Lake Ouachita State Park has initiated the Purple Martin Watch Lake
Tours on Lake Ouachita.
From July through August Lake Ouachita State Park in
Mountain Pine will host the Purple Martin Watch Lake Tours. You can join staff
aboard a tour boat out to Bird Island to see the purple matins.
Tickets are $9 for adults and $5 for kids and reservations can be made at
the park visitor center.
Bird Island is Arkansas’s largest known Purple Martin Roost.
A purple martin staging colony on Bird Island on Lake Ouachita has increased
from 8,000 in 2008 to 50,000 in 2009. The roost, could be Arkansas's last of
significant size. Studying and documenting these birds became an important
project of high school students at Mountain Pine, Arkansas. The teens have
already counted the birds eight times—documenting the number of Martins
using the roost and successfully helped in attaining
Important Bird Area
Status by the Audubon Society. If funds can be raised the
students future plans call for banding and tracking the Purple Matins
migration to South America.
Bird Island GPS
N34 35.698' W93 19.214'
Contact the Lake Ouachita Visitor Center for more
information.
501-767-9366.
Email:
lakeouachita@arkansas.com
Karen Rowe, Nongame
Migratory Bird Program Coordinator Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
Email: krowe@agfc.state.ar.us
Hampton Wildlife Research Center
31 Halowell Lane
Humphrey, AR 72073
Phone: 877-873-4651
Fax: 877-873-4303
Cell 870-672-2279
Dan Scheiman, Bird Conservation Director,
Audubon Arkansas
dscheiman@audubon.org
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