Hello Tweets,

While perhaps not as exciting as chasing all the cool vagrants around here, I took a brief trip to Oklahoma over Christmas. I was going to visit relatives, and decided it was a good opportunity to look for the Smith's Longspur in the area around Oklahoma City and Stillwater.

It worked out pretty well, ending up with 71 species over roughly two days of birding. I didn't check any hotlines or anything, but I was able to discover online that Sooner Lake is a reliable spot for the Smith's, and made it within a couple hours drive of OKC. The field on the western shore seemed pretty barren at first, and I could hear dreaded gunshots in the distance. Yet within 10 minutes I had a flyover of 3 SMITH'S LONGSPURs. Ten minutes after that, they flew back low and nicely lit, clearly showing a white shoulder patch and calling their "dry rattle".

Nothing much else was about in that place: on the shore were several Killdeer, two Dunlin, and a Greater Yellowlegs. Near the carpark, a Loggerhead Shrike flew in, and there were also lingering flocks of Western Meadowlarks (the only Easterns I found were NW of OKC). A single American White Pelican and a female Bufflehead joined some Mallards in the lake itself. I must have been too distracted by the longspurs, since I left forgetting about the Greater Prairie Chickens that are also possible at that location - oh well :-)

Continuing on toward the Great Salt Plains, a couple hours further west, I was able to pick up a "Krider's" Red-tailed Hawk along the road (the only one of the trip), and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in some trees near Medford. At the wildlife refuge itself, I flushed up a Barred Owl on a trail through some dense cedars - and in the unseasonable 62 degrees, there were flurries of Cedar Waxwings everywhere. A field later on also produced a few thousand Snow Geese , and a few Bald Eagles flying and perched around. Stopping at a barren salty shoreline which advertised shorebirds, I found not a single one, but luckily a big flock of 30-40 LONGSPURs flew over within a few minutes - mostly LAPLAND with a few SMITH's among them.

The parks around OKC were very woodsy, mixed broadleaf and red cedar (a variety that looked like a bit like junipers) in most places. The trees and bushes bordering open pasture and tilled fields were good too. The OKC Zoo was happily free of admission on XMas eve, and had some nice lakes and other habitat. A few random lists from the Oklahoma City area, birds in no particular order:

Lake Overholser: (a tree-lined carpark at the north end of the lake, bordering a tilled field)
Hooded Merganser - 6
Ring-billed Gull - big raft
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Northern "Yellow-shafted" Flicker - 1
Harris Sparrow - 20 or so along the road
Dark-eyed "Slate-colored" Junco - 10-20
Dark-eyed "Pink-sided" Junco - one or two
Great-tailed Grackle - big flocks in fields
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - several, very active in the cold
Song Sparrow - 1
Carolina Chickadee - several

Lake Heffner: (a small park north of the lake, broadleaf forest with some small meadows)
Carolina Wren - 1 very vocal birdie
Fox Sparrow - nice views of several in the bushes
Harris Sparrow - several, one singing
White-throated Sparrow - several
American Goldfinch - 1 male
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - several

Lake Thunderbird State Park (a large lake surrounded by mostly broadleaf forest)
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern "Red-shafted" Flicker
Tufted Titmouse - 10-15, some singing
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 2 or 3 following titmice
Carolina Chickadee - 5 - one singing
Blue Jay - 4-5
Northern Cardinal - 2
Belted Kingfisher - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 3
Song Sparrow - 1
Dark-eyed "Slate-colored" Junco - tons
Big raft of: Double-crested Cormorant,
American White Pelican,
American Coot,
Ring-billed Gull

OKC Zoo: (big lake and some nice habitat, a variety of berrying bushes/trees)
White-throated Sparrow (in the "tiger habitat" bamboo forest)
Harris Sparrow (lots)
Eastern Bluebird (pair in a big oak tree)
Yellow-rumped "Myrtle" Warblers (lots)
Cedar Waxwings (big, vocal flocks)
Winter Wren (only one of the trip)
Northern Cardinal (a few)
Northern Mockingbird (one)
Northern Shoveler (one pair in the lake - I presume not on exhibit as others were)
Great Blue Heron (one flying over the lake)
Carolina Chickadee (lots)

Photos are on http://www.christinevadai.com/OK1204/OK1204.html.

Regards,
Christine Vadai
Kirkland, WA
cvadai at verizon.net