Saturday, April 12, 2008

Shorebirds and Scissor-tails Wash Into Palmetto Meadows

Sometime in the last few weeks, I lost my desire to blog. Not sure what happened except that lots of stuff is going on. The fact that relatively spring-like weather arrives every few days and has kept me out of doors is also a contributing factor.
I have missed several blogging opportunities, however. Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas during spring break was a welcomed respite from cold weather here. I picked up Black and White Warblers, Pine Warblers, many Pine Siskins, and a Red-breasted Nuthatch while there, but managed to miss the Brown-headed Nuthatches that apparently make the mountain their home. Enough of the past.....

Another flood hit the Ozarks this week, so Marvin DeJong and I headed out to Palmetto in search of shorebirds. We were not disappointed as Pectorals, Semipalmalteds, and Yellowlegs, both Greater and Lesser, congregated in the first casual water stop. I had never noticed an orange-legged Yellowlegs before, but found one there.My best shorebird pictures for the day involved Solitary Sandpipers. Guess you saw the one at the beginning of the entry. Here's a couple more of them.
Both Marvin and I celebrated the arrival of two very cooperative Scissor-tailed Flycatchers. We saw three for the day, and also spotted our first Blue-gray Gnatcatcher of the year. I have posted one of my STFL pictures.It's been a great year for shorebirds in the greater Ozarks area. Charley Burwick spotted 10 Long-billed Curlews a week ago near Lockwood, Missouri. It was the first Long-billed Curlews sighting in Missouri since 1996 and the sighting beat the previous high number set over 100 years ago! Here's a picture of one of the birds he saw on April 3rd.

3 comments:

marvin d said...

Your pictures came out great, especially the Solitary Sandpiper shots and the STFCs.
I'll try to get my photos on the GOAS forum in the next few days.

Larry said...

It's always been sort of a dream of mine to find and report a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Connecticut.-That would be a very exciting find for me.-I tire of blogging too.-It's supposed to be fun so it's not worth forcing yourself to do it when you're feeling uninspired (although I do sometimes).

Greg said...

Hi Larry,
Thanks for dropping by. I'd trade one of my Scissor-tails for one of your Black-throated Blues!
Now.... how are we going to pull this off?