Week Eight was a weird week in terms of my adventure this year, suffering from a distinct lack of one of the key main elements of my ‘People, Places, Birds.” adventure: People. While I met and messaged with a handful of birders throughout the week, Week Eight was unfortunately the first – and hopefully the last – week of this year I didn’t actually go birding with a single other birder. This was partly due to some changes in my timing, partly due scheduling conflicts one of my contacts had, and mostly due to negligence on my part and not making enough of an effort to meet other birders. What Week Eight lacked in People, however, it more than made up for in Places and Birds.
To kick off the week I started the morning of Monday the 17th at the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. Before this year began, as I was getting started on my planning for this adventure, I dwelled extensively on the question of whether or not I was allotting myself enough time in each state to reach 100 species. I knew in states like Arizona, Texas, Florida, and California I would pass the century mark almost without effort, but I was positive that states such as Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas would be a considerable challenge. One thing I have mentioned multiple times over the past couple weeks’ blogs is that I have been incredibly blown away by the birding in the states I had lowest expectations for, but in Louisiana that expectation was misguided due to me not realizing that Cameron Parish is one of the top counties in the country, neglecting the coastal advantage provided by Mississippi and Alabama, and not anticipating the incredible birders that would help me along the way in Arkansas.
In Oklahoma I wouldn’t have any of those advantages. Like I already mentioned I didn’t bird with a single birder during Week Eight (though I did get a number of helpful suggestions regarding destinations on a few various Oklahoma Birding Facebook pages), and Oklahoma is quite a long ways from the coast. Additionally, back when I was planning this route and doing my scouting, Oklahoma was the state that I had determined would be by far my most challenging state to reach 100 in. To make matters worse, Oklahoma was expected to get nailed by a major winter storm and record-cold temperatures that would make birding anywhere between miserable and unsafe as well as make it potentially dangerous to sleep in my car. Surely now was the time that the expected challenges of this adventure would finally catch up to me, right?
With only one day of fairly cold but otherwise manageable weather before the expected winter storm arrived, I started off my day at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge just across the border from Oklahoma. Before heading to the Wildlife Drive I spent a bit of time birding the portion of the refuge leading up to it, and heard the morning calls of Northern Cardinal, Eastern Towhee, Carolina Wren, and several other birds. As I neared the entrance to the drive I spotted a small mixed group of blackbirds, with Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, and Rusty Blackbird all in the mix. By the time I even reached the Wildlife Drive I had already tallied up 21 species – a fantastic start to the day considering it wasn’t even 7:30 yet!
As soon as I started the drive, things got… crazy. First, there was a MASSIVE Blackbird flock that stretched as far as I could see across the corn stubble – while the bulk of this flock was made up of Red-winged Blackbirds, of which I would say there were likely more than 10,000, the flock also contained a considerable variety of other blackbirds, including at least a few Brewer’s Blackbirds that I managed to pick out. Soon after the blackbird flock I was greeted by a large Snow Goose flock with a few Ross’s Goose mixed in, a flyover flock of Greater White-fronted Goose, and a group of Eastern Meadowlark with at least one Western Meadowlark calling amongst them. The Wildlife Drive was off to a booming start, and I wasn’t even a tenth of the way through it yet!
A short distance down the drive I made a quick stop and scan at a boat ramp and fishing access spot that is a straight shot down the road that starts the drive, and what a stop it was! Loads of diving sucks were out on the water, including Ruddy Duck, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Redhead, Lesser Scaup, Greater Scaup, Canvasback, Ring-necked Duck, and Common Merganser. Ring-billed Gulls and Forster’s Terns flew over the water and Great Blue Herons worked its edge; within a matter of minutes I was up to 50 species for the checklist! As I worked my way through the rest of the drive the species continued to add up. A pond a short while up the drive loaded me up on dabbling ducks, and throughout the drive I added Mallard, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Wood Duck, Green-winged Teal, and Hooded Merganser to my duck count. Cooper’s Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Northern Harrier, and Bald Eagle left me with little in the way of raptor needs, and woodpeckers were the same with Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Red-headed Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, and Northern Flicker all being present. The drive was also abounds with sparrows, as I picked up Fox Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, White-crowned Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and Swamp Sparrow all along the ~8 mile drive. By the time I wrapped up at Sequoyah it was just a few minutes after 10am, leaving me with nearly a full day yet ahead of me and with already 80 species in this state I had anticipated being the hardest to reach 100 in.
