July Birds

July was brutal for me as far as birds go.  Work was crazy busy so I had to work 6-7 day weeks for the first 3 weeks, and just didn’t have the time to get out for much other than a few long walks.  There were some great birds showing up throughout Missouri on the hotlines, including wood stork, white ibis, and anhinga.  But it just never worked out for me to have the time to chase and add to my July bird list.

However, I did have some fun moments with just common birds that helped make things interesting.  I watched goldfinches picking apart my wild bergemot, vindication for me as Debbie hates when the leggy, post-bloom plants begin to flop.  I tell her the birds like them and that we have to let them be.  I watched a flock of robins voraciously feeding on some gray dogwood berries, bobwhite crossing a country road, and swallows mobbing some sort of insect hatch in the QT parking lot in Kirkwood.

I also managed to add just a handful of new year birds, a few of which I can’t believe it took me this long to get.

1.  Little blue heron – first one I saw was a lone bird working the shoreline of a pond on a customer’s pond in north St. Louis county.
2. Baltimore oriole – a lone male at Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary on the night of the Alton fireworks display.
3. Dickcissel – Pretty much everywhere at Riverlands, Columbia Bottom, and Marais Temps Clair.
4. Snowy egret – several working the shallow in River Des Peres in south city.
5. White-eyed vireo – finally had nice look at one along the Meramec River on a late month float trip.

This meager list gets me to 173 for the year, a far cry from my goal of 300.  However, every bird on the list has been fun for me and I am going to keep seeking out new birds beginning with the August shorebird migration.  Check back for what is hopefully a much larger list next month.