The first two weeks of November highlighted the forest fall color show, and then the trees started losing their leaves.  On November 15 a cold front blew in with wind gusts up to 55 mph, dancing the leaves around with evening temperatures dropping to 25*F causing a hard frost which ended the warm season growing period but not the cool season plants. No moisture along with warmer then average temperatures is setting the stage for the next ecological disturbance.

November 10, Pat Velte saw her first Harris's sparrows of the season at Martin Park Nature Center. She also found a late-season clay-colored sparrow on Wednesday, November 9, while driving around the north edge of the Lake Hefner Golf Course.

Pat Velte and Terri Underhill spent Saturday afternoon, November 17, birding the lakes in the Edmond/Guthrie area. While they saw a lot of their favorite birds, they enjoyed finding a few large flocks.  They saw over 50 white-winged dove in one area at Arcadia Lake's Central State Park and over 20 Carolina chickadees; at Liberty Lake in Guthrie about 500 duck and goose decoys on the lake!; and over 100 cedar waxwings at Guthrie Lake. They ended the day with a visit from a barred owl and then watched a great-horned owl in north Edmond.

Pat Velte reports she somehow managed to go a whole week without birding at Lake Hefner (OKC) so late Sunday afternoon on November 25 she drove around a few areas on the south side of the lake. The water level is finally low enough to provide some shoreline, but it is mostly vacant of birds. The gulls and terns were busy flying so she didn't get a chance to look for any unusual gulls. She did find (what appeared to be) 4 Cackling Geese with over 25 larger geese on the north side of the golf course. 47 American white pelicans were taking advantage of the lower water level and resting on the shoreline across from the inlet canal with 16 great blue herons for company. A large group of red-breasted mergansers located off Prairie Dog Point were about the only birds visible.

Pat continues to report that the merlin showed up about 5:20 p.m. This is not the same dark merlin that stayed on the point last winter and returned in August. She first noticed this new resident of the "merlin tree" on October 24 and have wondered if it drove the dark merlin away from the territory. The streaking on this bird's chest is much lighter and the throat area is clear white, while the dark merlin's throat was streaked.  The highlight of the afternoon was watching the merlin chase after a red-tailed hawk that seemed to have intentionally flown to the north end of the Point, directly at the perched merlin. It's rare for her to see a red-tailed hawk near Prairie Dog Point.  She usually sees them flying over the water treatment plant at the north end of the lake. She was fascinating to watch the merlin respond very effectively and, after the pair made several circles, drive the hawk out of the area. When she left, the merlin was perched at the top of a cedar, looking very alert. American goldfinches are noticeably absent from the Point. There is an abundance of seed for them, but she has not been able to find them this fall in any numbers and would be interested to hear if anyone else is finding them at Hefner.

Jimmy Woodard stopped briefly at both Okarche and Dover on Thursday the 24th on his way to the family gathering in Kremlin.  Okarche had a smattering of ducks, mostly scaup with several malards and common  goldeneyes. Dover was loaded with ducks. There were lots of scaup(both), gadwall, ring-neck, northern shoveler, redheads, canvasbacks, ruddy, American wigeon, mallards, and a few pintail. There was one American wigeon who had a creamy yellowish crown which extended down to the bill and around onto the cheeks.  There was also a small flock of lapland longspurs in a wheat field just to the south of the pond.

On Sunday the 27^th another dry, windy day with gust up to 60mph, but this time numerous natural wildfires broke out in various parts of the state, unfortunately with loss of property and life.  From the ecologically viewpoint the fires remove the dead vegetation and the trees on the prairie which opens up the area for new plant growth while leaving other patches with one or two years accumulation of dead vegetation for use by feeding, hiding, or nesting birds.  In the forest a cool fire will remove the leaf litter mulch and some of the small trees allowing some sunlight on the forest floor to produce grasses and wildflowers used by birds for food and shelter. This mosaic of natural vegetation patches provides a variety of habitats to increase bird diversity.  However, it is much better that this ecological disturbance be created under controlled conditions with prescribed burning and other substitute methods to tame and control this natural process while obtaining its benefits.  In safe urban areas, instead of using fire, part of the lawn can be left unmowed for one year and two years for other areas to mimic the natural vegetation rotation. Check these unmowed areas several times during the growing season to remove small sprouted trees or the area will quickly become a forest, often with invasive, nonnative trees.

Joe Grzybowski made a brief pass by Lake Hefner Thursday afternoon, November 29. There was some narrow shore forming along the shorelines, but only a few killdeer. There were quite a few red-breasted mergansers, 6 or so horned grebes and a few common loons out on the lake. Also out in the middle of the lake was an adult lesser black-backed gull. Among the ring-billed, Bonaparte's and few Herring gulls were also a few Forster's terns (here and there).

I appreciate those who help provide the history of central Oklahoma birds by turning in their reports of bird species seen at home and in the field and I can be contacted by email at emkok@earthlink.net, leave a message at 405-373-2738 or mail to PO Box 291, Piedmont, OK 73078.  Monthly backyard reports are welcome.  Esther M. Key