, Tue.  Blue Hole with Marty.  First substantial turtle count with
35 ISS (in sight simultaneously) but today Bob counted 183 turtles ISS at
Stab Lake.  Mosquitoes bad in the late afternoon.  New birds: a Cooper's
Hawk and a Bald Eagle.  Later while outside talking with Beth another Bald
Eagle flies N past the Robinson House.  

Leaving Marty in the blind, I canoe up to the old railroad bridge, do a
point count there.  Then down Bayou de View to the S end of Blue Hole,
where there are huge cypresses.  Many of the cypresses in this area, we are
told, are over 1,000 years old, 100+ feet high.  That means they were 500
years or more in age when Columbus landed, already well established during
the Norman Conquest.  How about them apples?  They were not logged,
although most of the rest of the forest was, because timber cruisers had
determined they were mostly hollow.  

Marty sees an otter.  Found a tiny fresh water mussel.  Blue-headed Vireo
up in a tree on the walk in to the launch area.  Crayfish here make
circular, raised mud structures with holes < an inch across that remind me
of those of fiddler crabs that we see in the East Coast tidal areas.  Also,
a Sharp-shinned Hawk today.  Take first shower in 12 days.  Coyotes calling
last night outside our house.  

Gordon returns from 3 days in the White R. N.W.R. area:  Sunday with those
tending the automatic cameras in remote areas, Monday in a Jon boat,
Tuesday walking a 10K transect with Jimmy McMorran.  Gordon spent part of
one day with Martjan while he did his laser-assisted, geometry-based
measurement of several suspect cavities from ground level.  He flies back
East tomorrow where Liz will meet him at the Philadelphia airport.     

March 1, Wed.  Dodson Lake with Marty & Bonnie, the 3 of us each with our
own canoe.  An effort to keep up with the ladies, perhaps because there is
more weight (!) in my canoe, perhaps because ...  Up to 76 degrees.  With
the warming trend I changed to hip waders today and for the rest of our
stay.  Clear, windy.  My first butterfly, a large Question Mark, very
well-seen in flight and at rest.  

Spent most of the day in the SW Dodson stand but followed long trail back
to some fresh scaling.  On the way there are small minnows in the pools, a
huge vine I can only encompass 2/3 of with my hands.  Nice look at an
otter.  Shirtless much of the afternoon.  19 turtles ISS.  3 Ross's Goose
sightings.  Terry gives me a jangle from S of Paw Paw Lake, where he is
going to penetrate farther than Gordon & I did on Feb. 24.  Somewhere down
there is a heronry.  There are a few big sycamores here at Bayou de View. 
Poison Ivy widespread but not rank, not much of a problem.  Geese in
apparent migration for the first time.  My first swamp kestrel and
Yellow-rumped Warbler.  Terry saw snapping turtles mating today ("The love
song of the turtle ...").  Sara Barker joins us for dinner.  She is the one
who "hired" us and is Elliott Swarthout's wife.  A fine lady.      

March 2, Thu.  c. 54-65, breezy, windy, fair.  With Terry to N Stab Lake
platform.  National Turtle Appreciation Day, as it were.  Gene Sparling and
3 others in 2 canoes pass by the platform.  The softshell turtles (only day
I saw them) are really thin & disk-like, seen side-on resemble sand dollars
or flying saucers in shape and have prominent snouts.  Too windy to do A.M.
point count (in 9 days afield I did do 16 of them).  

Today saw the most fish rises, some jumping clear of the surface.  As with
other locations, every so often one hears the distant wails of locomotives,
always stirring the wanderlust and memories of other places, other times. 
Terry observes that many (most?) birds of the swamp are cavity nesters: the
woodpeckers, titmice, nuthatches, chickadees, prothonotaries, Wood Ducks,
bluebirds, some of the owls.  He spots an adult male harrier (Gray Ghost). 
I see a Mourning Cloak in flight across the lake.  Barred Owl calling in
bright sun at 2:37 P.M.     

TURTLES ISS (In Sight Simultaneously) March 2.  Hauled out and sunning
almost all day long.  Many of these are Red-eared Turtles (a.k.a. sliders)
plus several other species I did not identify.  However, a few Chicken
Turtles, with their extremely long necks, are easy to ID (but how can they
be "chicken" if they stick their necks out?).  "and the little things creep
out to patch themselves hovels in the marred shadow of your gift" -T. E.
Lawrence, to wit:

48,   9:30 A.M.
104, 11:11 including 2 softshell turtles (sp.?).
140, 11:45, w/ 3 softies.
221, 11:56, w/ 5 softies.
272, 12:16 P.M., w/ 10 softies & 1 pile of 3 turtles triple-decker style.
267, 1:11, w/ 6 softies & several double-decker pileups.
231, 2:16, w/ 4 softies & 1 turtle hanging vertical on a 90 degree snag.
163, 3:09 w/ 1 softie.
101, 4:02, w/ 1 softie.  

March 3, known to many as simply, Friday.  To Dodson Lake with Terry.  I'm
on the MW platform most of the day, our last in the field, and 6th
straight.  See an arresting, bright yellow-green moth (?) in steady flight
5' off the ground, c. 2/3" long.  Chilly, clear, starts at c. 40 degrees,
windy, colder than forecast, am under-dressed.  Turtles haul out anyway:

8 ISS, 12:28
14, 1:29
16, 1:57
13, 2:42

March 4, Sat.  Leave going out past the graveyard where 2 of the tombstones
light up at night, past the house surrounded by dozens of defunct
appliances and cars, past the pathetic, broken-down town of Cotton Plant,
and past the homes of all the very nice people who live in this area.  Bob
and I take the inevitable photos of the Route 17 bridge (where a sulphur is
working the embankment), bumble around Brinkley some, revisit the IBWO
boutique, eat the obligatory Ivory-billed Cheeseburger at Gene's Bar-B-Que,
and finally shove off at 1:15.  As with the end of other minor adventures,
I choke up a little as we drive off, when it finally comes over me that
it's all over.  Terry and Joe "split for Memphis, where they say all/Them
swingin' cats are havin' a ball."  So does Marty, less to have a ball than
to revisit her nephew there.  On the way out there's a Red-tailed Hawk
every mile or so, including a handsome, very dark bird, a presumed
Harlan's.  468 miles to Knoxville.  Back at our motel room we discover at
10 P.M. that everything possible they could do wrong they did at the
Wendy's takeout window.  A new meaning for takeout.   

March 5, Sun.  Re-unite Bob with his car at John Spahr's in Staunton, VA. 
646 miles to home, arriving just at sunset.  

March 8, Wed. Philadelphia, PA.  My mechanic, Benjamin:  "Oh, Arkansas. 
You must have been looking for that woodpecker I've been hearing about on
NPR."

Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA
19119-1225.  215-248-4120.  Secondary address: 25124 W. Ferry Neck Rd.,
Royal Oak, MD 21662.  410-745-2764.