April 11, 2020
My February and March bird list is beginning to look pretty similar from year to year. The list inches along slowly while growing by only a few birds at a time. Almost all of the new birds are predictable and on schedule. An obvious miss is replaced by a different common, if not expected, species. I entered 44 eBird checklists during this time period, almost all from home or from a nearby park or familiar plot of woods. These visits let to 6 new year species in February and 21 in March. Slightly better pace than last year but nothing special by any means.
I have continued to find joy in simple birding, watching common birds do their thing and express their character. One night a windstorm blew the siding from my house and tore a hole in the screen of our screened-in porch. Literally the next day I watched as a Carolina wren hopped through the hole and began exploring our living quarters, scoping out the furniture for a nest. He invited his mate inside, and she checked it out too. Next thing you know the two birds are rapidly building a nest in forbidden territory. Unfortunately I had to evict them before they got too far along, but they found a new location under the deck for their new home.
New Birds
FEBRUARY
- Turkey vulture – not nearly as common as last winter in St. Louis area.
- American goldfinch
- Eastern towhee
- Red-winged blackbird
- Rusty blackbird
- Common grackle – these last 3 were part of a giant, roving flock of blackbirds foraging in Tower Grove Park. The birds mingled together but also split into species specific groups.
MARCH
- Wood duck
- Blue-winged teal
- Northern shoveler
- Canvasback
- Bufflehead
- Red-breasted merganser-beautiful ducks – found good numbers of them on a cold day at Riverlands.
- Pied-billed grebe – Once I saw one, seemed like I saw them every day since.
- American coot – always entertaining to watch these clumsy birds.
- Double-crested cormorant
- American white pelican
- Great egret – early for me sighting while fishing at Busch Wildlife Area.
- Northern harrier
- Great-horned owl
- Hairy woodpecker – looked like a giant compared the the downy woodpeckers that I see everyday.
- Fish crow – seemingly everywhere all the sudden.
- Rough-winged swallow
- Tree swallow
- White-crowned sparrow
- Brown-headed cowbird
- Louisiana waterthrush – found two along the Rock Hollow trail, always a welcome sight in spring.
- Eastern phoebe
With the addition of my February and March bird list, this brings my year total to 87 I believe. Paltry numbers to real birders but a record of many great moments outdoors for me in 2020. I look forward to April birding, though this crazy pandemic has led to closures of some of my favorite birding spots. This just means I have to seek out new areas and make the most of it. I am still working and this is a busy time of year, so really I am sure I will enjoy any chance I may get to go birding in the MO-Outdoors.
