[honk honk]

3 minutes ago, IKLland said:

Careful, the banding code for Canada Goose is actually CANG. 
 

I agree, the first two photos is a Cackling Goose(the bird in question) 

 

The last photo is two Canada Geese(CANG)

I was going to say that... Gotta love the birds that are similar...
Saw a couple people photographing birds yesterday and they kept saying GBH... I didn't have the heart to "correct" them with GBHE...
You should see my notebooks when I first started and all the codes I made up.  ha...
And thanks all...

[honk honk]

It sometimes really upsets me how much Canada geese can very in size... I mean, it's pretty drastic sometimes... so when you have a big flock with all sorts of obvious size differences, it's just frustrating...
And don't get me started on how even the bill can be a bit variable.
Sometimes it's obvious and other times, I just don't know.

Was looking at at least 62 geese the other day and the sizes were frustrating. I thought maybe there'd be a cackling in there so I just tried to photograph as many as I could.
Looking at the pictures... well these three pictures, two are definitely of the same bird, they were sequential in the photos... the other might still be the same bird, or a separate one. Hard to say.
This bird was smallish, smaller just a bit than some of the smaller canada geese... but the bill also looks smaller to me in comparison with the other birds...
But I'm not sure I feel certain enough because the size differences weren't extreme... Those small canadas just have to make things complicated...

The bird on the left here... I feel like it's profile is also a bit lower to the water...

Same bird on left, just a different photo

Bird on the right this time, the bill I'm just not sure of... seems small... but hard for me to judge here...

[Eagle watch photography tour]

22 minutes ago, Johnd said:

gorgeous photos .

will that  Sigma lens fit on a  t5?

i only have the 400

 

 

I wrote a reply but, am changing it.
So... yes... technically. Check out this link that explains what lens mounts you can use on the T5. This article says you can use an EF lens BUT, it will be "zoomed in"  There's an explanation in there.
The T5 uses EFS lens mount. They both fit, but, are different.

https://www.natetorresphotography.com/best-lenses-for-canon-rebel-t5/

So when you're comparing lenses, ideally you want to look for EFS.
Some of the brands like Sigma and Tamron make specific lenses where they make different versions for different lens mounts.

Hmmm... I'm not seeing a lot of options when I search specifically for the EF-S mount for lenses.
Hopefully a more experienced photographer can explain what it would do to use an EF lens... Or maybe the link I provided above will explain it. I'd start there. It would fit, and work... but, I didn't study on what it would do...
Now I'm curious... I may read about it myself in a bit.

Ha... Editing to add... that link I provided mentions the sigma as a good lens to use for the camera... So... yeah.

 

[Eagle watch photography tour]

Hobb's state park in Northwest Arkansas is a pretty cool place to visit with a lot of land and parts of Beaver Lake. Beaver Lake being one of many man-made lakes in the state. I feel like every lake in Arkansas is the result of a dam.
Anyway, Hobbs has very regular events for people to attend. Some are fun. Birds and Breakfast, for instance... They have breakfast snacks and there are people outside mist netting songbirds. They'll weigh and band and such and then they bring them in bags inside where a demonstration is going on. They'll talk about birds and show them off an then have kids help release them out the back door. At least, they were the last time I attended. My kids loved it.

Anyway, Every year around this time they have eagle watch tours. I found one this year where the weather was cold but, decent for wind and sun... and signed up. $15 to get a short little bit of photography tips and then out to see eagles.
I of course wasn't there just for eagles. I wanted all birds. Target species included common loon, goldeneyes, and horned grebes. Didn't get the loons but got everything else.

And the eagles... had at least 4 individuals, one pair for sure, the other two may or may not have been a pair. The pair we were sure was a pair included some views that were just amazing... and the photos I got... better than I'd expect, from me anyway...

I have a canon t7 and have been using kit lenses til not too long ago when I splurged on a Sigma 150-600mm lens. I do not regret the purchase.
I feel like at least a coupe of my pictures almost look like a photographer took them. Almost.
Anyway...

