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Shaw Nature Reserve in Franklin County hosted the ST. LOUIS AUDUBON SOCIETY Saturday, November 9, on a gorgeous fall day. We hiked about 5 miles through the pinetum, down the Brush Creek Trail, across the prairie up to the lookout, where we enjoyed a spectacular panorama, over to the Dana Brown camp, down to and around the wetland cells, up along the Serpentine Wall, on to Wolf Lake and through the woods back to our starting point. Sharp eyes pulled out one each of Pied-billed Grebe and American Coot from the densely vegetated shoreline of the wetlands. Our "hawkwatch" tallied 7 species with 9 Turkey Vulture, 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk, 2 Cooper's Hawk, 3 Bald Eagle, 1 Red-shouldered Hawk, 6 Red-tailed Hawk and a single Black Vulture which sailed through an opening in the forest canopy over the Serpentine Wall. The sighting was quick but lasted just long enough for an ID and a photo. We almost swept the woodpeckers but, surprisingly, Northern Flicker was a big miss. There was a decent representation of sparrows with 1 Field, 4 Fox, 7 White-crowned, 22 White-throated, 28 Song, 9 Swamp and 16 Dark-eyed Junco. Many more sparrows went unidentified as they popped up out of, and quickly darted back into, dense grasses. 20 Cedar Waxwing were also present but we had only 9 Yellow-rumped Warbler. Carolina, with 5 individuals, was the only wren species for the day. Missed birds included not a single specimen of waterfowl and no Red-breasted Nuthatch although not for lack of trying in the right habitats. Over Wolf Lake we had a clear view of what appeared to be Kelvin-Helmholtz wave clouds. Everything considered we finished with a respectable 40 species + 2 taxa on a nice, long hike through one of the region's most beautiful areas. Here's the link to the full eBird report with additional notes, comments and photos: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61303422 Thanks to everyone for coming out. Mike Thelen Univ City, StL Cnty, MO [log in to unmask] ------------------------------------------------------------ The Missouri Birding Society's Wild Bird Discussion Forum Questions or comments? Email the list owners: mailto:[log in to unmask] ABA Birding Code of Ethics http://www.aba.org/about/ethics.html