Bird Log: Global Big Day 2024

May 11 was the annual “Global Big Day” for birdwatching. The challenge on eBird was to submit five complete checklists that day. The challenge for me was to do that in the context of a regular family Saturday.

Checklist #1: I got up before 6am and walked over to Ruth Woods. I didn’t have time to linger, since I needed to be back before Emily left for rowing practice, but I did see my first hummingbirds of the year, chasing each other around the mulch clearing.

Checklist #2 was a Home checklist, just looking out the windows after breakfast. The Hairy Woodpecker came by for some suet, a Gray Catbird plopped around the back bushes, and I briefly saw an Eastern Wood-Pewee.

Checklist #3 was a quick walk in the local Kaufman Park. No warblers today, but I saw the resident Eastern Bluebird as well as a Chipping Sparrow and a Eurasian Tree Sparrow.

Checklist #4 came during a birthday party for my son’s friend at the new Brentwood park. I didn’t have high expectations for the crowded park – although I saw a Turkey Vulture overhead and a Northern Mockinbird playing its greatest hits from a power line. But the park connected to the Deer Creek Greenway. As I headed down that trail, I saw a Great Egret in a pond, a Mississippi Kite overhead, and two Eastern Kingbirds perched in a tree! Then I found some shallow pools that were visited by a Spotted Sandpiper, a Killdeer, and some brownish swallows I couldn’t quite identify. Not bad for a random half-mile walking trail smack-dab in the middle of a dense residential and commercial district!

Spotted Sandpiper

We came home to rest, and I realized what would make the perfect final fifth checklist: O’Fallon Park. The egrets and herons were back at the rookery. I’d been wanting to visit this year but hadn’t made a special trip for it. Here was the perfect chance. I could stop in, probably finally see a Snowy Egret for real, and then go pick up Saturday night Seoul Taco take-out on the way home.

Checklist #5

O’Fallon park is much more crowded on a Saturday afternoon than the early morning I visited last time. I park on the street by the lake. People are tailgating, fishing, hanging out. The birds in the rookery island in the middle of the pond don’t seem to mind. Gobs of egrets and herons are hanging out in their nests. Most of the white ones are probably Great Egrets, but some might be Snowy. I take closer looks to see if I can tell the difference. I see a few Black-Crowned Night Herons and Cattle Egrets in the midst of them. Birds are constantly flying into the rookery from elsewhere, or out of the rookery to gather nesting material, or just to hang out around the rookery perimeter. I see Snowy Egrets (#146), for real this time – there’s no mistaking them for juvenile Little Blue Herons anymore. I can see the yellow lores behind their eyes, and the funny-looking yellow feet under their black legs! While I’m admiring the birds in the rookery, a pair of cowbirds strut by right behind me. Barn Swallows fly around overhead. I get back in the car, and a Great Egret flies over right to my edge of the lake. I carefully open the car door and take another photo. Then I say goodbye. My first “Global Big Day” in the books!

Snowy Egret

Great Egret

Western Cattle Egret

Brown-Headed Cowbirds

Bird Log: Spring Warblers in Ruth Woods

I enter Ruth Woods from the east, walking down the hill and crossing the bridge over the small creek. Here the trail splits. I usually take the left side, to start a clockwise loop, but there’s birdsong off to the right. I see little flitting forms in the trees a few meters down the path, roughly at eye level. One is a Tufted Titmouse. Then I get a glimpse of a yellow form with a black cap: It’s a Wilson’s Warbler! Many warblers can be tricky to identify, but I’ve been waiting to find this clear and memorable one! (#144)

Wilson’s Warbler

I finally head off down the left loop, looking for the Eastern Wood-Pewee I’m hearing. They’re everywhere this time of year. But these woods are too thick to see it. I don’t see the bluebirds I found in the hole in the dead trunk last time, either. I continue down the path, finding a couple of Brown Thrashers skulking about the ground.

I make it around to where the trail unsplits again, crossing the second bridge into the mulch clearing. Not much here today; the sandpipers and waterthrush seem to have moved on. I make my way back and onto the other side of the loop, finding a Gray Catbird and Carolina Wren, and enjoying their songs.

Gray Catbird

Carolina Wren

Rounding another bend, I hear an unfamiliar song. Merlin thinks it’s a Hooded Warbler! I slowly creep down the trail towards the sound. And there it is! In all its yellow and black glory! It trots along a branch as I quickly snap a photo (#145)

Hooded Warbler

Farther down the path, I find an American Redstart. As I come back to the end of the loop and the bridge, Merlin is hearing a Black-and-white Warbler. I diligently scan the trees ahead, and suddenly find myself face-to-face with a Chestnut-sided Warbler! I’ve seen this one a few times, but have never managed a photograph. This one gives me one brief second for a perfect shot – and I fumble it. As I rush to get my camera back to the correct settings, it spurts around to the other side of the tree, foiling my subsequent attempts. Oh well, I’ll get you some day!