After Sequoyah I made a few brief stops at Lake Tenkiller, Greenleaf State Park, and the Fort Gibson Lake Dam, picking up 6 new species for Oklahoma along the way. Then at the Sequoyah Bay Recreation Area I added a few more when I spotted a few Common Loon, some Red-breasted Merganser, and nearly 300 Horned Grebe! This wrapped up my planned stops for the day, but with a few hours of light left I decided to try my luck at tracking down some recent reports of birds seen over the past couple days which I had not yet seen in Oklahoma. First, while taking photos of a Loggerhead Shrike, I heard the distinct rattle of a Smith’s Longspur, a bird I had been hoping to find but hadn’t had high expectations I would manage to connect with. From there I managed to add Hairy Woodpecker, Purple Finch, Cedar Waxwing, Harris’s Sparrow, and American Pipit at a very productive stop at the Fort Gibson Wildlife Management Area (which for some reason isn’t an eBird Hotspot?). I then added Eurasian Collared-Dove and Merlin along my drive towards Tulsa, and heard a couple of American Woodcock displaying outside of the Whataburger I decided to stop at to work on last week’s blog. This ended day one of birding in Oklahoma, and the final count on the first day in the state I expected to be the hardest to reach 100 species in? 99 species.
It is a fortuitous thing, in hindsight, that I had such a productive day on the 17th, as after it I would be hit with a run of misfortune – misfortune that would start first thing in the morning of the 18th, when it began to rain. This wasn’t just any rain, but rather a miserably cold freezing rain. A rain that seemed to turn to ice the second it came in contact with the ground. Ice that then built up into a thick layer that presented a serious hazard on the roads. A hazard intensified when the rain turned to snow. All this to say my birding in Oklahoma was about to take a serious damper – in fact, it would nearly cease entirely.
On the 18th I would submit just three eBird checklists. The first was at Walmart where I’d spend the night in the parking lot, and where in the morning I spotted a flock of Great-tailed Grackle, bringing me to 100 for Oklahoma. The second was at the Bixby Sod Farms, where I added Cackling Goose, Horned Lark, and Great Horned Owl to my Oklahoma list. And the third and final checklist of the day was still before 10am, along a road as I worked my way from the sod farm to the hotel my parents had generously gotten me a reservation at so I could get out of the weather and not risk freezing to death in the sub-zero temperatures. This was probably the only night this year I will spend in a hotel, and hopefully I won’t have any other days this year with such little birding.
The next day, after sleeping in a bit to give the road crews some time to make the roads driveable, I began the drive west. My birding in Oklahoma was, unfortunately, almost over for the time being – though I do plan to return to the state in March on my way back east. I wasn’t quite through with the state yet, as I made a few stops around the Foss Lake area including Sunset Beach, the Owl Cove Recreation Area, and the Washita National Wildlife Refuge, specifically the Riverside Recreation Area. Along East 960 Road between two of those spots I added my last bird for Oklahoma when I spotted a covey of Northern Bobwhite, and from there I headed west into New Mexico.
Much like my first visit to New Mexico, my second visit was weird when compared to the rest of the states I have visited this year, as the time in the state wasn’t particularly focused on birding – though this time around for slightly different reasons. Like my visit in early January, though, I still did set aside some time for birding, particularly on the 20th. My first stop on this Thursday morning was at the Santa Rosa Lake State Park, where I added Red-breasted Merganser and Common Goldeneye to my New Mexico list. From there I made a brief stop at Park Lake in Santa Rosa to pick up Cinnamon Teal, and then began heading to Albuquerque.
Before reaching ABQ, I made a series of stops around the town of Moriarty, specifically driving a couple of the farmland irrigation roads north of town. While driving those rural roads, in addition to getting phenomenal looks at Horned Lark and Western Meadowlark, and Ferruginous Hawk, I added Chestnut-collared Longspur, Brewer’s Blackbird, and Brown-headed Cowbird to my New Mexico list as well my first of year Rough-legged Hawk along the northern section of the road, a bird I won’t have many more opportunities to see this year. I also swung by the Moriarty City Park, but didn’t pick up anything of note there, and from there decided to head into the city.
I made one stop in Albuquerque, revisiting the Tingley Lagoon ponds where I once again got phenomenal close-up looks at a wide variety of ducks, including absolutely the best looks I have ever gotten at Wood Duck. From there I headed to the main reason why I was swinging by Albuquerque to begin with and the reason I had left Oklahoma when I did instead of staying another day: an emergency visit to the dentist’s office to get some tooth pain checked out. Unfortunately the visit to the dentist’s office has to be delayed until the next morning, so I instead headed to the house of one of my brothers’ friends to watch the USA vs Canada hockey game in the Championship Round of the 4 Nations Face Off, and then returned to the dentist’s office in the morning where I was given the fantastic news that I need a root canal! Yay! And to make the matter even better, it’s a molar and therefore I need an Endodontist to do it, and the Endodontist wasn’t available, so I am going to make another return journey to New Mexico for a day in a few weeks. Woohoo!
