EVENTS
Birding Tours & Birding Festivals
Wintering Bald Eagles on Arkansas's larger lakes and rivers are celebrated with lake tours at several state parks. At Bull Shoals-White River State Park, such birding tours are a feature of the park's Eagle Awareness Weekend held annually on the second weekend of January. In addition to the birding tours, the event features guided bird walks, guest speakers and live bird demonstrations.
DeGray Lake Resort State Park near Arkadelphia, hosts its Eagles Et Cetera Festival annually on the last weekend in January. Lake tours, guided bird walks, owl prowls and demonstrations with live raptors are among the highlights of this birding festival. On the last weekend of each April the spring migration of birds through Arkansas is nearing its peak, and that's when the park hosts its "Beaks, Bills, Feathers and Quills" event. Guided walks, lake tours and programs for beginning birdwatchers and on bird feeding are included.
Devil's Den State Park in northwestern Arkansas hosts a Birders' Weekend on the first full weekend of each May, which is generally when the spring migration peaks in Arkansas. Weekend activities for this birding festival include guided hikes and bird-related interpretive programming. The park is also home to a large vulture roost and each February offers a weekend that includes vulture viewing and related programs.
The Ozark Birders' Springtime Retreat, held the second weekend in May at Bull Shoals-White River State Park, offers activities for beginning and advanced birders. Guided walks, basic birding clinics and lake and river tours are conducted during this birding festival.
The town of Clarendon began celebrating birding in the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas a full two years before the announcement that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a bird considered by many to have become extinct, had been rediscovered in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge. The 2005 Big Woods Birding Festival was, however, a celebration of the ivory-billed, featuring presentations by the principal participants in the bird's rediscovery. Held on the third Saturday in May, the annual birding festival features guided bird walks, boat tours on the White and Cache rivers and many other activities. The 2006 festival is expected to include an update on the on-going search for the ivory-billed woodpecker.
BIRDING TOURS
The announcement in April 2005 that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker had been rediscovered in the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas began a flurry of activity that included accommodating visiting birders seeking to add the species to their life list. The woodpecker remains elusive even for professional ornithologists and no one can guarantee the sighting of an ivory-billed. The Big Woods, however, hold other significant potential rewards for birders, as evidenced by the bird checklist for the area's White River National Wildlife Refuge.
Little Rock Tours and Mallard Pointe Lodge have teamed up to offer extended guided tours on private lands adjacent to the rediscovery area. Participants will be able to "paddle by thousand-year-old trees" as they search for the ivory-billed and other birds in an "organized, guided and respectful way."
Also offering Big Woods birding tours related to the Ivory-billed Woodpecker are the Paradise Wings Lodge and Arkansas Wildlife Tours, both located near Brinkley, and the Big Woods Birder's Lodge at Holly Grove.
For birders interested in birding tours in the Ozarks region of the state, including the Buffalo National River, Arkansas Outdoor Adventures, located in Eureka Springs, offers tours to see Bald Eagles and general birding tours.
Each winter, some Arkansas state parks and private concerns offer guided lake tours to view Bald Eagles. Such tours generally produce sightings of waterfowl and other bird species as well. More information on those tours is available by typing in the keyword "Eagle" to search the state's tourism calendar of events.