Many days, Ruth Woods presents more frustration than excitement, what with all the tiny birds high in the thick trees that I never can find. But some days, the birds and I align perfectly. Two new warblers – both ones that I knew and could confidently identify – in one day!

Bird Log: My First Oriole At Stacy Park

One of my favorite places to bird is Stacy Park. An unassuming local park, it only had about 40 all-time species on eBird when I first visited last summer, and hardly any recently submitted checklists, but with a decent size and multiple habitats, including some woods and a savannah, I thought it had a lot of unrealized potential (The only thing it’s missing is a body of water.) With repeated visits, I first reached goals of getting it over 50 species, and becoming the top birder of the park. Next I wanted to get the park into the Top 100 Hotspots for St. Louis County, a surprisingly challenging and ever-moving goalpost for a quite competitive county. A week ago I got the park up to 67 species with the first reports of a Palm Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, and Lincoln’s Sparrow. A couple more would put it over the line…

I start my walk around the edge of the open area. I soon hear the ringing song of the Eastern Wood-Pewee. I see its tiny form at the very top of a branch on the edge of the woods – and I get my first pictures of the species.

Eastern Wood-Pewee

I enter the woods – and they’re alive with birds. In the lower branches, I see a Brown Thrasher and a Gray Catbird. Farther up in the leaves, there are birds I can’t always find or identify, but slipping into my line of sight, I get some warblers: an American Redstart, and a Magnolia Warbler (a first for Stacy!), and a Chestnut-Sided Warbler (also a first for Stacy!)

Brown Thrasher

Then, way up at the top of a tree, I see a medium-sized brightly-colored bird. I know it instantly: a Baltimore Oriole! I’ve known of this bird ever since I collected baseball cards as a kid, and I’d been hoping to find one this summer. It’s not the closest sighting, but its orange body and black head are quite clear. (#143)

Baltimore Oriole

I exit the woods, passing the Barn Swallows on the open field, and head for the secluded grove in the northwest corner. I hear an Indigo Bunting and find the bright blue bird singing in the same corner I found one last summer. I make my way around to the line of pines, finding the Lincoln’s sparrow again before being delighted by a flock of Cedar Waxwings passing overhead. An Eastern Kingbird perching near the reservoir fence rounds out my walk.

On this day I found my 143th bird and Stacy Park’s 70th! Next goal: get it to 100!

Bird Log: New Vireo at Tilles Park

It’s raining a bit when I pull up at Tilles Park, so I decide to leave the camera in the car. Out on the pond, there’s only a couple mallards, including the resident domestic (large with a white patch). But I hear an Eastern Wood-Pewee in the trees south of the pond, so I head that way, dodging a flock of Canada geese with their quickly growing goslings. I love the wood-pewee’s four-part song, with three ascending sounds like it’s eagerly asking “can you play? … can you play? … can you play?” before sadly concluding with a descending “ohhhh-wellllll“. The tiny flycatcher can be hard to find, though, and I don’t see it this morning. But that call is so distinctive I still count it, my first pewee of the year. While searching for the pewee, I hear a Great Crested Flycatcher barking from the tops of a tree. I do find this one, although from this distance it’s not as good a view as I got in a rainy Forest Park last week – and I’ll still have to wait for a sunnier day to get a photo of it!

I turn around and make my way down the central road of the park, turning left toward the shelter. I hear some Tennessee Warblers, and I glimpse a Palm Warbler. As I reach the shelter, I look up towards some high-pitched singing to see a flock of Cedar Waxwings briefly alight on a tree beside me! I hear a flicker calling and loudly hammering away on a metal surface, and I find it drumming on some kind of utility box by the road.

As I make my way down the back edge of the park, amidst the cacophony of birdsong I hear a consistent song coming from the center. Merlin thinks it’s a Yellow-Throated Vireo, one of the vireos I’m not familiar with yet. I find the bird calling from a low branch, and even though the lighting is not ideal I can definitely make out a bright yellow throat and a darker eye line. Yep, it’s a Yellow-Throated Vireo! (#142)

I head towards the baseball field and back around to the pond. I find a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher high up on a tree. I find the Eurasian Tree Sparrow that I’ve seen before in this part of the park. An Eastern Kingbird perches on a fence between the field and pond. Chimney Swifts flit around overhead. By the end of my walk, I’ve counted 27 species!

eBird Checklist

Bird Log: Warblers and More At Kaufman Park

I start at the northwest corner and walk down the street along the edge of the woods. Before I even make it around the woods, I see two Swainson’s Thrushes gathering nesting materials on the ground. I walk down the sidewalk into the center of the park. I notice a smart-looking sparrow that’s not quite a white-throat… why, it’s a White-Crowned Sparrow. Previously I’d only ever seen them at Creve Coeur Lake, but they seem to be everywhere this week, as the mass of white crowns that wintered farther south pass through on their migration to the north.

