Humphreys Lake Area
Stephens
County
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From the 1986 edition of A Guide to Birding in
Oklahoma published by the Tulsa Audubon Society. This account was
updated in 2010 by Bill & Linda Adams.
 Traveling south from
Oklahoma City on the Bailey Turnpike, exit on US 81 and drive south to
Marlow, approximately 28 miles. From Marlow drive 1.5 miles east on SH
29, then 2 miles south and 2 miles east. Lake Humphreys is an 882-acre
lake. Most of the roads are all-weather; however, the dirt roads are
passable only in dry weather.
In the vicinity of the
lake are tall trees - pecan, elm, cottonwood, and willow--weedy fields,
wood margins, oak - wooded hillsides, mud flats, creeks and sloughs. The
usual birds in winter are 5 or 6 woodpeckers, Rufous-sided Towhee,
Red-tailed Hawk, sparrows, ducks, Hermit Thrush, Osprey, Yellow-rumped
Warbler, and Double-crested Cormorant. During summer there are
White-eyed and Red-eyed vireos, Chuck-wills-widows, sparrows, Painted
and Indigo buntings, Blue Grosbeaks, flycatchers, orchard and Northern
orioles, Barn and Rough-winged swallows, shorebirds, herons, Summer
Tanagers, and Mississippi Kites.
Uncommon or not usually
recorded birds during winter are Pine Siskins, Purple Finches,
Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Fox, Savannah, and Vesper sparrows, Common
Loon, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. In spring the list includes American
Redstart, Black-and-white Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, Rose-breasted
Grosbeak, Nashville warbler, and night-herons.
From Bill & Linda Adams:
On Humphrey Lake, we usually drive all the residential loops on the
north side of the lake. You can nearly always see deer and turkey among
the houses there since people feed them. Louisiana Waterthrush, Wood
Ducks and Towhee can be found on the eastern most loop than comes out on
that little short road between Humphrey and Clear Creek. There’s a
little wet area between the last houses and coming out on the county
road. We saw an eagle in this same spot one time.
To reach this spot, from
the intersection of Cason Road and Metcalf Road on the east side of the
lake (small store at that corner, but it’s been closed the last couple
of times we’ve been there), go west. Where the road makes a horse shoe
around one tip of the lake, the very point of the horse shoe is where
the road crosses this little wet area and that’s where we saw the Wood
Ducks, Louisiana Waterthrush and Towhee. The road then follows the lake
edge on around and becomes Area D residential.
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