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Fort Smith Area (1 Viewer)

Nick French

Well-known member
Hi Guys
I am British birder who is visiting the Fort Smith area on business at the beginning of October and will be there for the weekend of Oct 2 - 3. Any suggestions as to some good birding spots in the area. I will have a car.
Cheers
Nick
 
Hope I'm not too late with my reply, I just saw your question. Do you have any target species in mind? Have you birded the eastern US before, or is this your first time?

I'm much more familiar with the birding areas around Fayetteville (45 minutes to the north of Ft. Smith), but there are a few suggestions I can make. The first place that comes to mind is the Janet Huckabee Nature Center http://www.rivervalleynaturecenter.com/ which has a nice feeder set up, a boardwalk through some wetlands, and a lot of quiet roads through woodland and shrubland.

Another option is Springhill Park in Barling (a suburb of Ft. Smith), it's right along the Arkansas River, in October there should be American White Pelican and possibly several duck species. There is also some good woodland habitat. I can't find a proper website but the location of this park can be found at http://www.reserveamerica.com/campgroundDetails.do?subTabInex=0&&contractCode=nrso&parkCode=sprh

NW Arkansas Audubon's page on birding hotspots is mostly geared towards the Fayetteville area, but some may be worth considering:

http://www.nwarkaudubon.org/id17.html

Frog Bayou isn't too far from Ft. Smith and is one of the better wetland areas in this part of the state. Devil's Den also isn't too far (maybe 30 minutes?), it's a very scenic park with some nice trails, good for forest birds.

Hope this helps, feel free to send me a pm if you have any questions or any target species. Good luck, and welcome!
 
Thanks for the info ovenbird. I was contacted by Sandy Berger who very kindly took me birding around Fort Smith and we went to the places you suggested and a few others (Moffett) and Sequoyah Reserve, OK. Had an excellent days birding.
 
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