This past week, I had the immense pleasure of meeting and birding with California native and frequent BMCP visitor, Laura Shelton. Laura is driving and birding her way across the United States on her way to the Cape May Bird Observatory in New Jersey, where she will be volunteering her time there during the fall migration. What an adventure!Laura was so sweet to contact me to arrange some birding time with me in the St. Louis area on her trip eastward. I am so humbled that she did. We had such a great time! Her enthusiasm and love for birds was such an encouragement.
After a nice get-to-know-you time near her B&B Tuesday night, we got together for some major birding Wednesday morning here at Innsbrook. She is a warbler fanatic, and I wanted to impress her with some of the warbling cuties I've been seeing around here recently. Sadly, the warblers decided that they needed the day off and were mostly no-shows. We still had a great morning and ended up with 27 species, several of which were new species for Laura (the Blue Jay!)
Here's our morning list
- Wild Turkey
- Rose-breasted Grosbeak
- Tufted Titmouse
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Chimney Swift
- Mississippi Kite
- Nighthawk
- American Goldfinch
- Blue Jay
- Yellow-billed Cuckoo
- Piliated Woodpecker
- Eastern Wood Pewee
- Indigo Bunting
- Easter Towhee (M&F)
- Summer Tanager (M&F)
- Blue-grey Gnatcatcher
- House Wren
- Cardinals
- Field Sparrows
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Blue-winged Warbler
- Canada Geese
- Downy Woodpecker
- Empid Flycatcher
- Cedar Waxwing
- Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Wow, what a great day with Laura. And I appreciated very much the link to the Cornell site to hear the Barred Owl--what a weird bunch of sounds! I agree, it's kind of like monkeys as much as anything!
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