The line of trees between the tennis court and the Green Center are overflowing with birds. Merlin is hearing American Redstarts but I don’t see any. I do see the black mask and yellow belly with black streaks of a Magnolia Warbler, and the yellow crown and white belly and reddish flanks of a Chestnut-Sided warbler, both firsts for the park.

It’s a rare ideal warbler scenario – a single line of trees with lots of birds flitting into easy view. Once I’m satisfied that I’m only finding more yellow-rumped warblers in these trees, I look down at the next ones. I see a blue-ish bird with a white eye-ring that wraps around like white glasses. Now there’s one of the vireos I instantly recognize from my books: my first Blue-Headed Vireo! (#139) I even manage a poor photo.

Some birds I don’t get a good enough glimpse to identify, but I see one with bright yellow wing marks and thick black and white patterns on the head. I’m unable to get this one on camera, but I carefully notice the distinct field marks and scroll through the warblers on the app. It’s clearly a Golden-Winged Warbler, another first (#140)

White-Crowned Sparrow

Swainson’s Thrush

Blue-Headed Vireo

I come back a few days later. This time I get a lot of great views of American Redstarts. I don’t see any new warblers in the tree line this time, but when I make it around the path to the playground, I pause to watch the birds at the other edge of the woods. I see a Tennessee Warbler. I see something near the top of a tree that is not a warbler. It kinda looks like a flycatcher, but not the ones I’ve seen before. Merlin’s not picking up any sounds now, but previously it had been hearing a Least Flycatcher in the park. I take a closer look: it does have a matching eye-ring. It is quite small. I manage some photographs, and even though there were some nearer leaves fighting for the focus of the camera the bird somehow turned out somewhat clear in one of them. Yes, it was a Least Flycatcher! (#141) Every time I learn about a new small migrating bird I’m amazed at the journeys they make, and every time I find one in my little humble neighborhood park I’m amazed by the dissolution of the false dichotomy I keep creating between civilization and nature.

Least Flycatcher

Bird Log: Waterthrush in Ruth Woods

It was time for my weekly morning walk in the nearby Ruth Park woods. Two days prior, a local birder had reported a Solitary Sandpiper and a Northern Waterthrush in the mulch clearing. Before I even entered the woods, I saw an Eastern Towhee foraging on the ground by the entrance. Soon after I crossed the bridge (where there were still a ton of White-Throated Sparrows) and started down the left loop, I saw an Eastern Bluebird holding a juicy green worm. I watched as it flew over to a hole in a dead tree trunk and fed it to another bluebird, presumably its mate!

Eastern Towhee

Eastern Bluebird

I saw a Gray Catbird on the way to the mulch clearing. As soon as I got there, I saw a sandpiper strutting around the drying remains of the marshy pond in front of the mulch piles. There were actually two of them – not long after I arrived they flew off together. And sitting on top of a brush pile on the other side was the Northern Waterthrush! I was prepared to distinguish our two waterthrush species this time – this one definitely had the streaks going all the way up the throat, and it was also bobbing vertically! I managed some distant photographic evidence. (#138)

Solitary Sandpiper

Northern Waterthrush

I didn’t have time that morning to keep going down to the west entrance, and I was quite satisfied to have already gotten one lifer and a few other firsts for Ruth Park anyway, so I turned around to finish the loop. On the way back I heard and even glimpsed a Nashville Warbler, and back at the entrance I saw two Red-Headed Woodpeckers.

