WISN Surveys near Jonesboro and Piggot, Arkansas

Yesterday and today, Will and I continued our WISN (Wilson's snipe) surveys.  The township west of Jonesboro, AR was a snow goose hot spot.  We must have seen hundreds of thousands of snow geese throughout the day.  Most flocks were a few thousand in numbers on the ground, and there was a constant stream of geese into these flocks.  The flocks on the ground would triple in size within the hour.  A quick scan of the horizon would reveal flocks of snow geese in a line of over 15 miles long.  On some of the less travelled roads, our truck would flush the huge flocks, resulting in a blanket of geese flying right over us, turning the sky white.  I have never seen more birds in one location.  Pictures don't do it justice, but here are some of the photos that show the density of the flocks.

Early on in the day, we found these two bald eagles sitting very close to a snow goose flock, likely having one for breakfast.  Nearby was a northern harrier, also on a kill.

adult and juvenile bald eagle

northern harrier

Soon after seeing our first huge flock of snow geese for the day, we noticed a flock of what appeared to be horned larks flying around.  They didn't sound like horned larks, and the scope revealed that they were actually a flock of a few hundred lapland longspurs.  They had amazing camoflague, and as soon as they landed, they completely disappeared into the ground.  Here are a few cropped photos I took.  It was easiest to pick out the males, that are getting their breeding plumage, and were easily identifiable by the chestnut color on their backs.  The third photo shows just how hard they were to pick out of each photo.

male lapland longspurs

approximately 30 lapland longspurs in this photo

lapland longspurs in flight

Throughout the day, we also saw at least 6 loggerhead shrikes.

In a flooded farm field, this green-winged teal roamed alone, with a few killdeer.

Although we still haven't found any snipe, we are not too worried yet.  Matt and Jake have not come across any in Louisiana, but think we should start finding them soon.  Our killdeer numbers are slowly increasing, which is a good sign.  Yesterday we spent the night in Paragould, and tonight we are in Blytheville.  Tomorrow we will try to get two townships done, and head for Forest City.  We are currently being hit by a pretty big thunderstorm, but the weather should clear by morning.