Eurasion Tree Sparrow Dec 09

Today is the first day of our adventure to see our daughter play in the NCAAs. We headed out from home driving Dave's "Man-Purse" (the Ford Excursion), packed to the gills. Or should I say it has a "5" Fat (bander's joke). I will always be amazed at how much "important" stuff he carries with him.

Our first stop was St. Louis, MO to look for the Eurasian Tree Sparrow (ETS). We'd seen it years before when we we in town for a wedding, but Dave (my birder husband) needed it for both his Year List and his Milleneum List. We followed Randy Korotev's directions: http://epsc.wustl.edu/~rlk/wgnss/ets/index.html to Dogtown, just like we had that last time we were here, but no ETS on the corner of Forest and West Park. Mitch, who lives on the corner, came out and immediately recognized us as birders (was it the man-purse full of binocs and scopes or the fact that we had binoculars and were looking in his neighbors back yard?). Mitch said he had just put feed out and that the ETS should be back momentarily. After an hour, no ETS, so Dave started walking the alley's and using his "Spidey Sense". He found a small flock in the alley. What a beautiful bird! These photos don't do the ETS justice, as the sun was going down quickly, and we had very low light. But, we can chalk one up on the Year List!

Randy has a really good website dedicated to providing tips on where to find a Eurasian Tree Sparrow in the St Louis area. He gives a nice history of the introduction of the species back in 1870, and provides very clear directions on where to find the birds now.

On to the next leg of our journey to the NCAAs...