This news, and the resulting change in my time-table, made me make the decision to just skip my second day of birding in New Mexico and head through Arizona (skipping my two days of birding there as well) to get started on Nevada. I did make one stop for a nice hike in Arizona though, at the Rio de Flag Picture Canyon Trail, where I managed to pick up my first Lifer in about two weeks: a Pacific Wren, and after that hike moved on to Nevada.
On Saturday morning I began my three-day weekend in Sin City with a visit to the renowned Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, where I rocketed my Nevada list to an exceptional start with 45 species including my first-of-year Long-tailed Duck and great looks at Costa’s Hummingbird, Anna’s Hummingbird, and Crissal Thrasher. Henderson gave me the same type of feeling as Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson and the Gilbert Water Ranch in Phoenix, all of which consisted of a handful of manmade ponds and cattail marshes surrounded by riparian habitat, and all three of which were loaded with a massive variety of birds. I probably could have spent an entire day at Henderson, but with an action-packed plan for my time in the Vegas area I decided to move on after about three hours. From Henderson I headed to the Clark County Wetlands Park, where I visited both the main trails as well as the Duck Creek Area and the Pabco Area, all of which were spectacular and after which I found myself at 67 species for Nevada, putting me 2/3rds of the way to the century mark. The CCWP spots were another stretch of property in the same vein as Sweetwater, Gilbert, and Henderson – and they hosted one of the most impressive visitor’s/nature centers I have ever seen. For anyone visiting Vegas any time in the future, CCWP and Henderson are both places I would consider to be absolute must-visit locations.
After wrapping up at the Pabco Area, I headed east out of Vegas towards Lake Mead, where I made a series of stops along the lake, the first of which was at the 33 Hole Overlook. From there I spotted a large variety of birds out on the water, including notably Long-billed Dowitcher, American Avocet, Western Grebe, Clark’s Grebe, Eared Grebe, and my Lifer California Gull. I then added a couple more birds at both the Sunset Overlook and at Boulder Beach, and then I finally made my way over to the store Visitor’s Center, wrapping up my time along Lake Mead where I had brought myself to 90 species for Nevada.
Before the day was over I headed into Boulder City for a visit to the Veteran’s Park there, a spot reminiscent to me of Albuquerque’s Tingley Lagoon in the way the ducks and geese here were just totally accustomed to people – including a group of the most tame-yet-still-wild Snow Goose I have ever seen.
Finally I closed out Week Eight on Sunday with another day of birding kicked off at the Rainbow Owl Preserve for Burrowing Owl, and from there I made my way to Floyd Lamb Park for a short walk during which I added five new Nevada birds, including most notably a Merlin. From Floyd Lamb I made my way to the Desert National Wildlife Refuge Corn Creek Field Station, where while birding around the area I surpassed the 100-mark in Nevada thanks to a handful of noteworthy pickups including Prairie Falcon, Sagebrush Sparrow, Sage Thrasher, and my Lifer LeConte’s Thrasher. From there I planned to make a stop at the Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, but unfortunately the park’s entrance was closed off and instead I just decided to head south to the small town of Goodsprings to visit the Pioneer Saloon and take in the town’s almost eerie resemblance to how it is portrayed in one of my all-time favorite video games, Fallout: New Vegas. I concluded the 23rd back in the city with a visit to Sunset Park, where a Sharp-shinned Hawk, a Neotropic Cormorant, a Greater Scaup, and a Canvasback brought me to 109 in Nevada so far.
I still had one more day to spend in the Vegas area before I planned to head to California in Week Eight – the only state with the potential to rival the 50 Lifers tallied in Arizona during my time in SEAZ. Next week I will be meeting up with at least a couple birders, and the realization that I had failed to arrange anyone to bird with in Week Eight served as a kick in the rear for me to not just focus on where I am going to be birding and what birds I could track down, but also who I will be birding with. So hopefully, as I said at the start, Week Eight will not just be the first week this year I don’t bird with even one other birder, but hopefully the last as well!
Happy Birding!
eBird Trip Summary:
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Follow me on my journey to see 100 species in every Lower-48 State during 2025, experience some of the incredible places and events in American birding, and meet and bird with as many local birders as possible along the way.
Posts will be made every Wednesday (I will try to have them out by 5pm, but situationally they might be a bit later) and will cover the previous Monday through Sunday. Additional posts will be made periodically with no set schedule.
