Little Bird Nerd: life bird

I recently returned from a road trip to Missouri (the St. Louis area, specifically).

Why Missouri, you ask?

Well, my mom and sister, Madeline, go on short road trips during my sister's spring breaks (she's a senior in high school now). This year, Madeline wanted to go somewhere west of the Mississippi. So if they were driving, it had to be somewhere relatively close, and Missouri was farther south than some of the other options (aka slightly warmer). I try to join them when my schedule allows, and this year I am so glad I was able to come along for the adventure!

Heading to the arch

We arrived on a Wednesday and came home Saturday, so it was a quick trip. Still, we managed to do a lot of sight seeing and bird watching! We actually spent way more time outside than I had expected, and I'm grateful my family seemed to be willing to go on various 'wild goose chases' at my direction. Whenever we saw something unusual or beautiful, I felt a bit of relief, like, okay, this is worth it for them too.

Overall, we saw 80 species (listed at the bottom of this page). My best bird of the trip was a Bewick's Wren, a complete surprise and new bird for me, and one of only about 4 reported records of this bird in St. Louis County! In those few days, we visited the following parks (in addition to some other sightseeing):

Creve Coeur Lake

Columbia Bottom Conservation Area

Forest Park in St. Louis (like the St. Louis version of Central Park, only it's way bigger)

Forest Park Healing Garden, near where we found the Bewick's Wren

Lone Elk Park (loveddd this park!)

Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary

LIFER! Eurasian Tree Sparrow (R) seen at the visitor center at Riverlands
This one is next to a White-crowned Sparrow (L). Thanks for all the tips from Missouri birders!

We also did some non-birdy stuff - visited Gateway Arch, walked parts of downtown St. Louis and through Delmar Loop, walked through the National Blues Museum, saw Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, ate at a few cool restaurants, and drove around in circles quite a bit (🤣). It was a really fun time and I'm so happy we went! And now I will probably always call pigeons "Picciones". Enjoy some of my fav pics from the trip!

Piccione Pastry in Delmar Loop

Our plates matched our personalities:
Me - Rose
Madeline - Pear
Mom - Wildflowers

BIRDS!

American Kestrel outside the hotel

Mourning Dove through the hotel window

He and his mate

American White Pelicans in flight - there were TONS!

An American White Pelican at Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary
(kind of like a Pte. Mouillee type of place)

Greater White-fronted Geese at Riverlands - thanks to the gentleman who pointed us in the right direction!

An even better view of a Greater White-fronted Goose,
And probably my fav photo of the trip - taken at Creve Coeur Lake

Elk at Lone Elk Park. What a beautiful place!

Mockingbird at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery

And another on the beach at Creve Coeur Lake

Pileated Woodpecker feasting on something tasty, on the ground,
just to the side of the trail at Creve Coeur

One of many Red-headed Woodpeckers at Lone Elk

And another

Raptors galore - even in the city! Red-tailed Hawk scoping Delmar alleys

Snowy Egret found by my mom at Forest Park (*bravo!*)

My most exciting find of the trip! LIFER and rarity -
Bewick's Wren in Forest Park (image extracted from a video)

Eastern Phoebe on the beach at Creve Coeur Lake,

Mingling with the Yellow-rumped Warblers

So cool to see these warblers all over the beach!
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Creve Coeur Lake

Species List (and where I saw them, if not abundant)

Greater White-fronted Goose (Riverlands / Creve Coeur)
Canada Goose
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Gadwall (Columbia Bottom)
Mallard
Lesser Scaup (Lone Elk)
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser (Riverlands)
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Common Loon (Creve Coeur)
Pied-billed Grebe (Forest Park)
Horned Grebe (Creve Coeur)
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican (sooo many!)
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret (Forest Park - Healing Garden)
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier (Old Chain of Rocks Bridge / Riverlands Ellis Island)
Cooper's Hawk (somewhere along a highway...)
Bald Eagle
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Coot
Killdeer
Lesser Yellowlegs (in a field somewhere!)
Bonaparte's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Caspian Tern (Riverlands)
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher (Forest Park - Healing Garden / Creve Coeur)
Red-headed Woodpecker (Lone Elk)
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker (Creve Coeur)
Pileated Woodpecker (Creve Coeur)
American Kestrel
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Bank Swallow (Creve Coeur)
Barn Swallow (Forest Park)
Cliff Swallow (Creve Coeur)
Carolina Chickadee (Lone Elk)
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Bewick's Wren (LIFER! Forest Park - Healing Garden)
Carolina Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Brown Thrasher (Riverlands Ellis Island)
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing (Creve Coeur)
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Field Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
American Tree Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow (Riverlands)
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Eastern Meadowlark (Riverlands / Gateway Arch)
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Riverlands / Columbia Bottom [both at feeders])
House Sparrow

I've always been one for lists. To-do lists, pros and cons lists, grocery lists, and random lists of things like middle names of the people I work with (for no real purpose other than my own curiosity and need to analyze things in written form). Therefore, it should come as no surprise that once I became a birder, I immediately took to making lists of my species sightings.

Birding lends itself to listing, although by no means are the two required to go hand-in-hand. For me personally, listing my sightings is a great way to fulfill my need to organize and understand data, as well as to have something tangible to reflect back upon. Like many birders, I keep multiple lists, including:

Life List- Total number of species seen
Yard List- Birds seen from home
County List- Birds seen in my home county, Macomb (as well as other county lists, though at this point, I tend not to focus much on county lists other than my home county)
Year List- Species seen each calendar year

Of these lists, the ones I focus on the most are my Life List, and my Macomb Year List. I do not currently have the time nor resources to go birding exhaustively throughout the state all the time, so I pour as much time and effort as I can into seeing as many birds as possible in my own county each year. In terms of County Year Lists, there are a few months which generally produce higher-than-average species totals. One of those is May, my favorite month, during the peak of spring migration. Here, neotropical migrants return, and warblers fill the trees with tiny, frenetic pops of color. Another species-heavy month is January, and this is simply because it is the beginning. Each new year brings species totals back to zero, which means a fresh start and clean slate... every bird is new again!

Just a week into the new year, I have reached 50 birds in my Macomb County Year List, so I decided to give you a little collage of the birds I've seen so far this year, in the order I've seen them. The only exception is bird #47, which is not pictured because it was too far away and moving too quickly. This sighting also happened to be my first life bird of the year, and it was a Glaucous Gull, which is a very large and beautiful, all-white gull. Enjoy!