Waking up at 6:30 Ed and I got up and by 8 we started to the spots. The eagle nests are located near boat lauch upriver closer to the dam. Arriving there we were greeted with bad luck...fishers. The river current is swift. In order to fish, boaters would drift with the current, fish, then start their motors and return to the spot they started. This buzzing up and down I knew was going to kill the birdwatching.
However we got lucky. Several whitewashed trees pointed to us possibilities. In the binoculars we saw, sure enough, several eagle nests. In one we saw something that was difficult to tell whether it was a bird of any sort. Spending several minutes on it we were able to tell, without a doubt we were in luck. It was a Coopers Hawk, at least, the markings were very close. Ed pointed out to me that the Coopers Hawk markings were also close to a juvenile Bald Eagle or Golden Eagle. Logically it made sense. Those were eagle nests, no doubt. A hawk would be pretty tough to dare to take an eagle's roost. So it just might have been.
Closer upriver I was suprised by the movement of something huge. No doubt, a great heron. A majestic bird, no doubt. I'm always amazed by the the contrasting size and grace by a creature this big. I followed him to his roost and spied several more heron nests. Across the lake martins were flying, having their fill of the morning insects. Somewhere in the background the owls were hooting, another of our fav predators. Bull Shoals was turning out to be a great spot.
After a while Ed and I decided to move to another spot where there were sure heron nests. It was across the from a place called Big Springs. Right in front the water wells up and flows through, fed from a lake 200 feet higher.
If you can see this is across the river, where 7 different heron nests were in this one tree. If you carefully look at the left hand nest, on the far right hand branch there is a grey patch with a slightly lighter color on its left side. That's a great heron. What you can't see, is to the right and slightly above is a Kite quietly in the background. I noticed it flex its wings, that's what drew me to it. Another lucky find.
A last look at one more raptor; not our fave, but one none the less; a buzzard. They're quite common and hang around the dumpsters in the morning. I went over to the dumpster in the morning where about 20 of them were hanging around. I got to an imaginary line and they immediately jumped off and hopped away. One of them turned around and spread its wings. Interestingly they closed ranks and they all opened their wings. Amazing behavior; the wing-spreading was to present a more imposing front and all of them did it in an attempt to "frighten" me away. I walked away, I didn't want to do anything that would present a concern to the group. But I went away more impressed with their behavior. I didn't know that vulture's showed community instincts and was shown otherwise.
Ten o'clock came up and the heat started to ramp up. Ed and I decided we had completed our birdwatching, and ended it with a real winner of a day. We had seen either a Cooper's Hawk or a jv eagle, a kite, a red-tailed hawk, heard several owls and multiple vultures. This does not include the herons, a red-billed woodpecker, kingfishers, several swallows, purple martins, blue-jays, crows, thrush's and a Louisiana Waterthrush. A wonderful day.
10:00am-7:00pm - We took highway 62 East to highway 63 to Memphis, then took Interstate 55 to Columbia. Ed and I had a great time talking about all we had seen.
An interesting epiloge: on the way home something blazed in front of us. It moved so fast that I barely got a look at it. However Ed did. He said "oh my God! That was a Perigrine Falcon!!"
Amazing.. on the last day, on the way home, we spied one of the most unique raptors, the fastest bird on wing. In an unnatural place, an interstate highway. This trip proved to expect the unexpected.
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