February Bird List

I only added 4 new North American birds to my birding year list during the entire month of February. Seriously, I’m not kidding. What a terrible month, you must be thinking. Based solely on those numbers, maybe, but I actually had a grand month and added several lifers. All of the best birds just happened to have been seen out of the county on the British West Indies island of St. Kitts. More on those later.

North American Birds

I spent every weekend in February out of town. First I was in Memphis for a soccer tournament, then St. Kitts, and finally in Dayton, OH visiting Katie. While all of this was fun, I had very little time for any recreational activity and any birding was done from behind the windshield. The birds added for February include:

1. Killdeer – at the soccer fields in Memphis
2. Red-winged blackbird – seemingly everywhere as soon as the calendar flipped from January to February.
3. Fox Sparrow – a new yard bird for my house in Fenton, a single bird has come a few times visiting the feeders.
4. Eastern towhee – A single bird viewed while visiting with my friend and birder extraordinaire Connie Alwood at his birder’s paradise in Ferguson.

That brings my birding year list for 2018 to a whopping 57. Well below my total of 74 at this time from a year ago but that is motivation to play catch up. Looking forward to see what March has in store for me, although as I type this we are getting still more snow in St. Louis. Spring seems to be a long ways away at this point.

St. Kitts

I was blessed to attend Tree Care International Association (TCIA) Winter Management Conference in beautiful St. Kitts this year. While I had classes and events to attend, there was some idle time that allowed for recreational activity to include birding. Incidentally it also included rum drinks and holding down a beach chair, so there was competition for my time.

The birds were incredible. Not necessarily in variety but in sheer numbers. Also the birds were unusual, more in their behavior than anything else. For instance, ruddy turnstones regularly walked in loose flocks among the diners at the patio cafe and drank from the pool just feet away from where I was sitting. They were joined by cattle egrets that did the same thing. If we left our balcony door open too long, we were assured an interior visit from one of the lesser Antillian bullfinches that frequented the resort. Below is list of birds identified as well as some photos.

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1. Brown pelican – dive bombing baitfish very near shore.
2. Magnificent frigate-bird – seen every day, and in good numbers. Appropriately so had great views in Frigate Bay.
3. Cattle egret
4. Great egret
5. Snowy egret
6. Royal tern
7. Zenaida dove – beautiful birds in good numbers.
8. Common ground dove
9. bananaquit – noisy and hard to get them to pose for a photo.
10. Lesser Antillian bullfinch
11. Grey kingbird – noisy, belligerent birds seen everywhere.
12. White-winged dove
13. Ruddy turnstone
14. Common moorhen – many in golf course ponds, and with young.
15. Pied-billed grebe

So What’s Next?

March is usually a decent swing month in the birding world. First of all I hope to catch up on my dismal waterfowl numbers, which should be easy enough if the lakes ever open up. Perhaps I can add a loon or two, as well as woodcocks, phoebes, and purple martins later in the month. Looking forward to spending time birding in Missouri this month.

Thanks for reading, and check back next month to see what is passing through our beautiful state.