 

[Birding reputations and the weight they carry]

2 minutes ago, Charlie Spencer said:

I didn't see anything critical in the responses but that's in the eye of the beholder. 

If you don't want responses, consider not venting in a forum.

you are critical with your responses, often... and here. You're telling me how I should feel or what I should do. This was not asked for.
I specifically stated I was venting. I wasn't crying or demanding justice. Just expressing some frustration that others in my community have expressed. People shared their opinions. I want it to be over but, no, someone else has to have the last word.
No buts? I really don't like it when people tell me how to think, feel, or post.

[Birding reputations and the weight they carry]

7 minutes ago, IKLland said:

@Connor Cochranequoted @Birds are cool’s post. He wasn’t saying this about you, he was saying it about @Birds are cool. 

I apologize if this is true... except in that, Birds are cool wrote just a few words. To then be called out and criticized in that way in a topic they didn't start? Seems personal. Seems wrong.
Birds are cool wasn't making the complaints I was, they simply said "it happens" 

Anyway, there are times I wish this was like facebook and I could turn off comments on my own post.

I vented... I stand by some of my frustration, even though I understand some of the arguments. My vent is valid. The arguments of others are valid.
Let's move on.

[Birding reputations and the weight they carry]

8 hours ago, DLecy said:

This is a long post, but a couple of things stand out.

Please be careful responding to thoughts you did not read. A lot of what you said shows you did not read all I wrote.
So, I have to answer your questions that I already answered in the original post?

I'm going to ask that we drop the conversation now. Please.
I was venting. The fact is that some of my reports, had they been by a few certain people, they would have been "confirmed" fairly quickly. I am not the only person in my state that has complained about this and, again, I suspect this is a widespread thing. People have biases.
I get it... I've argued with a person that saw a 3 foot tall woodpecker.
I've had a bird 10 feet away responding(answering) to playback... but will never be confirmed. If mr expert birder wrote the same exact thing I did, his would have been accepted.
I tried recording it but it was never singing while I had it recording, or the mic on my phone didn't pick it up. I'll go back and see if I can find any recordings and listen to them.
And, how do you describe a call? You could do, as someone mentioned about field marks, the easy thing and look up how other people have described it and copy them. I don't want to do that. How do you describe something of a scream like call from a kiskadee. I could, to this day, open up my app and play the exact call... still don't know how I'd describe it.
Or the henslow's sparrow that answered playback repeatedly... how on earth do you describe that?
I feel my description of the burrowing owl is fairly decent. Two "who" type notes with the second ending all rough.
How do the books describe that call? ugh...

Sorry, I'm venting again. Please drop it. I didn't come to vent to be criticized.

6 hours ago, Connor Cochrane said:

I've noticed you upload media (wether photo or audio) under the rare species on eBird before you get the the photos/audio confirmed.

Really? How many times have I done this exactly? You've looked me up on eBird every time I've asked about an ID here? IF I've done this, it can't be more than a few times.
99% of the time I'm asking for ID's BEFORE I upload images.

Please drop it... ESPECIALLY if you're not reading the whole conversation. Don't argue one or two thoughts if you're not listening to me, please.
And again... this is just a vent.
 

[Birding reputations and the weight they carry]

Just venting... and, just a little. I'm not as upset as I might end up sounding.
I think I'm going to go through my list and reach out to the reviewer and ask for some more of my sightings to be "confirmed."

