Despite the cold, blustery field conditions of the morning birding outing in Pettis County with leader Veronica Mecko on February 18, birds were still out and about for the Great Backyard Bird Count.
At the first stop, MPF’s Drovers’ Prairie, nine birders cut the early morning chill with gloves, hoods, layers, and high hopes of bird sightings. The first species sighted was killdeer—with their characteristic stilt-like legs, white chest with two black bands, brown face with black and white patches and big eyes—hurriedly moving across the bare ground and making the equally characteristic high kill-deer call. As the birding group moved along the fence row, it took careful listening, but the faint, sweet song of an eastern meadowlark emerged between breaks in the wind. Luckily, the GBBC accepts bird songs and sightings. The Merlin application, useful for identifying bird songs, helped confirm what we were hearing. With a couple of bird sightings and more prairie to cover, we headed back toward the parking lot, looking more closely at the bare ground—thanks to a recent prescribed burn—in search of horned larks that Veronica suggested might be around. Sure enough, though perfectly camouflaged, we spotted four horned larks inconspicuously foraging for seeds or insects on the ground. These statewide birds often begin nesting on bare ground or in short grass in February, with the young fledging before spring plantings occur on agricultural fields.
The second prairie stop was at Lordi Marker Prairie, directly across the highway. Unburned and padded with last season’s flora and a layer of fresh snow, the group hiked a somewhat treacherous path across the prairie in search of more feathery friends. Proving slightly easier than song identification, our next bird could be seen high above circling, gliding, and coasting along the wind current, then hovering above the ground in search of prey. Veronica confirmed it was a northern harrier, aka marsh hawk, displaying its characteristic white rump patch just above its black-banded tail. Before the meadowlarks came calling again, the group spotted two bird species uncharacteristic of prairies—eastern bluebirds and wood ducks! The bluebirds were seen in and out of trees along a creek near the prairie, and the wood ducks hightailed it from a pond on the property as we approached. A few sparrows were seen, too, appearing on the tops of last season’s stems but quickly disappearing into the cover of the leftover bunch grasses, avoiding identification.
The third stop on our winter birding tour was Friendly Prairie, which required a short drive to reach. We were spectacularly greeted by another harrier, who spent some serious airtime just overhead and in full view. And then the meadowlarks came calling again, one in particular taking time to rest on a fence post and sing some tunes. An unsuspecting savannah sparrow showed up, too, and stayed around long enough to be identified—look for a slight yellowish wash, or tint, to the eyebrow stripe—by the experienced birders on hand.
The full bird count for the two-hour outing—23 species and 71 individuals. The added moments shared on the prairie with fellow nature-lovers made the outing equally successful.
Photo of MPF’s GBBC participants (L-R) Veronica Mecko, Susan Lordi-Marker, Kurt Hoeper, Carrie Wadlow, Sally Urdang, Luke Meier, and Bob Estes by Hayley Howard. Not pictured: Roxanne Stockdall. Photo of northern harrier in flight over Lordi Marker Prairie by Bob Estes. Photo of horned lark and Kurt taking a picture of an Eastern meadowlark by Hayley Howard.
