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Sat Nov 15 This afternoon I stumbled on a mixed flock -- 50+ birds -- of HORNED LARKs and LAPLAND LONGSPURs, along River Valley Drive in St. Louis County. I guesstimated that, very roughly, the flock was 50/50 larks and longspurs. Look at a map that still shows Arrowhead Airport (now closed), draw a line extending the runway center line from the north end up to where the line intersects the drive. That's approximately where the flock was, in the corn stubble field 100 ft west of the road. I first saw the flock swirling on the east side of the road, but as they were quite active they flew across the road to the west. Just a few minutes earlier, along Waterworks Rd, I stopped to watch a cast of hawks, most kiting above the bluff and one or two hunting in the County Parks mitigation area. They looked to be all RED-TAILED HAWKs in a variety of plumages, except for one that I saw only briefly before it slid out of sight. Based on the black body and wing lining, light flight feathers, black trailing edge and black carpal marks (size and shape uncertain), it was likely one of these: A dark "Western" red-tailed A Harlan's red-tailed A dark Rough-legged Hawk There were 10 sp. of duck represented at Creve Coeur Lake, including all three mergansers. Birds there included: American Wigeon, 1 Redhead, 1 Lesser Scaup, 2 Common Merganser, 1 fem Red-breasted Merganser, 1 fem Common Loon, 3 Horned Grebe, 3 Northern Harrier, 1 Wilson's Snipe, 2 Bonaparte's Gull, 5 Mike Thelen St. Louis County, MO [log in to unmask] ------------------------------------------------------------ The Audubon Society of Missouri's Wild Bird Discussion Forum To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://po.missouri.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mobirds-l&A=1