Basically, I'm not a "pro" birder... the experts in this state, when they report something with a vague description, it's accepted fairly quickly. (Side note, some of them are getting older and their senses are not what they used to be but, that's another story.)
Then I come along... I can have a decent description and be certain that NO other bird could have been there... but, I don't have a photo or, I don't explain the details word for word as they'd be found in a field guide... so, a lot of my sightings are on my eBird life list but, not on the actual public lists as records.
There are some where, I kind of get it.
My burrowing owl sighting... heard only. In the field, I did not ID it, I was in a rush(one of the many encounters where I REALLY regret not going through all the thorns and such and not caring if I was late somewhere) I wrote in my notes "cuckoo/jay" because it sounded like it was saying cuckoo... two notes... well not really like cuckoo but, how else do I describe it? who whoooo... with a really rough and gritty(how I worded it on eBird) ending. When I got home, I searched real quick and, found it fairly quickly... identical sound. Perfect match.
Not only that but, there were jays making a racket in the exact area where the bird was. They were not happy. I'm absolutely certain... and not only that, just a few days prior, there was a confirmed burrowing owl(I did not know it at the time) IN town, at a school, maybe 15 minutes away.

But, my bird should show up as the "last seen" but no, the bird from a few days prior is.  Oh well.

My kiskadee...  This would be the second sighting for the entire state... in my yard... in perfect sunlight atop a tree... Brown back, BRIGHT yellow belly/breast, and black and white head. It even called out. My daughter was there, heard the call but didn't see the bird. HATES that she heard it because she wont count heard only...  The bird was gone right after it called. I opened up Merlin and played the calls and, perfect... absolutely perfect.
How on earth do you mistake a kiskadee? Seen AND heard?
But, the committee will not accept it. (not that they were kind enough to tell me that)

I've had two heard only henslow's sparrows... One, just called once. I'm sure that's what it was but understand not accepting that. The other, I heard it multiple times, even 10 feet away, responding to playback but just would NOT pop up where I could see it.(Sometimes birds upset me, HA)
Still, not confirmed.

Some of the older and/or more reputable birders get their reports approved quickly, with little info sometimes. This is frustrating.
I ran into someone at a local hotspot that said he had photos of something and it still wasn't accepted, while the "experts" didn't have photos, just descriptions, and theirs would be accepted.

Part of me wants to make a fuss, at least over a few of them.
But, I'm just a nobody.
I've helped the reviewer MANY times in finding reports from others that were mistakes... He and I have had a lot of conversations about someone that refused to stop using Merlin for all their IDs...
He knows I'm not a complete amateur...  But still...
I can't describe the little details on this part or that part as mentioned in the books... so.....

One year, a few years back, I did bring this up to him. He said back then that it was hard for him to know how good a birder I was because I didn't have birds on my life list that he believed to be common. He lives HOURS away where there are more species reported and what's common there and here are different. So, that's not a fair thing to go by. I believe blue-winged warbler is one of the ones I was complaining about not having yet back then.
And, to people like him's surprise, I still don't have a whip-poor-will on my list. Why? I haven't been in the right place at the right time.

Meh......  
I know what's on my list and that's what matters most but, I wouldn't mind the data reflecting a few more of the birds I've seen.

Who wants to give this guy credit for a kiskadee? Nobody official I guess... 
Side note... I wouldn't mind finding the contact info of EVERY eBird reviewer between northern TX and Illinois.
The year I saw the kiskadee, different months near that time, kiskadeed were reported in both areas and I fall right between them. I feel it could be possible it was the same bird, just passing through... and, I wonder if there were any unconfirmed sightings(like mine) along that route but only the eBird reviewers could dig that up for me.
I might have to look into that...

Again, I'm not as upset as I sound.
I am curious though...
Have any of you come across this thing where some people will have their ID's accepted a lot faster than someone else's?

[Sparrow (Grasshopper?) - City Park in Houston - Jan. 25, 2023]

2 minutes ago, Birds are cool said:

Grasshopper Sparrow! They are cool birds!

agreed, and agreed...
Great photos...
I've only seen a few, in summer when they're hiding in the grass ALL the time. I've never seen one on a tree branch. Nice find.

