Editor's note: Joe Neal of Fayetteville, a field trip leader with Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society, writes an essay after each of his birding trips. Here's his report of a pontoon boat trip he guided this fall on Beaver Lake.
Best bird on our Beaver Lake "loon and other migratory waterfowl boat trip" Nov. 18 was not a loon, because we didn't see or hear any, but a short-eared owl normally seen on prairies.
We saw this bird from the Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area pontoon boat as our crew headed back in to Rocky Branch Marina after a couple of hours of bird watching.
Back in those balmy early fall days when we planned this trip and worked out the trip with the park staff, it was easy to imagine a flock of loons coming our way just in time for this cruise. We hoped for good views of common loons that we knew should be migrating now through Northwest Arkansas. Sometimes, we always expect to see them, but sometimes we don't.
Just an hour or so west of us, at Lake Tenkiller in eastern Oklahoma, we might expect now to see 100 or more common loons. Loon-wise, maybe difference between Beaver and Tenkiller should be saved for another day. So back to our Friday trip.
Did I mention chattering teeth yet? It snowed the night before our trip. Not that much of a snow, certainly an inch or less. But snow was just part of the cold front that may be the same one that buried Buffalo, N.Y. in 7-feet of snow. It was all of 28 degrees when we met to get on the boat. Amazingly, almost everyone who registered also showed up, though we were in so many layers and coverings you could barely tell who was who and what was what.
The short version of this is that about eight brave people came to see water birds on Beaver Lake. We were happy to waddle down a snow-covered walkway and make it to the dock. Blankets provided on the boat were well-used. A person could have made a fortune selling hand-warmers.
This was the third of the three planned Hobbs State Park pontoon boat cruises to see loons this fall. The only loon seen was on the second trip. Overall, this was our poorest year for finding loons on Beaver Lake.
It was also the only trip where we have ever seen a short-eared owl. Taylor Long got excellent photographs of the owl in flight. We all said the same things to ourselves about this: You only see these owls in big grasslands, right? Never out over a lake. But surely they have to fly over water at times. Maybe this one was fleeing the "lake effect" storm in Buffalo.
What we did see were horned grebes and bufflehead ducks, both wonderful wintering species, and both in good numbers. The grebes tend to take off as soon as they notice the boat, paddling across the water before a low flight away. We eventually got close enough to observe their remarkable black and white plumage of winter and those red eyes. We also had great views of the buffleheads, also in their black and whites, like something straight out of the far north, especially when a flock suddenly rose from the water and flew by us in a big dramatic arc.
We also saw a flock of American coots. These small, mainly black, duck-like water birds are favorites in the diet of bald eagles. When we see them on Beaver, they are almost always in a very tight formation. As eagles swoop in, talons dangling, the coots all drop as one under water to avoid being caught. The eagle keeps coming back. Coots keep diving.
Loon-wise, past years on these trips have been more rewarding. I try to remember what I saw years ago written on the back of a trash collection truck in Little Rock: "Satisfaction guaranteed or double your garbage back." This produced a good laugh from those who weren't already frozen ice solid.
But loon or no loon, we always get a good look at the role this lake plays in terms of migratory and wintering water birds. Understanding this, and documenting it, seems pretty important as the population of Northwest Arkansas rapidly increases, steadily increasing demands on the lake for a water supply and for recreation such as bird watching.
Birders did their best to stay warm on the lake Nov. 18 2022 on the 28-degree morning. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)
Ducks wing their way over Beaver Lake on Nov. 18 2022 near Rocky Branch park. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)
Horned grebes swim near the shoreline. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)
Ruddy ducks float on the waves. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)
A coot swims near the pontoon boat. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)Boat trip bounty
Here is the list of birds, compiled by Taylor Long, seen on the Nov. 18 Beaver Lake waterfowl cruise.
6 Canada geese
2 gadwall ducks
38 mallard ducks
5 ring-necked ducks
75 bufflehead ducks
2 hooded mergansers
4 ruddy ducks
128 horned grebes
3 American coots
2 Bonaparte’s gulls
1 ring-billed gull
1 turkey vulture
4 bald eagles
1 red-shouldered hawk
1 short-eared owl
Source: Taylor Long, NWA Audubon