Birding Oklahoma

[mvjo...@gmail.com]

Does anyone know of a good birding site guide for Oklahoma?  Might be headed that way, and Smith's Longspur are high on my life list. Thanks.

John Rawinski

Monte Vista

[Carl Bendorf]

John, have you tried mapping Smith's Longspur in eBird (see link below) and then enter "Oklahoma, USAT" in the location box at the upper right and then keep zooming in until you see individual  reports?   Seems you can quickly start to see where most of the reports are coming from.

https://ebird.org/map/smilon?env.minX=-158.440433174042&env.minY=24.6721607831641&env.maxX=-65.0156436256114&env.maxY=71.9081724700314

Carl Bendorf

Longmont

[Ben S]

Hello John,

Keep in mind I've only spend a couple days birding in OK. Sooner Lake on the west side of the lake is one of the most relaible. It is where I got my Smith's Longspurs. They tend to stay in the grass though, so not easy to see at first. LeConte's Sparrows are there as well, usually in cattails, also tends to stay in vegetation. Apparently there are some spots where they get Smith's Longspurs just outside of Oklahoma City, but we didn't see them there. They tend to want to keep most of the activity on here about Colorado birds, but I would be happy to give you information about a couple other spots via email. 

Ben Sampson,

Boulder, CO

On Friday, December 25, 2020 at 11:28:29 AM UTC-7 mvjo...@gmail.com wrote:

[mvjo...@gmail.com]

Thanks to all who responded. Sooner Lake sounds like the ticket.

[Deb Evers]

Sorry to be late to the party, but I was born and raised in OK. Wanted to let you know just how diverse and rich the birding action is in my old digs. A few really good spots in Oklahoma for birding that you might want to consider are Great Salt Plains NWR (https://www.audubon.org/important-bird-areas/salt-plains-national-wildlife-refuge), Red Slough WMA (https://visitmccurtaincounty.com/parks/forests-wetlands/red-slough/#:~:text=Red%20Slough%20Wildlife%20Management&text=A%20favorite%20of%20bird%2Dwatchers,and%20black%2Dbellied%20whistling%20duck.), Little River NWR (https://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.4578), and McCurtain County Wilderness Area (https://www.audubon.org/important-bird-areas/mccurtain-county-wilderness-area). These are pretty far apart and I'm not sure if you have several days to bird the state. But...have fun!

On Friday, December 25, 2020 at 11:28:29 AM UTC-7 mvjo...@gmail.com wrote: