Red Slough WMA: It's For the Birds!
Last weekend I went to Red Slough WMA in Oklahoma, which is just two miles over the Texas border. Red Slough was created to protect migrating waterfowl. The park is mainly a grid of levees in a marsh. There are several bird watching platforms throughout the park, and one corner has reservoirs for fishing. About Red Slough: https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/wildlife-management-areas/red-slough
Large flocks of ducks were everywhere, but they are sneaky ducks that hide just out of reach of my telephoto camera, so I only got a couple of photos. I need to wait for a sunny day and sit on one of the platforms with my spotting scope, camera attached, to document the ducks.
Frogs were everywhere! The whole time I was there, there was a loud chorus of various frogs---cajun chorus frog, leopard frog, and spring peeper. As I explored the levees, frogs were constantly hopping around in front of me.
Speaking of Oklahoma, it looks like Oklahoma State University does an iNat bioblitz in the spring. http://biosurvey.ou.edu/bioblitz-oklahoma/ They don't have any information posted for this year, but from past blitzes, it looks like it takes place in the entire month of April and anything wild is acceptable. If they do it again, I want to go back to Red Slough since it looks like a great place for dragonflies and pollinators. I could hit the other McCurtain County parks since it's the closest county to where I live.
I found a book of illustrated keys to the plants of Oklahoma for $35 here: https://www.floraoklahoma.org/
I'm going to order it so I'll be ready. :-)
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When you get the Flora of Oklahoma, let me know what it's like. :)
@sambiology I got the book in the mail today. It's a very thick spiral-bound book. It's just the keys, and doesn't have illustrations or range maps. There is going to be an illustrated version released sometime in the future, but I don't know when. Like a lot of keys, it contains a lot of technical language, but it's got a glossary and illustrations in the back so the reader can understand what things like "siliques erect" mean.
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