birds – Page 4 – A Thousand Acres of Silphiums

Brewster’s Warbler?

One of my goals this spring has been to get a better photograph of the Golden-winged Warbler (GWWA), a species that passes through Missouri during migration to nest in the upper Midwest, Ohio valley and northern Appalachia. Although I have been lucky in finding at least ten of these birds so far this spring, they are primarily treetop dwellers and I have struck out in getting one near enough and in good light.

While birding at Babler State Park in St. Louis County last weekend, I heard the familiar “bzzzzzzz buzz buzz buzz” vocalization of the GWWA. My birding companions and I began our search and I grabbed a few mediocre images before the bird quickly departed. Because I knew the lighting was poor and the distance was long, I didn’t spend much time reviewing the photos in the field. Arriving home later that evening, I reviewed the photos I collected that day and realized I captured something I was not expecting.

Brewster’s Warbler showing the lack of a dark throat patch and a mostly white breast.

It is well known in the birding community that the Golden-winged Warbler is closely related to it’s more southerly cousin, the Blue-winged Warbler (BWWA). Despite completely different physical appearances and different vocalizations, it has now been shown that the two species are 99.97% genetically alike. Where the nesting range of these two species overlap, hybridization occurs. There are two primary forms of this interspecies union. The first is what is known as the Brewster’s Warbler pictured here. The Brewster’s Warbler looks pretty much like a GWWA but lacks the dark throat patch and has an eye stripe more similar to the BWWA. This is the more common of the two hybrid forms between the BWWA and GWWA. The other hybrid form is known as the Lawrence’s Warbler. The Lawrence’s Warbler keeps the yellow belly coloration of the BWWA and has the black throat of the GWWA that is the recessive version of this trait.

Little did I know I’d be getting a “lifer” so close to home this weekend!

It’s Spring Again!

birds, macro, native plants, Nesting Birds of Missouri, wildlife, wildlife photography

As much as I love the change of seasons generally, nothing can beat the excitement and enjoyment of the arrival of spring. I simply can’t get out of doors enough during April and May. This past weekend Miguel and I had a great time in hunting newly arrived birds and newly emerged plants at a few of our favorite spots not too far from home. Here are a few photos from our day out.

First, a beautiful male Prairie Warbler from Weldon Springs Conservation Area.

Orange-crowned Warbler photographed at Bush Wildlife Conservation Area

A Worm-eating Warbler also found at Bush Wildlife C.A.

After a brick-fired pizza for lunch, we crossed the river to another favorite nearby location – Engelmann Woods Conservation Area. Here we were hoping to find the Wister’s coralroot orchid for Miguel to scratch off his list. During a good year, hundreds of flowering stems of this species can be found here. This year we found 15-20 stems just by looking along a mile or so along the trail.

*Corallorhiza wisteriana* (Wister’s coralroot)

Finally, we were able to find three stems of the parasitic Orobanche uniflora (one-flowered broomrape) mere inches off of the trail.

Hoping you find the time to get out and enjoy this wonderful spring!

-OZB

Vermilion Flycatcher!

birds, wildlife, wildlife photography

This beautiful Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) was recently found in the central Missouri’s Miller County. Many thanks to Chris Barrigar, who first found this bird and shared it with the birding community.

The Vermilion Flycatcher’s typical range includes much of South and Central America. It is also found in the southwestern U.S. states like Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. Chances are likely that this bird was pushed along with a series of storms that moved through Missouri in the last week. Appropriately, this bird’s genus name, Pyrocephalus, means “fire-headed.”

Long-eared Owls – St. Charles County, 2025

birds, wildlife, wildlife photography

It was interesting to find a couple of Long-eared Owls that had come back to an exact place they had been found nearly a year before in a small wooded area in St. Charles County.

Long-eared Owls are notorious for being found in thick vegetation. During my first visit, this was the best I could do for a photograph.

Returning later in the morning, my luck was much better.

Hey Manny, Look at the Pelicans!

birds, wildlife, wildlife photography

I took another trip recently to Carlyle Lake and had a blast photographing these American White Pelicans. There were far more than 1,000 of these giant birds, coming and going from the dam’s spillway.

Clarksville Eagles – January 2025

Bird Species of Conservation Concern, birds, wildlife, wildlife photography

Miguel and I had the fortune to spend a couple of cold, fun and somewhat successful afternoons photographing eagles at the Clarksville lock and dam over the last couple of weeks. I really enjoyed the variety of ages of these birds as can be seen in the different plumages. During these extremely cold days with nice light, heat distortion becomes a terrible nuisance. Heat distortion is created by the warmer temperatures of the water causing warmer air to rise rapidly through the much colder air and thereby causing light refraction. The name of the game is being out there long enough and being fortunate enough to have a bird soar or grab a fish that is close enough to you so that this refraction does not destroy all that potential detail. Keeper rates have not been high in my attempts so far.

Red-shouldered Hawk “Pre-Captured”

birds, Nesting Birds of Missouri, wildlife, wildlife photography

I was fortunate to come across this most cooperative juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk over the recent holiday break. Using the newly acquired pre-capture mode in my camera makes it much easier to grab shots like these. By half-pressing the shutter button, the camera stores half a second’s worth of frames in its buffer. Immediately after the action takes place, fully depressing the shutter button will instruct the camera to write the images from the previous half-second onto the card. As long as you are on the ball, missing unpredictable action shots like a bird leaving its perch will be a thing of the past.

Bison Bison

birds, mammals, WGNSS Field Trips, wildlife, wildlife photography

Over the holiday break, the WGNSS Nature Photography Group traveled to southwestern Missouri to visit Prairie State Park and surrounding prairie and wetland locations. We were hoping for opportunities to photograph the free-roaming bison within Prairie SP and hopefully find some interesting winter vagrant bird species. Likely due to the unseasonably warm conditions we were having, finding birds was a no-go. Thankfully the bison were there as expected. On two of the mornings we were there, the fog was incredibly thick. It made for some interesting photos but we had to be careful to not stumble too closely onto fog-concealed bison that probably would not appreciate that.

I did have a bird related first on this trip. While walking through Golden Prairie in Barton County, we stumbled upon the depression pictured below. In the center of the depression were fresh urates (nitrogenous waste produced by birds and reptiles) and also within the depression was a fresh owl pellet, still warm and stinking. We stumbled across the day-roost of a Short-eared Owl! After taking a picture, I picked up the pellet to add to my collection. I now only need to collect pellets of the Eastern Screech Owl to finish the owls of Missouri. The pellet can be seen within the yellow circle in this picture.