Red-Headed Woodpeckers

Bird Log: Tennessee Warbler and Scarlet Tanager

I saw my first Tennessee Warbler at Stacy Park last weekend. To be fair, I mostly heard the bird. Not to be confused with the geographically similar Nashville Warbler, which also has a multi-part song but which doesn’t get nearly as fast and trilly, the Tennessee Warbler has a more subdued greenish back, gray head, and white eyebrow. I heard it calling repeatedly from a pine tree between the savannah and the reservoir. Since I had time to spare that morning, I waited patiently, occasionally shifting my angle around the tree, or sitting on a nearby bench, hoping for a good glimpse or a picture. At one point I finally got a tantalizing hint of green, a brief glimpse of white eyebrow, just enough to confirm that Merlin was correct about identifying this call that I tried to simply enjoy for its own sake, because even in an urban park, far from thick woods, this bird did not want to be easily seen. But it was definitely there. (#136)

Sunday morning before church I went to Mallard Lake in Creve Coeur Memorial Park. I was expecting an easy annual county tick for the Purple Martins in their summer nest houses, and I indeed saw at least a couple dozen both perching and swooping around in the air and over the lake. I also enjoyed the passing Killdeers and soaring Bald Eagle and silent Great Blue Heron. But my bird walk really got going once I headed around the south side of the lake. I recorded some Nashville and Tennessee Warblers that I never did see. I glimpsed my first Blue Grosbeak of the year, chirping on some tall grass next to a cardinal. There was a catbird down by the creek, and a kestrel high up on a wire.

Suddenly, I noticed a bright red in the trees to the right of the path. The bird was a little ways into the foliage, but there was a gap in just the right spot for a perfectly clear view of the brilliant red body and black wings of a tanager! To be honest, I didn’t remember in the moment whether the one with black wings was the Summer or the Scarlet tanager, but I quickly navigated on the app to confirm it was definitely a Scarlet Tanager. The bird cooperated for a few seconds while my camera cooperated and focused well enough for a halfway decent photograph. I had stumbled on a Summer Tanager last summer in Forest Park, high on a tree, but this was my first time seeing the Scarlet, and it was much closer, too. Later I realized just how special the encounter was; it was the first scarlet tanager reported on eBird at Mallard Lake that year, and only the third ever. While it’s a little more common farther south in the county, it wasn’t reported at all last year in the Creve Coeur park, despite being one of the most heavily birded areas in the whole county. (The Summer Tanager is quite a bit more common.) Both species are part of a larger family of tanager birds that live in South America, but for whatever reason these two come up to the Midwest in the summer, bringing a delightful taste of the tropical rainforest to our humble woods. (#137)

Scarlet Tanager

Continuing across the bridge, I saw an Eastern Phoebe flycatching over the creek, and a Black-and-white Warbler creeping along some tree branches (I got my first photos of the warbler). There were more birds along the creek path: a Palm Warbler and Field Sparrow taking turns in a thicket, a Fish Crow nasally calling overhead, and… probably some more warblers and vireos that weren’t distinct or friendly enough to count.

Black-and-white Warbler

Bird Log: Deer Lake Savannah in Forest Park

There was a light, intermittent rain that Friday morning when I went to Forest Park, so I didn’t bring the camera. I did bring my new waterproof Monarch 5 binoculars. As I walked down the path past the statue at the Deer Lake Savannah, between the creek and the marsh, I almost immediately heard a song ringing from a nearby tree, which Merlin identified as a Warbling Vireo.

Vireos are a group of small migrating songbirds. There are more than a couple dozen species, a few of which are fairly common visitors through Missouri in the summer. But like the warblers, they can be quite difficult to see. I never found any last summer, and this month I’d already heard what was almost certainly several of them, typically in thick woods where it’s typically impossible to see them. But on this morning, one of them was singing from a lone tree, and this time I could see it clearly. With its plainish olive-gray back and yellow-white belly, it was certainly a member of that most common of vireos spending the summer in our state: a Warbling Vireo! (#134) I couldn’t take a photo that rainy morning, so I opted for the next best thing: saving the recording of its warbly song.

Then I heard an interesting sharp, bleating call coming from the next tree down the path, which Merlin thought to be a Great Crested Flycatcher! There are literally hundreds of insect-eating flycatcher species, with a handful that visit the Midwest in the summer. I’ve gotten to enjoy seeing the more common members sallying out from perches to catch bugs on the wing (including the Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Wood-Pewee, and Eastern Kingbird), but I had never managed to find a Great Crested Flycatcher before. Now here was one, calling loudly, and quite easy to see. And wow! I knew they looked cool from the pictures, but the pictures don’t do it justice! It showed off its bright yellow belly and bright orange tail, and then turned around to show me its striking dark wing feathers with bright white tips. What a sharp looking bird! I can’t wait to find one again on a dry day with my camera. (#135)

I saw a lot of other great birds as I completed a circuit around the savannah area. There were several Solitary Sandpipers causing a ruckus in the marsh, jumping around with their pointy wings. I saw a white-tipped Eastern Kingbird and a tail-wagging Eastern Phoebe hunting along the creek. And before I got back in my car, I caught a glimpse of a heron flying off, which I followed to the creek bridge where I looked down to see a Little Blue Heron wading along the edge.

eBird checklist

Bird Log: Kaufman Park and Tilles Park

Kaufman Park is my neighborhood park. It’s not the coolest birding spot in the world, or even the county, but it’s large enough (about one block) to have a small wood patch, some open grass, and a line of pine trees. I visited last week and found 20 species, the most I’ve ever found in one walk. In addition to the common year-round residents, I saw a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, a Brown Thrasher, a Hermit Thrush, a Chipping Sparrow, a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, among others. At the corner of the woods and the clearing and the playground, I heard an unfamiliar song that Merlin identified as a Nashville Warbler, one of the more common and early-arriving migrant warblers.

