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Written By Alison Cockrum

My parents moved us to Northwest Arkansas from Oklahoma when I was four years old. After a few rental properties, we settled on 10 acres near Gravette. It was the first plot purchased from 100 acres that had been divided up into 10-acre plots. So, we had 100 uninhabited acres to wander for many years before anyone else purchased in the area. I spent most of my free time chasing lizards and snakes in the warmer weather and watching birds at the feeders in the winter months. In 2000 I graduated high school and went to Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, AR, where I earned a degree in Zoology. I later moved to Las Vegas, NV, and spent 11 years in the desert. That story I’ll save for another time. For now, I just want to say that I have owned a home in Northwest Arkansas for 5 years and have compiled a species list. To date, I have 54 birds, 2 salamanders, 3 snakes, and 6 mammals (lists below). All of this on my little third of an acre, granted my house backs up to a larger forested area.

juvenile eastern bluebird

Salamanders

  1. Slimy salamander

  2. Long-tailed salamander

Snakes

  1. Dekays ground snake

  2. Ring-necked snake

  3. Rat snake

Lizard

  1. Common 5-lined skink

yellow-shafted northern flicker

Mammals

  1. Gray squirrel

  2. Eastern chipmunk

  3. Raccoon 

  4. Armadillo 

  5. Red fox

  6. Groundhog



brown thrasher

Birds

  1. Eastern kingbird

  2. Carolina chickadee

  3. American goldfinch

  4. Tufted titmouse

  5. Red bellied woodpecker

  6. Ruby throated hummingbird

  7. Northern cardinal

  8. White-breasted nuthatch

  9. Carolina wren

  10. American robin

  11. Chipping sparrow

  12. Downy woodpecker

  13. Turkey vulture

  14. Blue jay

  15. Cooper’s hawk

  16. Summer tanager

  17. Pileated woodpecker

  18. Northern flicker

  19. Eastern bluebird

  20. American crow

  21. Brown creeper

  22. Dark-eyed junco

  23. Red-breasted nuthatch

  24. Hairy woodpecker

  25. White-throated sparrow

  26. Clay-colored sparrow

  27. Purple finch

  28. Yellow-bellied sapsucker

  29. Eastern phoebe 

  30. Barred owl

  31. Great crested flycatcher

  32. Swainson’s warbler 

  33. Brown headed cowbird

  34. House finch

  35. EU Starling

  36. Yellow-throated vireo (heard)

  37. Red-eyed vireo

  38. Gray catbird

  39. Ruby-crowned kinglet

  40. Yellow-throated warbler

  41. Yellow-rumped warbler

  42. Indigo bunting

  43. Rose-breasted grosbeak

  44. Blue-gray gnatcatcher 

  45. Red-headed woodpecker

  46. Baltimore oriole

  47. Brown thrasher

  48. Fish crow

  49. Swainson’s thrush

  50. Yellow-billed cuckoo

  51. Northern parula 

  52. Pine Siskin

  53. Tennessee warbler

  54. House sparrow

Alison Cockrum