On the Mississippi (1 Viewer)

[Tero]

Large numbers of Ring Billed and Herring Gulls at Alton Illinois on the river. Did not get far enough to hit the best spots for eagles. Lots of hawks were out to entertain those looking for the eagles. I was mostly driving, not a bird outing, just a weekend family drive.

Grafton, 15 miles north, advertises their Bald Eagles on main street!

 

[Tero]

It is officiallly spring. The first bold Red Winged Blackbird has arrived on the shores. Hundreds nest in one spot, a few miles of brush on a steep bank, by summer. Females will take a few more weeks.

Quite a few more in the suburbs.

 

[Tero]

Walking thru our suburban subdivision, 20 miles from tht Mississippi, saw some predatory animals. A vulpes vulpes and a Sharp Shinned Hawk. The fox crossed the street all cool and calm, ignoring me completely.

 

[Tero]

On the river or within half a mile of it today:

Red Winged Black Birds, 4 or 5
Common Grackles, lots
Starlings, about 100
Mourning Doves
Eurasian Tree Sparrows
Cardinals
Downy Woodpecker
Ring Billed Gulls
One Mallard
Carolina Wren

On the same path, about 100 times less birds two weeks ago. SPRING!

 

[Tero]

First Eastern Phoebe sighted on my mile of Mississippi. This bird was my first mystery bird, after IDing all the usual suburban birds. The crest is almost never right in any drawings or photographs. It is probably a pair settling in.

Pair of Crows, pair of Canada Geese. They have been around for a few weeks, will not be here for long. Same lone Mallard. Same 100 Starlings.

 

[Tero]

Quite a few Eastern Phoebes throughout Missouri, some even building nests.

 

[Tero]

I had a camera with me today, but it won't take anything smaller than a crow. However, here is the steep Mississippi bank where Red Wing Blackbirds will nest in about a month, maybe some Robins as well in the trees behind.

There is no plantlife in the water, no cattails. They just nest in the thick bushes and brush on the hillside. Some driftwood collects here all summer due to some barges.

This gives some idea of how wide the river is here
http://pix.etusivu.net/new/Mississippi3.jpg
the barges and tugboat never move, or a few times a year. The navigating barges are in better shape.

 

[very boring banned member]

Amazingly long & wide & deep river that is! I spent 2000-01 on the delta (which is amazingly enormous), and travelled in 1999 the river from Louisiana to Minnesota (where it is a nice "baby"). -Around here landscape is still snowcovered, but there is a spring area on nearby lakeshore, where water plants have already begun to grow, as daylight has increased.

 

[Tero]

The first swallows have appeared on my mile of the Missouri. We have
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
N. Rough-winged Swallow
Bank Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow

in Missouri, and they were not Martins or Barn Swallows. There is a page on the Cliff Swallow
http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/nathis/birds/birdatlas/maintext/0400279.htm

the map does not fit my area. I will have to look what I put these down as, last summer.

First Kildeer appeared as well, mine say keee and keee kikiki.

 

[Tero]

OK, the swallows are Tree Swallows.

 

[Tero]

This was not right on the river, where I rarely warblers, but the first one I saw this year, Yellow Rumped. I have seen a total of 3 species in MO, I guess I need to look harder.

 

[Tero]

Some Missouri nature. Woody vines are everywhere, and a lot of brush to walk thru. Best to stay on paths.
http://pix.etusivu.net/new/MoVines1.jpg

 

[Tero]

Today I think I found where the Killdeer nest. There are two fenced in areas in this warehouse part of town that have no traffic thru them. One has enormous electrical towers in it. The whole area is gravel. Four Killdeer were inside. If I'm lucky and careful, I will see the chics this year. This is within a mile of the river.

 

[Tero]

Tree Swallows are over the river on a daily basis now.

Also saw a duck with a white or light bill and totally black head and neck. I am putting it down as Lesser Scaup.

 

[Tero]

Pair of mallards, will be nesting soon.

Saw that my Western Kingbird is back. I only see one at a time on my mile of the Mississippi, or within a mile inland.

The swallows that I see are Tree Swallows and Rough Winged, thanks to some help. By the way, these feathers are the opposite of say Ravens'. The feathers on the underside have light tips but dark, normally invisible roots. I saw them preening on a wire.

 

[Tero]

The Mallards were in fact mating, in the water it seems.

Have not really run across other birds than ducks and the like mating in my birding career.

 

[Tero]

There is a barge hooked up to pump gas to tugboats on the river. On the deck are some machones. One separate gas driven motor looks all rusted, but may still work. Anyway, swallows are nesting in the exhaust pipe of this engine. Nest fast, I say.

 

[Tero]

Spent a month waiting for female Red Winged Blackbirds. They are there, still mostly hiding.

3 species of swallows today

 

[Tero]

Saw male Bobwhite. I see them every few weeks, but this was one of the few times I saw it fly.

 

[Tero]

Swallows were around, Red Winged Blackbirds settling in, females too. Easter Phoebe, if it is the same one, had dirtied itself so that most of it was dark. Throat had a light spot still.

I stood watching a cottonwood tree for a while. There was a lot of noise in it, spotted pair of House Finches and Goldfinches. They were eating something off the tree, possibly even House Finches nesting.