Brad Jacobs, Phil Wire, and myself joined Josh Cussimanio (the area's wildlife biologist) for a day of birding and exploring around Four Rivers Conservation Area. Of course the highlight of the day was observing the juvenile Wood Stork still in the same location it has been for a couple days. Specifically along the "creek" or more accurately drainage ditch which runs north-to-south just behind the water-control structure at the northeast corner of Pool 2A. Simply follow the central rut where the water flowed to reach the still standing water behind the low levee and then look left like has been described. Beyond the Stork we had a number of good birds though nothing to knock your socks off. A few of the better birds included: 500+ Great Blue Herons, 1000+ Great Egrets, 2 Little Blue Herons, and 1 Black-crowned Night-Heron 1 Osprey and 2 Mississippi Kites 1 Black-bellied Plover, 4 Upland Sandpipers, 90+ BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS, and 15 Wilson's Snipes 1 Caspian, 4 Forster's, 1 Least, and 4 Black Terns thousands upon thousands of swallows and cowbirds Just to give a few hints to those who may be traveling out there later this summer here are a few observations we saw or things that were told to us while we were out today. For Shorebirds: Currently there are birds in the south-central part of Pool 4 (mainly Pectorals and Buff-breasted Sandpipers), northeast corner of Pool 4 (Black-bellied Plover and others), eastern part of Pool 3 (the largest grouping in a wet grassy area), the southern boundary of Pools 11 and 12, the east-central part of Pool 7S (a grassy field with Pectorals and Buff-breasteds), and the western edge of Pool 19. These areas should all have birds for awhile but as the water level continues to drop from the flooding Pool 16, especially the area around the intersection of Pool 15, 16, and 17, should get pretty good. For Waders: Besides the smaller groupings of birds which are in Unit 1 near the headquarters the main concentration of waders is in the southeast corner of the DU Presidents' Marsh. There are well over a thousand egrets and herons in there that could produce something good if checked often. For other waterbirds: As far as other waterbirds goes the best area was the intersection of Pools 15, 16, and 17. There were numerous pelicans and cormorants in the area along with some geese and ducks. This is also the area where all of the terns besides the Least Tern (it was in Pool 3) were along with a number of waders and some shorebirds. We also made a quick run through Schell-Osage CA this afternoon where the best birds were a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in the flooded woods near the Osage River and a small grouping of shorebirds a little east of the Evelyn Johnson Shorebird Marsh sign which had some Stilt Sandpipers and another Least Tern. Scott Schuette Troy, MO From: [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask] Subject: eBird Report - Four Rivers CA , 8/7/07 Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2007 22:25:54 -0400 (EDT) Location: Four Rivers CA Observation date: 8/7/07 Number of species: 75 Canada Goose 100 Wood Duck 15 Mallard 25 Blue-winged Teal 9 Wild Turkey 1 American White Pelican 75 Double-crested Cormorant 50 Great Blue Heron 500 Great Egret 1000 Little Blue Heron 2 Green Heron 10 Black-crowned Night-Heron 1 Wood Stork 1 Turkey Vulture 30 Osprey 1 Mississippi Kite 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 2 Swainson's Hawk 1 Red-tailed Hawk 3 Black-bellied Plover 1 Semipalmated Plover 15 Killdeer 250 Greater Yellowlegs 5 Lesser Yellowlegs 25 Solitary Sandpiper 20 Spotted Sandpiper 15 Upland Sandpiper 4 Semipalmated Sandpiper 25 Least Sandpiper 200 Baird's Sandpiper 5 Pectoral Sandpiper 400 Stilt Sandpiper 50 Buff-breasted Sandpiper 90 Short-billed Dowitcher 5 Wilson's Snipe 15 Wilson's Phalarope 1 Ring-billed Gull 2 Caspian Tern 1 Forster's Tern 4 Least Tern 1 Black Tern 4 Rock Pigeon 1 Mourning Dove 2 Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1 Great Horned Owl 1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1 Belted Kingfisher 2 Downy Woodpecker 1 American Crow 2 Fish Crow 15 Horned Lark 10 Purple Martin 50 Tree Swallow 100 Northern Rough-winged Swallow 500 Bank Swallow 5 Cliff Swallow 1000 Barn Swallow 250 Tufted Titmouse 1 Carolina Wren 1 Eastern Bluebird 1 American Robin 2 Northern Mockingbird 2 European Starling 50 Prothonotary Warbler 1 Lark Sparrow 2 Song Sparrow 3 Northern Cardinal 2 Indigo Bunting 5 Dickcissel 5 Red-winged Blackbird 500 Eastern Meadowlark 10 Common Grackle 50 Brown-headed Cowbird 3000 American Goldfinch 2 House Sparrow 2 This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org) _________________________________________________________________ Learn.Laugh.Share. 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