I am very new to bird-watching with any seriousness of purpose. I began in the fall in my backyard, and even resolved NOT to take this hobby into Forest Park on my walks. But by last month I just knew I had to expand from the no more than 20 different sorts of birds a day in my backyard to the huge number available in Forest Park.
In the last few days I went into the park trying seriously to sight and record birds. The problem is I know the names of very few birds. I managed to record 21 as of yesterday, and the bulk of those, save a few ducks, are the same ones I see in my backyard. Birds like robins, starlings, cardinals, dove and so on.
Today was overcast, threatening rain, but warm. I took left about 10 AM headed to the park with my bird book, a notepad, binoculars, ready to do some serious bird watching. I wandered into Kennedy Forest but just saw old friends there and few of them. The red-bellied woodpecker, the downy and northern flicker just abound in Kennedy Forest. Robins, of course, and lots of starlings. That was about it.
I went more westerly to that strip of land that just borders Skinker and attracts lots of birds. There I did see an American goldfinch and when I got into an open spot was able to sit on a log for a long while and watch a Cooper’s hawk circle over head in lazy circles.
But, nothing of real interest and nothing new. I gave up and headed home. Then I came back to the thick of Kennedy Forest where I’d been ½ hour earlier. The din of bird noises in the trees was so loud I was startled. I wandered down the little road/dirt path that leads to the “tree within a tree” spot. It had rained a good deal last night and yesterday and water was an inch or so deep across the trail right at the tree within a tree where there is a bench. And then I saw them. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of small birds which were making this great racket. At first I thought the group I was looking at were goldfinch, then I realized they weren’t, and immediately suspected they were warblers. But, I’ve never KNOWINGLY seen a warbler before and did know there were pages and pages of them in my Sibley’s bird book. The birds were drinking the water and not paying me much attention, so I sat on a log and started looking. Only one seemed to be a warbler, there was a much larger variety than I had thought. After sitting there at least 30 minutes I got what I think is a quite solid identification of a black-throated green warbler. I had made the note twice about the black throat on my pad. The other yellow one just didn’t seem to be what I saw in the pages of Sibley. I started paging through looking for other small yellow birds. But, all the birds are about the same size in the photos, so I couldn’t tell if I were was looking at a yellow eagle or a yellow hummingbird. Finally I simply stumbled on the bird drinking just a few feet from me and it was definitely a yellow-throated vireo.
I’d never even heard of a vireo before.
Next a cute little bird came along theat was not particularly yellow and I found that one, an Eastern phoebe. The most challenging bird however was one with tufted head. I immediately went to the page with the tufted titmouse and some other tufted birds, but it just wasn’t those. I keep seeing it as I began to roam the woods, but couldn’t quite find anything like it. I made a whole page of notes about it, and the one that ended up allowing me to identify it was that at least five times I got close enough to one on this relatively dark day to note that the bottom ¼ inch of the tail feathers were bright yellow on a bird that was in the main rather dull in color. Later, when I got home and spent a good 40 minutes hunting the whole book I finally found it: a cedar waxwing. Good grief, I never even heard of such a bird.
I was able to identify a black-capped chickadee when it landed in a somewhat heavy patch of grass about 3 foot in front of me and stayed while I searched madly through my Silbey guide.
There were another dozen birds that seemed different, but I just couldn’t get decent looks at them, especially on the grey day. Finally I gave up. I was just worn out and frustrated. I wanted to just pat my knee as I sat on the log and tell the blasted birds: “just sit here a few moments until I find you in Sibley.” But I couldn’t catch them stopped long enough. The din they were making in the trees was just extraordinary. It was like roaming into an enclosed aviary filled with noisy birds.
I wandered the mile and half back home, plopped down at my window and noted two simply lovely Eurasian collared dove in my backyard. These two have been hanging around my yard for the past 10 days and are simply the most elegant birds we have coming here. We affectionately call them “the queen,” though we have no idea if they are males or females. I haven’t seen one of these in the park yet.
I ended up walking almost five miles and am exhausted, but it was such a fun day. I’m still very frustrated since I know there must have been close to 20 other sorts of birds which I couldn’t identify. I would guess I’ll be there again in the morning, hopefully earlier this time.
Today's hunt brings my total of birds seen and identified in Forest Park to 28. I'm thrilled. So far I've only seen 27 in my backyard and that's been over 6 months. These 28 have come in about 4 days in Forest Park.
Bob Corbett
BACK TO THE LIST OF PARK JOURNALS
| HOME | DOGTOWN |
| Bibliography | Oral history | Recorded history | Photos |
| YOUR page | External links | Walking Tour |