March 31, 2018
Missed a lot of easy birds, but hit it big on the last day of the month!
Another slow month for me on the birding front as I didn’t reach my easy target of 20 new birds for the month. I missed on some that should have been slam dunks (Wilson’s Snipe, Teal species, Great Egret, Woodcock, etc.), but I struggled to put in the time and the weather made it tough. I guess that just means that April will be a banner month! So here it is:
White-crowned Sparrow
- Eastern Phoebe
- Eastern Towhee
- White-crowned Sparrow
- Swamp Sparrow
- Tree Swallow
- Fish Crow
- Ross Goose
- Brown-headed Cowbird – Feeder bird
- Pine Warbler – Beautiful views of several birds at Hickory Canyons Natural Area
- Ruby Crowned Kinglet
- Fox Sparrow
- Golden-crowned Kinglet
- Common Grackle (I don’t know if I just missed these early in the year or not, but they just seemed to show up in huge numbers the latter half of the month.)
- Barn Swallow
- Purple Martin
- Surf Scoter – 3 magnificent birds at Lion’s Park Lake in Washington, MO. Many thanks to fellow MO-Birders Dave Seidensticker and Ev Luecke for sharing these excellent photos for our blog.
These are rare birds for these parts and rather amazing that they were located in this urban park. Thanks to all who posted and shared updates.
Surf Scoter – Photo Courtesy of Ev Luecke
Surf Scoters – Photo courtesy of Dave Seidensticker
Brings my total to 90 species for the year. Let’s aim high and get 40 new birds for April, should be easy enough considering my lack of shorebirds on list so far as well as some easy resident birds that will be returning or already have.
