A whole bunch of birds

Oklahoma Mesonet reported 0.87 inches of rainfall over the past seven-day period.

Oklahoma migrant arrival expectations for April include Yellow- and Black-billed Cuckoos, Black-bellied Whistling- Duck,Common Nighthawk, Chuck-will’s-widow, Common Gallinule, Blacknecked Stilt, Black-bellied, Piping, and Semipalmated Plovers, Whimbrel, Hudsonian and Marbled Godwits, Sanderling, White-rumped, Buff-breasted, and Spotted Sandpipers, Willet, Caspian Tern, Least Bittern, Tri-colored and Green Herons, Glossy and White-faced Ibises, Broad-winged Hawk, Great Crested Flycatcher, Western and Eastern Kingbirds, Olive-sided, Least, and Acadian Flycatchers, Bell’s, Blue-headed, Warbling, and Red-eyed Vireos, House, Sedge, and Marsh Wrens, Gray-cheeked, Swainson’s, and Wood Thrushes, Gray Catbird, Cassin’s and Clay-colored Sparrows, Yellow-breasted Chat, Bobolink, Orchard and Baltimore Orioles, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Tennessee, Nashville, Kentucky, Yellow, Chestnut-sided, Blackpoll, Palm, Black-throated Green, and Wilson’s Warblers, American Redstart, Summer Tanager, Rose-breasted and Blue Grosbeaks, Lazuli, Indigo, and Painted Buntings and Dickcissel.

Migrant arrival departures include Ross’s, Greater White-fronted and Cackling Geese, Canvasback, Greater Scaup, Surf Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, Horned Grebe, Sandhill Crane, Herring Gull, Red-throated and Pacific Loons, Long- and Short-eared Owls, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Merlin, Brown Creeper, Winter Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Mountain Bluebird, Townsend’s Solitaire, Hermit Thrush, Purple Finch, Red Crossbill, Chestnut-collared and Thick-billed Longspurs, Fox, Song, and Swamp Sparrows and Dark-eyed Junco.

Payne County rare birds include late Snow Goose at Boomer Lake with final sighting given as April 5 and early Spotted Sandpiper and late Lesser Black-backed Gull at Lake Carl Blackwell.

An estimated 695,500 birds

DEB HIRT

crossed Payne County between Monday, April 7, 2026 at 2000 hours and Tuesday, April 7, 2026 at 0700 hours.

Peak migration traffic was an estimated 86,000 birds in flight from the north, wind speed of 34 mph at an altitude of 3,100 feet.

Expected nocturnal migrants were Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Dark-eyed Junco, Bluewinged Teal, Lincoln, Lark’s, Fox, Savannah, and Song Sparrows, Yellow-rumped and Black-and-white Warblers and Ring-necked Duck.

Boomer Lake added Canada Goose, Mourning and White-winged Doves, Scissor- tailed Flycatcher, Carolina Chickadee, Eastern Bluebird, European Starling, House Sparrow, Mallard, American Coot, Ring-billed Gull, Double- crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Tufted Titmouse, Purple Martin, Carolina Wren, Northern Mockingbird, American Robin, Cedar Waxwing, Chipping, Harris’s, White-throated, and Song Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Pine, Yellow-throated and Myrtle Yellow-rumped, Myrtle x Audubon’s intergrade, and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Northern Cardinal, Turkey and Black Vultures, American Goldfinch, White-throated Sparrow, Common Grackle, late Snow Goose, Gadwall, Ruddy Duck, Eurasian Collared- Dove, Merlin, Fish Crow, Barn, Northern Roughwinged, and Cliff Swallows, Brown Thrasher, House Finch, American White Pelican flyovers, Cooper’s Hawk and Bald Eagle.

Lake Carl Blackwell counted Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-headed, Hairy, Pileated, and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Northern Flicker, White-eyed Vireo, American Crow, Ruby- crowned Kinglet, Whiteand Red-breasted Nuthatches, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Northern House and Carolina Wrens, Field Sparrow, Spotted Towhee, Black-and-white Warbler, Killdeer, Pied-billed Grebe, Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned and Red-tailed Hawks, American Pipit, Wood Duck, Green-winged Teal, Great Egret, Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker, Eastern Phoebe, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Northern Shoveler, American Wigeon, Franklin’s, Bonaparte’s and late Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Common Loon, Osprey, Tree Swallow, Bewick’s Wren, Savannah and Vesper Sparrows, Wild Turkey, Great-tailed Grackle, Lesser Scaup, Northern Bobwhite, Wilson’s Snipe, Spotted and Least Sandpipers, Greater Yellowlegs, Western Cattle Egret, Pine Siskin and Slate-colored Dark-eyed Junco.

Keep your eyes on the ground and your head in the clouds.

Happy birding! Deb Hirt is a wild bird rehabilitator and photographer living in Stillwater.

A Lesser Black-backed Gull.

AFSARNAYAKKAN, CC BY-SA 4.0 , VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS