bird isle

[dan valovich]

I paddled from buckville church to bird isle and back for a total of 3.85 miles. Went early and the lake was calm. Egrets are busy nest building and the island looks like a international airport with all of the birds departing and arriving.

[Marlo Krueger]

Great shots, Dan, as usual! These shots look like plates in my bird book! What is the gray bird? It's one I'm not familiar with.

[dan valovich]

Thanks Marlo!
The bird you mention is a little blue heron.

[AR-Nimrod]

Dan,

Photos are awewome as always!

[cpresoz]

Oh my. Your photos are absolutely incredible. Where is this at?

[cpresoz]

That was a silly question. We'll need to take a trip down to Lake Ouachita.
http://www.lakeouachita.org/bird-island ... achita.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Shark Attack]

We were out there about sunset Friday evening. It's amazing to watch all the birds come in from the area.

[dan valovich]

wes,
Have the martins arrived yet? I plan on paddling out in the morning to catch the sunrise.

[Louiscov]

There's a nice piece on Bird Island by AETN. It's probably on this board somewhere and I missed it. Thanks for the photos and references. I hope to see the island this summer!!

http://www.aetn.org/programs/exploringa ... ird_island" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Shark Attack]

Dan, for the most part they are. It's cool to watch them swarm down from the hills.

[Cowper]

Dan, thanks for the inspiration, and Curtis and Louis, thanks for the links.

Using those coordinates I cheated (aka, "motorboat") and went out there yesterday about two hours before sunset. Even with the coordinates, I was wondering if the coordinates were correct, because I found no island, just a thin line of trees sticking up out of the water. I even called someone to confirm I was at the right place. As I got closer, the number of birds made it pretty clear I was.

At the current water levels, a little "indian duck hunting" would be possible. The lake water is warm enough to get in and stay for an hour without getting chilled; all you need is a log or pumpkin to cover your head, and you would walk in waist-deep to chest-deep water right under the trees where the birds are roosting. I'm even wondering if a camo umbrella would work.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2272648_catch-d ... vival.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For the record, I have no intentions of actually grabbing one of these fellows; I'm just thinking it would be fun to see how close you could get. Even without that, some of the birds let me get within 50 feet. (I probably won't really do this, because I don't want to risk disturb their nesting that much, but it is fun to think about.)

[cpresoz]

Great video. Love all the videos that Chuck puts together. Thank you for the link.
I entered the coordinates from the article I cited above into Google Earth (Google Map takes you to the Buckville Use Area) and see where the island is. I've camped with friends in the winter on the islands, and I believe Island #42, which shows up on Google Earth, was one we camped on and it's near Bird Island. I figure I need a GPS if I'm going to canoe from Buckville Church, be there at sunset and paddle back in the dark. And lights so I won't get run over after dark. This is an exciting outing to plan for.
I gather the island isn't off limits to land on. Cowper, the log camoflauge looks like a great idea, maybe not to hunt a duck but to get close for photos.
Maybe I'll be satisfied with a barge tour put on by the state come mid-July.

[dan valovich]

I was on the water today @ 0545 and what a beautiful sunrise it was. Should have been there sooner.
This is the path I took . The wind picked up early and my time there was cut short.
A quartering crosswind from the west @10 knots made the paddle back wet but the wind felt good.


I was able to slowly work my way under the roost without their objections.


The egrets are only nesting on the southern tip and there is constant traffic from there to point 36 and back with nesting material
Here is the june album so far;
https://picasaweb.google.com/djvalovich ... directlink