[junco forms]

I doubt I influenced this trend at all... but... A few years back, I thought I had an oregon junco but, no, it wasn't brown. Cismontanus(did I spell that right?) was what I had. Cool.
At that point, even my eBird reviewer wasn't sure about it... It wasn't an option that was easy to submit. And NOBODY on the listserv(mail list) was talking about that form before.
Fast forward a couple years and now it's like we have junco experts... To be fair, the people I'm talking about are VERY good birders... but, suddenly they're being very specific when they weren't before, and, wouldn't have known before. It's an interesting trend... with pros and cons... the only real cons is people trying to submit stuff they don't know as much about as they think.
But, eh...
My concern(and yes, there is an ID photo coming soon) is that a LOT of these forms that people are finding are, well, I believe mixed. Even on all about birds, they have two oregon males, one with brown sides and one with gray sides. Weird.
And then I've personally seen in my yard, and birds people have submitted to eBird, juncos that looked like a blend and were just hard to nail down specifically, in my OPINION. 
How many of the different form birds pass through are just straight that form and not a combination? Certainly they interbreed... 

anyway... I find it fascinating(and frustrating) to stare at the juncos in my yard to look for something different. "different" birds are abundant enough it seems.
When I find one that looks like a mini towhee(at a quick glance) it always catches my eye.
So, this one(if it's even the one I saw a while before I got this photo) had a VERY distinct dark hood, lighter color on the sides... Definitely not typical slate...
So I looked and looked... found a variety of different birds, some may have just been female slates... I got this one picture(they weren't sitting still at all today) and you can see the distinct hood, that gets a little less distinct towards the back... brownish on the back, and a light brownish on the sides.

When I look at the website ID photos for the different forms, SO many of my odd birds don't match any of them perfectly.
I'd want to lean towards oregon or oregon influence...
Feel free to share your impression of this bird as well as your general thoughts on the whole thing with different forms for these birds.

[1/20/2023 NW Arkansas]

Interesting.
Both the first meadowlark(by itself) and the one on the right in the next pic have thinner dark stripes giving the bird a lighter appearance, which is typical for western... and, to me, it sure looks like the yellow breaks into the white malar stripe on the right bird, which again is a western trait.
But if I don't get a confirmation on any, I'm fairly content leaving it how I reported originally... about 40 eastern meadowlarks and 2 reported as eastern/western. I don't know if I have any westerns for that county but, I have several confirmed westerns on my life list here in my home county, same state, so... eh... 🙂

[1/20/2023 NW Arkansas]

no second opinions on the meadowlarks?

[1/20/2023 NW Arkansas]

Woolsey Wet Prairie in Fayetteville...  It's a cool place. Lots of small ponds, marshy habitat in places, some trees, lots of grasses... Decent sized place considering the surroundings... WAY too many cookie cutter houses going up all over, a couple of solar farms, and a sewage treatment plant... actually you have to drive into the sewage place(outside the gate) and there's just one spot for a couple cars to park at.

The goal was american tree sparrows. I had another very disappointing search a little closer to home. I was told these would be at Woolsey... many people had reported them. Perhaps I waited too long or, we just didn't happen across them.
Someone in another threat mentioned playback. Just like with my experience, a young man I was birding with yesterday said the few times he's seen them there, playback did not work.
Please let me know what would work?  HA...      Anyway... want some confirmations and thoughts on a few birds.

I can often ID savannah sparrows in the field if I get good enough looks and hear their calls as they takeoff... but there were a lot of birds here that, well I just snapped a few pictures and moved on because they weren't what I was looking for. And, man those sparrows are frustrating... Not much activity at first... then, lots of movement but very little still... and just a while later, it was quiet again. Grr...
Savs?

