Urban Birder: Reflections, notes and an occasional rant from St. Louis

Ah, the wonderfully variable junco. One of the males in the yard has dapper white wing bars. Sibley on page 501 states that one in two hundred “have wing-bars as prominent as White-winged”. This is clearly a Slate-colored — it’s the same size as the other juncos in the yard and its throat and face [...]

Saint Louis had its first snow of the season early this morning. The storm began yesterday with rain in the morning and then freezing rain and sleet that continued into evening. Over 300,000 people in the area are without power because of downed lines. The Silver Maple in our next-door neighbor’s yard lost a small [...]