We started banding at Fort Leonard Wood yesterday at an upland site where it was quite slow, yielding an unimpressive total of 8 birds for the morning. Highlights were a male Black-and-white Warbler and a pair of Summer Tanagers. Today was more eventful, with 20 birds caught over the course of the morning at a bottomland site with mostly very thick second growth habitat dominating. Bird activity in general was good for the first several hours, with 3 species of empidonax flycatchers and eleven species of warblers detected. We ended up catching two of the three empidonax species during the course of the morning- a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and an Alder Flycatcher. Also of interest was two Blue-winged Warbers that we caught close fo lunch time. The list of birds captured is below.

Bunting, Indigo 1
Cardinal, Northern 4
Chat, Yellow-breasted 2
Chickadee, Carolina 1
Cowbird, Brown-headed 1
Flycatcher, Alder 1
Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied 1
Gnatcatcher, Blue-gray 1
Humingbird, Ruby-throated 1
Ovenbird 1
Thrasher, Brown 1
Towhee, Eastern 1
Vireo, White-eyed 1
Warbler, Blue-winged 2
Yellowthroat, Common 1

Sunday, I made a half day trip to the 4,000+ acre Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area, near Columbia, Missouri. This is a very well-known location within the state and apparently can provide some very interesting birding. The habitat here is varied, ranging from bottomland hardwoood forests bordering the Missouri River, to ag fields, to freshwater marshs, to willow thickets.

I did not make up there until about 1030, choosing to catch up on some sleep in the morning instead of leaving at 0430 to be there near frst light. However, considering the fact that I was there from 1030 until 1625, with 95 degree heat bearing down on me, I enjoyed some great birding. Dickcissels occupied every weedy ag field, and in one field I enjoyed fantastic views of a mating pair of the harlequin-patterned Lark Sparrows. In another, I was treated to a Horned Lark display, where the male flys so high until he is barely a speck in the sun and begin singing. Gradually, he drops altitude, until at about 50-100 feet he drops like an asteroid back to earth, but in a zig zag pattern. Another field hosted a Mississippi Kite; flying low, hunting for small prey. Walking along the edges of some of these fields bordered by thick willows or brush, I would occasionally hear the speedy, electric song of the Bell's Vireo. Always the skulker, many of these birds proved difficult to locate, although I managed to get nice views of my lifer bell's, which was actually one of the first birds I saw upon arriving at Eagle Bluffs. I was also privileged to the oriole-like song of several Warbling Vireos in the tall sycamores and cottonwoods (?) along the river bank. The freshwater marshes held many Red-winged Blackbirds, and at least one spot I heard a Marsh Wren singing. I was unsuccesful at relocating a Least Bittern which was observed the day before; early morning or early evening, when they would be more apt to calling, would be best to locate these secretive birds. There were also several expanses of open freshwater at Eagle Bluffs, most of which had unseasonbly high water levels. This may have played into my favor, for at one spot at least 100 Black Terns were feeding, looking like giant swallows swooping and maneuvering just above the water. I counted 17 Forster's Terns in this same area as well, but these were, for the most part, flying and circling higher in the sky, maybe at 100 feet, making quite a disturbing ruckus. From other reports, 11-13 Common Terns showed up later in the day after I had left. Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets were a common site along the water edges, and I found two Spotted Sandpipers feeding along the banks at different times. 32 Semipalmated Sandpipers were hanging out by one of the spotteds. All six swallow species were present at the conservation area, mostly barns and northern rough-wingeds, with a single Purple Martin, two Tree Swallows, and a single Bank Swallow. A bridge on the edge of the property was home to a colony of at least 110 Cliff Swallows, probably substantially more. I think Cliff Swallows look like robust bats while flying. I ended up with either 68 or 69 species for the afternoon, and plan to make an all day trip with an early start in the not-to-far future.