Hello from Little Rock, Arkansas!
Cleon and I left early this morning from our home in central Illinois and drove to Little Rock, Arkansas, to spend our first night. It was an overcast day, generally no
wind, and temperatures ranged from 36 when we started, to 52 when we got here. A cold, damp day. But a good day for raptors! For those of you who have been following my blog, you know that Cleon and I travel and when we do, we always drive and count raptors as we go. Cleon was a 2 million miler with Delta Airlines when he was an internal auditor, and I flew from time to time on vacations and to see friends and family. And I guess we simply have had
enough of being so far above the earth because neither of us have the desire to ever get on an airplane again. We both love travel by car – a wonderful way to see our country which is so varied in its scenery – and if you are thinking of birds – what diversified habitats! And you can see none of that when you are above the clouds.
Whether traveling on interstates, state highways, or rural roads, as long as there are trees, overhead wires, fences, mown areas, or an expanse of sky, you can look for raptors. Even though it was quite foggy for the first 4 hours of driving, we still saw 3 Red-tailed Hawks and an American Kestrel. But it is when we crossed the Mississippi River at St. Louis that we saw our first Bald Eagle soaring right over the river. Even though it was a gray day, when the bird banked for a turn, that fanned white tail was obvious. We saw our second Bald Eagle as we were on
I-44 and driving through The Ozarks. It was flying towards us right in our lane – what a sight! If you have never been in The Ozarks, they are
simply beautiful mountains. Vast woodlands. They are well worth a trip.
But it was when we crossed the Missouri/Arkansas line that we hit the mother lode. American Kestrels! Perfect habitat. We were on a 2-lane highway – small towns and rural areas. On both sides of the highway, were scattered trees, edges of woodlands, and wide mown swaths with older utility poles which are shorter than the ones being installed today. These shorter poles have lower hanging wires, and the kestrels were perched on the wires. Each all by itself and probably doing the same thing we were – looking for lunch. Between the state line and Little Rock, we saw 14 Kestrels. In my experience, that is a lot of kestrels in about 100 miles. Even though, this bird is our most numerous falcon, in field guides, it is listed as ‘Uncommon’ and I agree with that. Even in good habitat, this bird can be hard to find.
Our count for today:
Red-tailed Hawks – 12 – one rose up from the mown median area between lanes on the interstate with a rodent in its talons
American Kestrels – 16
Bald Eagles – 2
Turkey Vultures – 6 – 2 in Missouri and 4 in Arkansas
Black Vulture – 1 – Arkansas