I got an email from

Eliot Miller

that he and his girlfriend Sarah (both postdocs in bird behavior) would be birding in Forest Park in the evening, and I decided to postpone my visit to a birthday party to join them for at least a short while.

As I walked to meet them, I was witness to an altercation (or at the very least, a noisy interaction) between two

BLUE JAYS

in a tree, which I have posted about

here

After I met them

we walked down the path in the prairie area of the park:

Though the sun was still high, there was a fair amount of bird activity in the area. We watched several

EASTERN WOOD PEEWEES

We also saw Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Indigo Buntings, Thrashers, and Vireos in the heavy foliage across the creek. The foliage was too thick for photography, so I used my binoculars instead.

The change in the season was quite palpable, and the the first of the fall colours were showing themselves:

Other creatures, which are more “ground-bound”, were making their homes (and arrangements for getting dinner):

We didn’t see any Mississippi Kites, but we certainly saw this Missouri Kite up a tree!

Several

AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES

delighted us with their flashes of yellow:

I call this image “flying south” in salute to the millions of birds who do that..

A

MONARCH

Butterfly, one of thousands on their annual journey, was feeding off the New England Asters (Thank you, Lynda Richards, for the id!) :

The Goldenrods and the white wildflowers (Lynda Richards helped me…they are Pilose Asters) spangled our path with yellow and white:

These seed-pods were setting post-flowering and they were beautiful, too:

I thought I saw a raptor, but doubted my sighting when I spotted a

MOURNING DOVE:

But no, my sighting was all right…the

AMERICAN KESTREL

too, had landed on the same tree!

An interesting thing happened at the start of our walk. Another couple came along, and asked where they could see the Great Horned Owls, and I told them that they’d have to head over to the Muny. Then, when I mentioned that I was from India, the gentleman immediately said, “Mohan?”…he was

Mark Mittleman

an eminent lawyer who is also a keen musician, and is a birder as well!

Apparently he’d read my posts on the Mobirds list (and no doubt had a hearty laugh over my mistakes, though he was too polite to say so!) Here are Eliot and Mark:

We all watched a

NORTHERN FLICKER

for a while:

I wasn’t sure if there was a nest, or it was just foraging for insects in the wood of the tree-trunk.

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Alas, I had to leave in order to catch my train and go to Creve Coeur, so I bid adieu to Eliot and Sarah, and walked back through the Park, seeing several other people who were enjoying the beauty of the evening:

Forest Park will always be a great treasure house for me…

The bird-list sent by Eliot (thank you!) contains species that Eliot and Sarah saw after I left, too. I’ve marked “my” birds with an asterisk:

Blackbird, Red-winged(Agelaius phoeniceus)* Bunting, Indigo (Passerina cyanea) * Cardinal, Northern(Cardinalis cardinalis) * Catbird, Gray(Dumetella carolinensis)* Crow, American (Corvus brachyrhynchos)* (Eliot and Sarah saw 200, I saw just a few..these snooty crows only show themselves to postdoc students!) Dove, Mourning (Zenaida macroura) * Duck, Wood (Aix sponsa) * Finch, House (Haemorhous mexicanus) * Flicker, Northern (Colaptes auratus) * Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) * Grackle, Common (Quiscalus quiscula) * Grosbeak,Rose-breasted (Pheucticus ludovicianus) Hawk, Red-tailed (Buteo jamaicensis) * Hummingbird, Ruby-throated (Archilochus colubris) * Jay, Blue(Cyanocitta cristata) * Kestrel, American (Falco sparverius) Kildeer (Charadrius vociferus) * Kingbird, Eastern (Tyrannus tyrannus) Kingfisher, Belted(Megaceryle alcyon) * Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) * Pewee, Eastern Wood (Contopus virens) * Robin, American (Turdus migratorius) * Starling, European (Sturnus vulgaris)* Swift, Chimney(Chaetura pelagica) * Tanager, Scarlet (Piranga olivacea)* Thrasher, Brown(Toxostoma rufum) * Warbler, Chestnut-sided (Setophaga pensylvanica) Waterthrush,Northern (Parkesia noveboracensis) Wren, Carolina (Thryothorus ludovicianus) * Woodpecker,Red-headed (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) * Woodpecker,Downy (Picoides pubescens)*

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