I couldn’t find it initially from within the woods, but after I walked around the rest of the park and came down the trail by the playground, I heard it some more. This time I was actually able to spot it! I could see its bright yellow belly and a blueish head with a white eye-ring. I had trouble focusing my camera on it through the trees, but I did manage a couple of tolerably blurry photos. (#132)

Nashville Warbler

The next day, I saw a personal-best 28 species at Tilles Park! In addition to such delights as a Red-Headed Woodpecker, Eastern Bluebirds, and American Goldfinches, I saw my first Eastern Kingbird of the year flycatching on the edge of the lake, and a Little Blue Heron that flew up to the top of a branch to overlook the pond! (I haven’t seen one so high up in the trees before) Then, just behind the pond, I saw a couple of thrushes fighting. They had a uniform plain color on their back rather than the red tails of the Hermit Thrushes, and Merlin identified their calls as Swainson’s Thrushes! (#133) I still have trouble differentiating the eye ring sizes that are supposed to help distinguish the two, but combined with the other field marks and sounds, I’m making progress.

Eastern Kingbird

Little Blue Heron

Swainson’s Thrush

I now understand why birding activity goes up so much in the spring. Although, if I hadn’t been consistently birding all winter, developing my binocular-pointing skills and sound detection skills, I wouldn’t be as ready for the bounty of birds that are now coming through!

Bird Log: Hawn State Park

Last weekend I hiked the Whispering Pines north loop trail at Hawn State Park with two of my best friends. Birding was not the primary purpose of the hike, but I brought my binoculars to see what I could see – and I was delighted by the chipping sparrows exploring the campgrounds before I even set out.

We saw lots of turkey vultures overhead throughout the trail, and sometimes they looked quite close and massive, especially at the higher elevations. I heard numerous songs throughout the woods that Merlin often identified as various vireos and warblers, but birds were almost always impossible to find through the dense trees, except for one tail-wagging Eastern Phoebe, a Yellow-Rumped Warbler or two, and a noisy Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher exposed on high branches along the creek.

We were walking through the pine savannah, a majestic grove of very tall and very thin trees, admiring the non-overlapping shapes of the crowns, and the way one tree had just happened to fall into the narrow fork of another, and just enjoying our walk, when I heard a strange high-pitched call and caught a glimpse of something flying through the trees in front of us. It was too faint for Merlin to pick up, but its squeaky register reminded me loosely of a kestrel, or perhaps a killdeer. Surprisingly, I managed to find the bird through my binoculars, perched on a tree branch, next to a nest. It was slightly backlit, but it resembled a hawk – yes, I could even see the long striped tail that, along with the narrow body, suggested one of the smaller Accipiters, but I couldn’t make out much else. Was there a clue in the call? The only Cooper’s Hawks I’d ever seen were silent. I played some of its sounds on the app, but they didn’t seem to fit. So I tried the Sharp-Shinned Hawk, the rarer, smaller local Accipiter that I had yet to find. Kew-kew-kew-kew-kew-kew-kew…. That was it! Later I read that the sharp-shinned nests in pines and is usually quiet but is known to call during nesting and courtship. I had found a Sharp-Shinned Hawk! (#130)

Over six hours had passed by the time we completed our leisurely loop. Back at the parking lot, I peered up at the top of the trees where some fresh birdsong was coming. The Pine Warbler is one of the more common migrating warblers in the area, but I have yet to find any back home. I had heard its calls a couple times along the trail here as well, but this time I caught just enough glimpse of the yellow body and white wing bars to confirm for myself: Pine Warbler! (#131)

I was pretty happy to get two new birds. I could have had three – I also saw my first waterthrush next to a babbling brook, but even though I had studied the new local migrant birds enough to know that it was a waterthrush, I hadn’t studied enough to remember what to look for to distinguish the Northern species versus the Louisiana species, so I couldn’t count it. But you can bet that next time I come upon one I’ll be looking quite closely for streaks on the throat and/or the direction of its tail-wagging!