April 30, 2018
Found 25 new birds, short of my goal of 40 for April but still a fun month.
Well once again I fell well short of my stated goals for the month. My focus on training for the Grand Canyon and the fact that the fish have been biting both cut into my birding time. And boy did I miss some good birds this month. My schedule does not allow me to chase many of the reported rare and unusual birds that show up on rare bird posts or the Mo-birds listserve, but I still love to read about them and hear about exciting finds of other birders. Very notable Missouri birds that I could not chase were white-tailed kite, burrowing owl, and green-tailed towhee from the southwest. I also missed on some loons and some great shorebirds in the St. Louis area, as well as a persistent snowy owl in Lincoln county. It also seems that the past two days we finally are getting a decent migration of warblers moving through, and for the most part I have missed on them as well. But its all good, as I have enjoyed the birds I did see and continue to work at building my year list for 2018.
Without further ado, here is the April list bringing me to a total of 115 for the year.
- Lesser scaup
- Blue-wing teal
- Bonaparte’s gull
- Great Egret – always exciting to welcome them back
- Black and white warbler
- Rough-winged swallow – great numbers of them buzzing Billy and I while crappie fishing.
- Nothern parula – seemingly everywhere. Of course I always hear way more than I see.
- Louisiana waterthrush
- Yellow-throated warbler
- Blue-gray gnatcatcher – the first several pairs I saw were actually silent, something I rarely can say for these little guys.
- Northern waterthrush
- Nashville warbler
- House wren
- Prothonotary warbler
- Spotted sandpiper
- Greater yellowlegs
- Caspian tern – Riverlands comes through again!
- Chimney swift – in small numbers at Riverlands
- Green heron
- Brown thrasher
- Osprey – solo bird flying over the major intersection of Clarkson and Clayton Rd. Billy had one fishing alongside him at a small pond in Jefferson county before I did.
- Ruby-throated hummingbird – beautiful male
- Whippoorwill – new yard bird for me!
- Palm warbler
- Chipping sparrow
Need to capitalize on migration and have a good month in May. Of course this is a crazy busy month at work and in my house so will be tough, but I am gunning for 40 new birds this month.
