Nature Notes

Most of the Trees are fully leafed out. The Osage Orange is slow and surely must be about the last to leaf out. We have noted that in previous years too.

The Meadow and the Woods are lovely greens. I think that northeast Missouri could have a whole Crayola Box which is just shades of Green. And the Box would be one of those which had lots of Crayons.

The Warblers are back. We added Wilson's Warblers, Magnolia Warbler, Black and White Warblers to the list of the Farm. That brings us up to 140 species recorded. We saw Yellow Throats, which are also Warblers.

A male Flicker was displaying high in a tree. He spread his tail out in the shape of a fan. Rose Breasted Grosbeaks are back in good numbers. Richard thinks there are at least 3 pairs, if not more.

Richard also noted the Great Crested Flycatcher and the Wood Peewee. Amazing.

We had 2 birds that stumped Richard. He noted 2 Vultures flying high. A second look showed one more bird. "Is that a Cormorant?" We both got the Binocs out. Looking closely, Richard said it was an Anhinga, which has a long snake like neck, light colored head, some white on the dorsal side of the wings (dorsal is top). Anhingas would be more common all along the Gulf. Northernmost permanent range would be southern Arkansas. Sibley's shows that they have been spotted as far north as Minnesota. That makes 141 species for the Farm.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wilsons_Warbler/id
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-and-white_Warbler/id
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Magnolia_Warbler/id
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Yellowthroat/id
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/id
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Crested_Flycatcher/id
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Wood-Pewee/id
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Anhinga/id