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Vandals Strike Bird Viewing Blind at Engler Park
On the weekend of December 13th a vandal or vandals hit our bird feeding
area at Engler City Park in Farmington. Here you see both sunflower feeders on the ground.
Here are the ashes of the two bird feeding tables on which we used to place wild
bird seed.
Gone are the bird identification posters we had.
But here to the rescue come Ron and Shirley Mullikin. Ron had crafted this
tower with four shelves, each with a screen wire bottom too allow water to flow through
Here Ron puts the finishing touches on this feeder which replaces the two tables.
And Shirley puts the first feed on the trays. They then retreated to the bird blind to observe the first bird to
discover the new platforms. It was a Carolina Chickadee.
Black-throated Sparrow Found in NW Missouri
On December 5th it was reported that a Black-throated Sparrow was
appearing at a bird feeder near Savannah in northwestern Missouri. Jack Hilsabeck, a well-known local birder said the
bird had been coming to a feeder at the home of Dean Rush since December 3rd. This was only the second time this species
had ever been identified in Missouri since it is normally only seen in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and California.
Bill Reeves picked up Bob Lewis at 3 a.m. on December 6th and they met Steve Dilks at Columbia for an 800-mile
round trip to see the bird. Arriving at 9:30 they found Brad Jacobs and Edge Wade of Columbia leaving the house after
viewing the bird. Dean Rush invited the trio indoors to view his feeding area out the back window. Within minutes
the bird appeared and was photographed by Steve as seen above.
Everyone who viewed the bird exclaimed how beautiful it is. From December 5th to January 16th (when
the bird at last disapeared) there were 73 birders who came from all over Missouri and some from other states.
Adding this bird to their Missouri life lists brought both Bill and Steve to 368 species. Ahead of
them on the all-time state records are Dr. David Easterla with 380 species, Tim Barksdale with 378 and Paul Bauer at 369.
Bob Lewis and Jack Hilsabeck are tied at 362 species.
Eight from Chapter enjoy Great Backyard Bird Count
Seven Chapter members plus our friend Chris Barrigar from Bloomfield
enjoyed the brisk sunny day on Saturday, February 13th when they visited Stoddard County including the south portion of Mingo
National Wildlife Refuge and all of Otter Slough Conservation Area.
Bill and Debbie Reeves led the trip and were joined by President Gary Chastain, Sue Hagan, Lynne Winston,
Teal Schneider and Bob Lewis. Bill Reeves reported a total of 66 species that were later reported to Cornell/National
Audubon, sponsors of the event.
In addition, Lynne spotted an American Redstart warbler which is two months ahead of its migration schedule.
However, that species has been reported in southern Missour several other times in past winters.
An extreme rarity was seen at the conclusion of the day by Chris Barrigar and also seen by Bill and Debbie.
The bird was a very large white waterfowl, at least the size of a swan but with a much shorter neck. The picture here
shows how the Canada Geese and ducks were dwarfed by the bird.
Bill Reeves searched through a book detailing swans of the world and thought it might be a Coscoroba Swan
of South America. When the bird raised its wings Bill noticed the trailing edge seemed to be clipped as though it was
a bird that might have escaped froom a collection.
The list of birds for the day follows here:
Great
Backyard Bird Count - Stoddard County, MO
February
13, 2010
Greater White-fronted Goose 300
Snow Goose
75,000
Ross’s Goose
2
Canada Goose
350
Wood Duck
2
Gadwall
150
American Wigeon
7
Black Duck
3
Mallard
386
Northern Shoveler
35
Northern Pintail
11
Green-winged Teal 8
Redhead
1
Ring-necked Duck 250
Hooded Merganser 18
Ruddy Duck
7
Wild Turkey
7
Great Blue Heron
2
Turkey Vulture
1
Bald Eagle 12
Northern Harrier
2
Cooper’s Hawk
1
Red-shouldered Hawk
3
Red-tailed Hawk
3
Kestrel
2
American Coot
10
Rock Pigeon
12
Eurasian Collared-Dove
2
Mourning Dove
4
Barred Owl
1
Belted Kingfisher
1
Red-bellied Woodpecker
2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker
2
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Loggerhead Shrike 2
Blue Jay
3
American Crow 7
Horned Lark
1
Carolina Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse
2
White-breasted Nuthatch
1
Brown Creeper
3
Carolina Wren
2
Winter Wren
4
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1
Eastern Bluebird 8
American Robin
12
European Starling 17
Yellow-rumped Warbler 12
Savannah Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow
5
Swamp Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 5
White-crowned Sparrow
4
Northern Cardinal 5
Red-winged Blackbird
120
Eastern Meadowlark 6
Common Grackle 200
Brown-headed Cowbird
1
Purple Finch
1
House Sparrow
8
TOTAL: 66 species
ADDITIONAL: (to be documented)
(1). American Redstart (1)
(Lynne Winston)
(2). Coscoroba Swan (1) (exotic)
(Chris Barrigar)
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