Notes from Arkansas

(Note below written on Thursday, April 2)

While I write this, a Northern Mockingbird sings melodies outside my window from his endless repertoire. He doesn't seem bothered by the heavy rain, which today keeps me inside the cozy quarters of the Schoolhouse Lodge. I’m writing to you from Bayou Meto, a tiny community east of the White River National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Arkansas County, Arkansas. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by Ryan Hagerty.)

I arrived on Monday (3/30) for a week of birding and to learn something of the habitat of the refuge, a tract of bottomland hardwood forest (3 to 10 miles wide) bordering the White River. As a floodplain within the Mississippi Delta, the refuge (approximately 90 miles in length) contains lakes, bays, sloughs, and bayous—an incredible wetland habitat to some 231 species of birds (as recognized by the American Ornithological Union).

On day 1 of my visit, Matthew Connor (USFWS) provided me a boat tour of Moon Lake and Indian Bayou, explaining the system’s hydrology and identifying for me various tree and bird species. (Read his wonderful essays at www.fws.gov/whiteriver/stories)

Interesting to me are the baldcypress, slow-growing trees (which can live hundreds of years) adapted to survive in standing water. These trees do not suffocate because their root systems obtain oxygen through a host of woody, conical-shaped projections that grow up from the underground roots to the surface. These root "extensions" grow up through the water and allow respiration to occur through their exposed tips. Matt related their function to that of a snorkel, something we can all understand. Oddly enough, these woody protrusions are called “knees,” though I don’t know why.

I have a video of several baldcypress tree growing on the edge of Burnt Lake, one of many lakes within the refuge, which I’ll post soon to the What’s New page. In the coming video, you’ll see dozens, even hundreds, of these “knees” growing like mushrooms up through the water, crowding the trunks of these old trees.

Look for more notes on my Arkansas trip.

Until then . . . happy birding!

Georgia Anne