All three birds in this photo white-crowned?

immature white-crowned?  (side note... I've been seeing a LOT more immature wcsp than adults, percentage wise, this year compared to others)
These two birds we saw from a ways off, saw reddish caps in the binoculars so I snapped a couple pictures just in case. They'd be gone by the time we got closer. Really, where on earth were the tree sparrows hiding? 😞

Any chance either of these are western meadowlarks? The guy I was birding with was telling someone else there was a good chance westerns were mixed in as there were a lot of meadowlarks, and westerns do seem to happen often enough in these parts this time of year... (he didn't say that part) and he said that you really can't tell if they don't vocalize.
I didn't speak up but thought, that's not exactly true.
I looked in the tree where a flock of 20 to 30 or so landed, saw at least two birds that were significantly lighter than the others, and snapped a couple pictures.
This first one, I don't personally see yellow interrupting the paler malar very well but it was one of the lighter birds.

The one on the right in this photo not only has thinner dark banding(making it appear lighter) but it sure looks like yellow goes into that malar area quite well. But it's not a spectacular photo so I want thoughts on it.

[Too big to be a Hawk, right?...Eagle??? Northeast Texas.]

I have found that different things affect our perception of size. I haven't tried this much myself but they say if you hold a penny with your arm stretched out and compare it to the moon when it's low to the horizon vs way up in the sky, it will look the same... and yet, when the moon is first coming up it appears a LOT bigger to most people than when it's high in the sky.
It isn't really bigger, it's just our perception based on things on the horizon I guess. The same with the sun... I've watched some sunsets where the sun looked HUGE...

With birds, I can't say exactly what it is about items but, you will see a red-tailed hawk that looks bigger or smaller(significantly) depending on where it is AND what's around it.
I have seen a few that looked like SMALL hawks that were red-tailed. It throws me sometimes.
There are variations in how this works...
As a general rule(for my own experience) birds at certain angles above eye level look larger and those down low(especially downhill) can look smaller.
But again, variations... that probably have to do with nearby items including simple things like leaves.
I never thought of a great crested flycatcher to be a larger bird... til I had one near my house in a not so huge redbud tree. I just about jumped up and grabbed my binoculars... what was this large bird, had to be something I never saw before.
Wait... what?
up til then, I've only seen them pretty high up in trees at angles that would strain your neck. Seeing one down lower and closer it was a totally different bird.
I've seen goldfinches, not all that far from me in a shallow creek that, well that day they were THE tiniest birds I had ever seen... 
Killdeer up on the road vs down in the muddy ponds just a little ways below, look very different sometimes.

It's interesting... fascinating even... and yet, frustrating at times. HA.

And it can be pretty interesting arguing about it. I never could convince one guy that he did NOT see a three foot tall woodpecker. He was just about ready to fight about it... bigger than an eagle he said...
Probably a pileated and, probably at just the right angle and/or with just the right items nearby that gave the perspective of an exceptionally large bird.

Sorry for the ramble...

[Duck and or shorebird gear]

I think the easiest ways is to get a blind and keep it low on the bank as you can go. Cheapest and safest thing, I'd think.

But... I've been dreaming for years of basically something akin to a submarine... Something that looks like a big log or brush pile that floats around and I'd be inside with my body mostly below water level and only my head above with a nice window to view from.
Designing such a contraption would be complicated enough as you'd need a way to maneuver and even anchor it at times so you're not being tossed about by wind and currents... 

and if you don't think that idea is fantastic enough... here's another one I dream about sometimes...

Building my own birding hotspot, designing the habitat and bird viewing areas all from scratch... including a BIG pond with shallow muddy areas for shorbirds, etc...
AND.......  A solid viewing area on the outer edge of the pond that has.....  well, a tunnel system that goes UNDER the water to an island in the middle where, yeah, your body standing inside a room would be below water level but out at this island, while you're sandting there your head would be just above the water level with some nice viewing windows.

If I ever become super rich, I am totally doing this.

Also, I am accepting donations  🙂  HA

[CBC vent]

I have such a good birding area near me, I really want to have a CBC here but there just isn't enough people willing to commit to it. Which is frustrating.  There are two CBC circles in my area that are a good half an hour away(or more, depending on which part of a circle) and then nothing else for over an hour.
That's not what I'm here to vent about though... 

