By Dolores Harrington
Published: Friday, March 23, 2007 2:20 PM CDT
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The first hummingbird in our area was reported last Sunday by Betty Smart at Gurdon. She had an adult male ruby-throated hummingbird at a feeder that morning.
It took a bit longer for the little birds to get to Arkadelphia, I guess. I got a call from Milrene Copeland Wednesday morning, and she had seen a hummingbird. By the time I got home from work, there was one at my feeder. All those birds were adult males; they usually arrive ahead of the females.
The only swallow I had seen until last Saturday was a northern rough-winged swallow Saturday before last. I was sure we would find barn swallows last weekend, and we did. Two were perched on a wire along Lakeview Road. There weren’t any swallows at the oxidation ponds, which was surprising.
Renn Tumlison sent me some silhouettes of barn swallows he has shot on Monday (see photo), and his “Nature Trivia” column on Tuesday was about anticipating the arrival of cliff swallows. He e-mailed me Wednesday to report that he had observed cliff swallows involved in nesting behavior in Southwest Arkansas that morning. That is a little earlier than usual, but we have had very warm weather for most of this month.
I hope to have time to look for cliff swallows in this area over the weekend. They have been nesting around here for only a few years, but I see them at the Ouachita River bridge each summer now.
Cliff swallows do not have long swallow tails like the barn swallows, but they have buffy rumps, which is one good identifying mark. The only other swallow with a buffy rump is the cave swallow. So far only one record for that species has been accepted for Arkansas, but they are expanding their range. It’s possible that we will have to be more careful about separating the two species in the future.
The cliff and cave swallows are very similar, and the immature birds are very difficult to tell apart. If we begin to see more cave swallows in the state, I’ll tell you more about the differences in the two species.
I’m watching the parking lot at the office for the northern rough-winged swallows. We’ve had nesting birds in the roof of the loading dock for the last few years, and I expect them to return this year.
Chimney swifts are due to arrive, but I haven’t seen any yet. They are the little birds that look like flying cigars with wings. They should be cruising overhead any day now. I usually hear them chattering and look up to see them.
We didn’t see any shorebirds at the oxidation ponds last weekend, but I did hear one lesser yellowlegs. It must have been flying over; we never found it on a levee or on the riprap.
We didn’t find any summer egrets, either. We drove down Open Banks Road looking for egrets, but had no luck. Cattle egret and green herons are probably around somewhere. We just haven’t looked in the right place at the right time yet.
A friend reported yellow-throated and northern parula warblers at Millwood Lake last weekend. We should have a few warbler species around here any day now. Let me know if you see any unusual or newly-arrived species.
Good birding.
