June 15, 2019
All things considered, my May bird list isn’t terrible. I rarely get the opportunity to chase vagrants and rarities and my birding is usually the secondary activity during my outdoor pursuits. I still really enjoy taking the time to watch and listen for birds, and get excited both when I see a new life bird as well as a new year bird. There was no doubt that that it would be any day until I saw a Mississippi Kite, but when I did spot a distant kite soaring over Wildwood it still made my day.
May saw me adding 21 new species to the year list. Keep in mind that this came at the time of near record flooding that basically eliminated shorebird habitat and during my absolutely craziest time at work reducing my leisure activities. So here we go:
- Least flycatcher
- Redstart
- Swainson’s thrush
- Ovenbird
- Eastern wood pewee
- Lincoln’s sparrow
- Mississippi Kite (05-06) – Wildwood, MO
- Green Heron – Finally
- Black-bellied whistling duck – a lifer. I actually chased this bird from the MO-Birds listserve who said it was perched on a stick in the River Des Peres behind Walgreens. I drove there and the duck was perched on a stick in the river behind Walgreens. That was easy. It never works out like that!
- Indigo bunting
- Great crested flycatcher
- Broad-winged hawk
- Tennessee warbler
- Chestnut-sided warbler
- Mourning warbler
- Wilson’s warbler
- Chuck-wills widow
- Wood thrush
- Rough-winged swallow
- Summer Tanager
- Yellow-billed cuckoo
I missed many more that I probably should have had. Both a black-billed cuckoo and Connecticut warbler were seen by others just yards from me at Tower Grove Park yet I missed them both. A Painted bunting was located only miles from my house but I missed it both times I had a few minutes to stop by. And I’m sure that there are others. So for now I have recorded 128 species for the year.
Hopefully I can add that painted bunting for June, as well as some easy ones like common nighthawks, whippoorwill, and some resident warblers. Time will tell.
Thanks for reading!