The Fayetteville CBC has been going on for MANY years now but I chose to participate in a different one that, I think this is their second year, maybe third but I'm not sure.
When I told the compiler that I wanted to participate(we really just don't have enough birders that either know about or want to get out and do this?) he simply told me some street names on a map(kind of vague) basically a square within the circle and said that was mine. Just mine. Birding alone. I wonder if I was the only one that birded a whole section alone. I know that's not how the Fayetteville count works.
Okay... so, I did that. I birded that area... BUT... while I was there, I visited two hotspots that were just outside my given area. I wanted to see certain winter birds(ducks mostly) and I knew I'd get a few good birds there just for fun.
So when I submitted my data, I made an eBird trip report putting the 4 checklists I did from within my square... But I also passed along info from the other two spots, in case I had higher numbers or different species than those people had seen. In a way, it's a good thing I went to the fish hatchery because the group that visited there(officially) reported a snow goose but what was there was a Ross's. I told one lady to double check her photos(she hadn't posted them) and, I was right. They had seen a Ross's goose.

Anyway, the compiler recently sent out the report to everyone to see if we saw any mistakes.  Ross's goose wasn't even on there yet. But that lady that had her pictures replied. And numbers seemed off, just my glancing at the list.
When I reached out to mention it, he was confused. Then he also explained he just wanted the data from my square, and nothing else because the other spots were not assigned to me.
They had a total of 9 bufflehead for the ENTIRE count... when I saw 45... but, that was 40 at the hatchery, and 5 at moberly pond... both outside of my designated area.

I personally would think a compiler would welcome extra data to boost the numbers and give a better representation of what we actually have at these locations. But, I wasn't assigned those spots so the data is irrelevant?  I don't understand. I feel frustrated. So, I vent. HA.
I did email him and say if that's all he wanted, so be it.

But, I think it's weird. And there was quite a few species where I had higher numbers...
Oh well I guess.
Sorry for the rambling... I just had to type out my frustrations somewhere.

[grumble grumble]

On 1/13/2023 at 11:30 PM, DLecy said:

when you learn to ID the straightforward expected ones in your area, at all ages.

That's another thing that gets me... how different they can look at different ages... and some species, different times of year.
And then the variations across the country... Song sparrows can be very different in different areas... some finches... even red-shouldered hawks? Ack...
It can be maddening at times.
And then the "expected" and the unexpected...
On the one hand, this makes it nice... a hummingbird flies by... it's a ruby-throated here...
except for when it isn't... which, I'd never know if it were some of the ones that are similar to RTHU or if it was just too fast to get a good look at.
Just last year I drove an hour and a half east to the Eureka Springs area to get a violetear...  you just never know... it's better to be safe than sorry with the expected IDs but...
It would kill me if I was looking at 1000 ring-billed gulls and then later find out someone saw something unexpected among them... and, that sort of thing happens.
birds.......... 
I suggest we all get together and make name tags for them all. Would make things a lot easier.
(at least until they started swapping them just to frustrate us)

[grumble grumble]

Maybe one day I'll be a good enough birder I'll NEVER make a mistake or get my hopes up where hopes aren't warranted... Ha... right...

It is REALLY frustrating how variable birds are... And on top of that, it's REALLY frustrating how some birds will NOT sit still for more than 1 second making it SO difficult to get good looks or pictures.

I stopped at one of my favorite spots today to look for an american tree sparrow... Two different people have seen one there and I visit this place more than ANYONE... one of the pictures someone got, I was like 50 yards away when they got the picture... they didn't know they got the sparrow til they got home and looked at pics but, it was RIGHT there while I was there.
Playback didn't work that day, or any day I've been there. Which is frustrating.
There are more reliable tree sparrows about half an hour or so away but in another county and I really wanted to add it to this county... Even though I sort of could, and want to anyway from seeing one 19(ish) years ago. I remember once I started getting more into birding, looking at photos, and I had one where I used to live. But now, I can't even find those pictures to triple check... Eh...

