Lafayette park

I’m often struck by how easy it would be to miss many of the birds I see. This morning in Lafayette Park I found a very early Black-throated Green Warbler because I took the shorter of two paths to the entrance near where I park. The bird paused on a branch in front of me for about 20 seconds before flying to a conifer and losing itself in the branches. He was a bright little reminder that these tiny neotropical migrants are on their way.

I saw more flickers than in recent weeks (they were calling incessantly, and 2 females were foraging side by side at the base of a pine), and sapsuckers seemed to be in every tree. Both kinglets were present. An immature Cooper’s Hawk made several passes overhead.

A plant (no doubt considered a weed) in the lawn near the Missouri Street entrance has been blooming for several days and is drawing the sparrows. There was a herd of them browsing amidst its purple flowers this morning, as there was two days ago—mostly juncos, along with a few Song, Fox, and Field Sparrows. There were 4 or 5 towhees in Lafayette this morning, and either there were 2 singing or one was singing a variation on his song. I know so little about birdsong, so don’t know whether the presence of at least 1 female prompted the singing.

My first Hermit Thrush of the Saint Louis area this year was in the hedge near the Missouri Street entrance, and a Brown Thrasher was on the hill near the small pond. Two phoebes were showing interest in each other on the west side of the park

Forest Park

I took the short route to and from the office and so didn’t check on the sparrows over by the Victorian footbridge, but was able to look in on the martins—at least 5 are now at the nest box, and this afternoon they were singing their hearts out.

Birds

Three of us birded Horseshoe Lake for a couple of hours on Sunday. It was fairly warm (50° by the time we frove back to Saint Louis) and the lake showed barely a ripple.

There were hundreds of coots, around 150 Red-breasted Mergansers, 1 Common Loon in breeding plumage (first spotted by Paul Bauer on Friday), and several Horned Grebes in various stages of plumage (as reported by the Thursday WGNSS group). One of the Ruddy Ducks along Big Bend Rd. was very handsome in his breeding plumage, with his rich chestnut back and powder blue bill.

The Harris’s Sparrow remains elusive. I’ve made several trips to Horseshoe hoping to see it—I could have made one trip to Busch and seen the cooperative one at Lake 6.

Butterflies

There were at least 2 Cabbage Whites on Big Bend Rd. One of them had a bite-sized chunk missing from a wing. Later that day while I was digging a new hole for the redbud, a Cabbage White fluttered across the yard.

The Eurasian Collared Doves I saw last Sunday in Monroe County, Illinois, were life birds for me. They’ve been showing up in St. Charles County for some time, and they’ve been reported in the city, as well. A friend sees them in his south city yard from time to time. Although I’ve been watching for the collareds, Mourning Doves and Rock Pigeons are the only columbids I’ve seen around. And then yesterday as I was driving home from the vet’s office after buying an antibiotic for Pangur, I saw two large, light-colored doves in a tree on Fyler. I drove around the block, parked, and got out the binoculars. This was a better look than last Sunday’s. I couldn’t see the collars but got a good look at other field marks: ventral surface of the tail and undertail coverts, blunt tail, overall color.

They are pretty birds. Exotic, shouldn’t be here, etc. … but they’re pretty.