Well . . . it was about that time to go ticking after yet another new life bird to add to my ABA life list. Colorado(+12) was almost two months ago, and now that I'm rested up, it's time for another road trip. It has been common knowledge that the
Eurasian Tree Sparrow(code2) only resides in the St. Louis area. Now I just needed to find a reason to go there. Luckly, my mother and step-father where headed to Bonne Terre, MO to do a scuba diving adventure, and invited me to come along. Through the arch we go!!
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| Welcome to St. Louis |
On Saturday morning, June 21st, I had 2 members of BirdTeam6 pick me up for the hunt. They have a friend who lives in the suburb Crestwood, and he has several nesting pairs of the birds this time of year. So it was a very easy bird to see this time of year.
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| Life bird #552 |
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| Eurasian Tree Sparrow |
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| hungry? | | |
In North America, a population of about
15,000 birds has become established around
St. Louis and neighboring parts of Illinois and southeastern Iowa.
These sparrows are descended from
12 birds imported from Germany and
released in late April 1870 as part of a project to enhance the native
North American avifauna. Within its limited US range, the Eurasian tree
sparrow has to compete with the house sparrow in urban centers, and is
therefore mainly found in parks, farms and rural woods.
The American population is sometimes referred to as the "German
sparrow", to distinguish it from both the native American tree sparrow
species and the much more widespread "English" house sparrow,
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| Eurasian Tree Sparrow in natural setting |
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Thanks so much to Don&Cheryl for picking me up and helping me get this life bird. This makes the 5th life bird I've gotten with them. Usually we are together down in the Rio Grand Valley of South Texas in March enjoying the sunny warm weather, birding and Mexico!! They have hosted Red&Louise Gambill in early falls on their way to Texas for the winter. They have shown them Eurasian Tree Sparrow, usually in flocks out in the fields getting ready for winter.
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| BirdTeam6 |
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| Art? "Redwood" |
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| Big wood |
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| Rampage video game, I'm the Lizard |
We stopped by Laumeier Sculpture Park for some birding and crazy pictures of what we call Art. The redwood sculpture is over 30 feet, all made from one tree log. We drove west on I-44 toward Tulsa, and stopped at another park, that had a auto tour, so we could bird by car, it sure gets hot and humid here in the midwest. We saw/heard Louisiana WaterThrush, Kentucky warbler, Acadian Flycatcher, Yellow Throated warbler, Common Yellowthroat, and this nice
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| Red-Headed Woodpecker |
This sparrow puts me at
#552 for
ABA life list, and
#293 for
BigYear2014. So with that, birding was done, mission accomplished. Now onto the mine dive.
Bonne Terre, MO is about 60 miles south off I-55 towards Memphis, then SR67 southwest. Turns out this little town has “The Worlds Largest Man Made Caverns”. BONNE TERRE MINES was one of the earliest lead mines in Missouri, and
was the worlds largest producer of
lead ore. Mining at Bonne Terre began
in 1860, and continued until 1962. The mine covers an underground area larger than the town of Bonne
Terre, and consists of five levels. The lower three levels are flooded, to form a
seventeen mile long illuminated Underground “Billion Gallon Lake” which
was filmed and dived by Jacques Cousteau, and is home of the worlds
largest inland SCUBA diving resort. The two upper levels of the Mine are lighted and
used for one hour guided Walking Tours along the old Mule Trails, and Boat Tours.
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| Starting platform |
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| Boat ride |
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| Divers coming up, safety spotter on kayak |
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| Mine Shaft, levels 4&5 are flooded |
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| Ghost stories?? |
Next up: ????
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