Anyway, instead of Merlin's audio, I tried the Audubon app's audio today and I seemed to get more of a reaction. One bird in particular, seemed to fit well. Either it was there and I didn't get a picture or, this one bird really just fooled me. Had the right color to the cap... seemed to have a bi-colored bill...  had a spot on the front(I've seen SO many species display a spot on the front... grrr) But studying my pictures now, all I have is swamp sparrow pics... 
This one here, it LOOKS like it has a bi-colored bill but, I'm thinking the yellow doesn't go all the way down... but ugh, this thing got my hopes up for a little while.
(Not posting in the ID section because, I'm certain this is a swamp sparrow...)
Anyway... birds can frustrate me. Why can't they just wear name tags?  HA. 
What birds/families give you the most frustration?

[peeps(Lesa)]

48 minutes ago, Birds are cool said:

Agreed on the first two. Why not Western for the last two?

The first two, it's actually three pictures. The bottom two(of those three) blend in together. 

and yeah, why not? I don't know but, that's one of the reasons I posted them. I felt that last bird(same bird in the last two photos) looked a little different in the field.
Here's one more pic of it. I didn't post this picture before because, it wasn't very different from one of the others and, I don't know if there's something in its bill or if the tongue it out but it makes the bill look longer.
Hard to say because of lighting what the legs actually look like but, it's standing up taller in this picture.
 

[peeps(Lesa)]

While I'm here... I was observing about 40 mallards at another spot yesterday. This one female had more of an orangish tinge to the face compared to the others...

 

[peeps(Lesa)]

Northwest Arkansas yesterday. The lighting was not great(kind of overcast) and they were at a distance. They were all rather small and overall gave me least sandpiper feel... There were about 6 there, most of them together.

The last two photos are of one bird that was in a separate spot from the others.

[NW Arkansas 12/31/22]

That's quite a tail... for the rat that is.
There's a good chance I watched the same bird feasting for a little while after that.

[NW Arkansas 12/31/22]

Was at a local prairie HOPING for short-eared owls. No luck on that. Wanted to ask a few questions...

1. Do you think this harrier is carrying something with a long tail or, is something attached to the bird?

2. I had to lighten this photo but I'm thinking mallards

3. Interesting looking, and fluffy-ish looking legs. I was so focused on patrolling the area that had short-eared owl potential that I didn't walk over to the other side to get a closer look to this hawk... now I wish I did.

4. Lastly, is this a young-ish male harrier. I typically see brown harriers... the beautiful gray males seem to elude me but, this sure looks way more gray and has the right pattern on the bottom of the wings(I believe) so I'm pretty sure it's a male but, it isn't as smoothly beautiful looking as some pictures I've seen so I was wondering if it might make it a younger bird.

[GWTE?]

30+ ducks today at the lake(NW Arkansas) and pretty much everything was looking to be Gadwall. Except this one bird. I was viewing it through willow branches a little ways off. This bird was very obviously smaller whether it was in front of or behind a nearby gadwall. I thought I saw that tannish cream colored stripe near the back end that made me think it just had to be green-winged teal. I could use some thoughts on it though. Pictures are not great...

[Arkansas sparrow]

A. I stink at ID'ing sparrows with bad photos and just one angle. Ack. That's such a weird facial pattern for a swamp sparrow... I'd love to hear/read the field marks that make this a swamp sparrow. Maybe it will help me get better?  I could hope.

B. Where near Fayetteville? I live in Siloam Springs, about half an hour from Fayetteville. There are some GOOD places to bird over there. Woolsey Wet Prairie has been having reports of american tree sparrows... Being a single dad that's TRYING to be a good parent, I try not to go too far and do toooooo much birding so I don't feel like I'm neglecting anyone. So I haven't been chasing much in the area.