Day Among Birds

HIKES, TALKS HIGHLIGHT QUEST FOR FEATHERS

Lynn Sciumbato, a wildlife rehabilitator who lives near Gravette, gives a program on raptors and vultures Saturday at Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area. Red-tailed hawk, Jennie, was a hit with the audience and is one of the birds under Sciumbato’s care at Morning Star Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. She also brought a screech owl and a turkey vulture to her presentation.

Lynn Sciumbato, a wildlife rehabilitator who lives near Gravette, gives a program on raptors and vultures Saturday at Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area. Red-tailed hawk, Jennie, was a hit with the audience and is one of the birds under Sciumbato’s care at Morning Star Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. She also brought a screech owl and a turkey vulture to her presentation.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

— There’s reason to cherish Beaver Lake for its bountiful drinking water, fishing, boating, shoreline picnicking and hiking.

In the winter, you can’t beat it for bird watching.

Bird enthusiasts found out Saturday the Army Corps of Engineers parks at Beaver are home to more feathered species than a card-carrying birder can count with their fingers, toes and two ears.

After a bird-rich morning walk at Rocky Branch park, most of the 30 birders migrated to nearby Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area for afternoon programs about birds.

Saturday was a day to savor warm winter sun and be immersed in the world of birds.

BY WATER, LAND

Activities got off to a fine feathered start with the Rocky Branch birding walk hosted by the Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society.

Soon as they hopped out of their cars, some in the group set up spotting scopes near the marina for a close look at ducks bobbing on the light chop.

“There’s a male and female golden-eye,” hollered Joe Neal of Fayetteville. Neal is the author of several bird-related books and led the leisurely walk around the park.

Water was the focus of the first hour. Binoculars and spotting scopes were trained on the chop where more ducks and water birds were seen. Bald eagles soared under the cloudless, bright sky.

Neal is legendary for his knowledge of all things feathered and his enthusiasm for sharing it. When you see a grebe while birding with Neal, it’s not just a grebe. It’s a horned grebe or a piebilled grebe.

“There’s a Carolina wren singing,” Neal said, without yet seeing the bird.

Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society field trips, like this one at Beaver Lake, are free and open to all. They’re a perfect way to get introduced to birding and see birds with people who really know what they’re looking at.

Beaver Lake is one of Neal’s frequent birding destinations.

Parks are scattered from the headwaters to the dam. They’re quiet and mostly empty during winter and perfect for birding.

What makes them so great?

They’re public land, for one thing, Neal said, and open to all.

These parks have an array of habitats that attract different bird species. Visitors may see ducks, geese, loons, grebes or herons on the water. Cedar glades, meadows and forest in the parks draw a long list of songbirds, woodpeckers, hawks and more.

We stuck to the pavement for our Saturday morning bird walk at Rocky Branch, but most parks have hiking trails. With Beaver Lake at a low level, there’s good opportunity to walk the shoreline and lookbirds on the water and in the shoreline trees.

Binoculars, a field guide and a craving to be outside are all a birder needs.

Colleen Whitney carried two bird-identification field guides. Her favorite is the pocket-sided “Birds of Arkansas.”

It’s color coded for easy bird identification. See a yellow bird? Flip to the pages with photos of yellow birds, brown birds, whatever the main color of the bird you’ve seen.

Or, go high-tech like Sheryl Willis of Eureka Springs. She had her tablet computer on the bird walk and looked up birds with a program developed by Cornell University.

Neal paused during the walk to note the high count of bald eagles the corps of engineers tallied this month - 175 - at Beaver Lake during their annual two-day count.

Things weren’t always so rosy. Bald eagles, our national symbol, were nearly extinct in the lower 48 states by the 1970s. Hawks were headed to the same fate, Neal said.

The public got fed up enough, Neal continued, and there was enough public outcry that Congress got involved. The pesticide DDT was banned in 1972. DDT caused the shells of bald-eagle eggs to be thin and fragile, scientists said.

Now bald eagles are no longer endangered, but thriving.

“In 1986 there was one bald eagle nest in Arkansas. We have more than 100 nests now,” Neal said.

Three of those nests are at Beaver Lake.

TALKING BIRDS

After lunch, activity shifted to the Visitor Center at Hobbs State Park. The sunny weather felt like an April day on Saturday and it seemedeveryone was outdoors.

Park Interpreter Rachel Diersen had just wrapped up a short nature hike near the center.

“We had 50 people for the hike,” she said. “All the trailheads in the park are packed with cars.”

The center buzzed with visitors arriving for two afternoon bird programs that were part of Hobbs’ “Wonders of Winter Wildlife” festival.

Neal gave a talk to a full house and shared more bird knowledge with a photo presentation of birds common at Beaver Lake.

Next, wildlife rehabilitator Lynn Sciumbato took the stage with three guests she’d brought along - a screech owl, a red-tailed hawk named Jennie and Igor, the turkey vulture.

All three are patients in-residence at Sciumbato’s Morning Star Wildlife Rehabilitation Center near Gravette. The three birds have conditions that prevent their release. Now they wow audiences and are the stars of Sciumbato’s informative and humorous presentation about birds of prey.

She’s been caring for injured birds and mammals for 26 years, with a goal of releasing each back into nature. Jennie, the red-tailed hawk, perched like a queen on an elbow-length leather glove Sciumbato wore.

“How much does Jennie weigh?” someone piped.

About 6 pounds, Sciumbato replied. Raptors are built to be lightweight, she said, with hollow bones, smaller organs and featherweight feathers.

Turkey vulture Igor is the ham of the trio. The eater of dead things spent most of its 15 minutes of fame with outstretched black wings, looking like Count Dracula.

The role turkey vultures and black vultures play in nature is vital. It could be a smelly world without vultures eating up road kill and other carrion.

Like Neal, Sciumbato cited a few cases of wildlife brought back from the brink.

“Arkansas used to be called ‘The Bear State’ because you couldn’t go anywhere without running into a bear,” she said.

By the 1930s, unregulated hunting and habitat destruction left less than 50 black bears in the state. Now there are more than 3,000 bears.

Fans of feather and fur got a full day of knowledge on this Saturday, a day for watching and learning of birds.

Outdoor, Pages 5 on 01/24/2013