Date: 1/15/26 9:30 pm From: Susan Eaton <susiede...> Subject: Re: 2025 Birding Year Review (No Sighting)
Becky, I had to laugh when I read about your dusty car. I can’t remember
the year, but one year, I made 3 or 4 trips to Swan Lake wildlife refuge
to see my first Roseate Sooonbill. The last trip up, I met Doris Fitchett
and she helped me find the bird.
As I left the refuge, I made a wrong turn and ended up on a rural road
newly tarred and graveled. Even though I drove slowly, I could hear the
rocks hitting under the car. I stopped to check, and the axles were caked
with tar and gravel! I took a screwdriver and scraped out as much as I
could. Then I had to make a hardware store visit to buy something to get
the tar off my hands! I think I made a tearful call to my husband too.
When I got home, I felt so bad because there was tar on all the side
panels. I cleaned them with acetone then washed and waxed the car. What a
mess!
Roseate Spoonbills…check…
Susan Eaton
<Susiede...>
STL CO MO
On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 6:36 PM Becky Lutz <
<0000035ce3242aa3-dmarc-request...> wrote:
> Already starting the third week of the new year…. 2026 is moving along
> quickly.
>
> I finally had a chance to reflect on my 2025 goals. I knew I had met them,
> but I wanted to look a little deeper. To review, my goals were to make sure
> all the Franklin County Hotspots (currently 36) had at least one picture,
> to bird at least one cache/spark site every month, to record at least one
> species in each of the MO counties (114), and to finally get into the MO
> Top 100 birder list.
>
> After a quick review of hotspots missing pics, I was able to finish up
> this goal fairly easily. Now looking through some of the pics though, I
> need to remember to continue taking pics as some are snow-covered only and
> a few of the locations have seen some major changes, so I need to keep that
> in the back of my mind for future visits.
>
> A couple of months into the monthly cache/sparks birding, I realized I was
> basing my “weeks” off how they laid out on the calendar and that didn’t
> really fit very well on some as some months had 5 weeks. So after deciding
> there’s no such thing as a dumb question, I reached out to Edge to have her
> explain to me what a week was. LOL! Then panic set in as I realized that
> wasn’t how I had been doing it and I may have already failed. A quick
> review of my trips gave me a sigh of relief. It was close, but I was still
> on track. Whew!! I was lucky that most months had a location within an hour
> of my house, but I did visit some on trips to the in-laws, weekend
> get-a-ways, and even a few spots running around on my county trips.
>
> Speaking of county trips, I needed a bird in 22 counties. As you can
> imagine, most of them were border counties, so nothing quick and easy. I
> was fortunate to join Josh and Jim for a couple of trips which made the
> long trips not so long and I always learn something. Those northern
> counties are kinda brutal. They’re 5 hrs from me, pretty spread out, and
> lots of dusty gravel roads. Hubby says my car looked like the Peanuts
> character Pig-Pen was driving it when I got back. I just laugh and tell him
> that’s where the birds were. Haha. A secondary goal to birding all the
> counties, was to also have double digits in all the counties as opposed to
> the obligatory interstate turkey vulture or underpass rock dove. I had the
> 22 zero counties and 25 single digit counties. All of my zeroes turned into
> double digits, and I bumped up some of the singles. I’m down to just 16
> single digit counties left, so I’m pretty happy with that progress.
> The success of previous goals led to accomplishing the final goal of
> getting into the top 100. I’m usually lucky if I get to Loess Bluffs once
> every couple of years, but I was able to go twice last year. I usually only
> get to Riverlands 2 or 3 times a year, but I went 6 times. I was able to
> pick up 17 MO lifers and I think 7 came from these 2 locations. The others
> were scattered about the state, including 3 that found a home in a
> “neighbor’s back yard”. I was able to see many of them with some of you. Much
> appreciation to the homeowners that allowed strangers into their homes to
> see a bird from their kitchen window, back deck, or living room. Fingers
> crossed I get an awesome bird in my yard. You’re all invited! Just don’t
> laugh as I may still have all the Christmas trees up.
>
> 2025 was a fun birding year. In 2024, I had the goal of being my best
> year. Without even trying, I was able to surpass my 2024 best year numbers
> pretty handily. I spent about a week in May in South Texas with my mom. We
> both got several lifers and boosted my lifer list over 400. We both also
> got several more lifers in MO. I started the year with 296 and ended with
> 313 (maybe 314). I had lots of little happy dances this past year. One of
> my happiest experiences though, was stumbling across a Chimney Swift roost
> on my way home from work one day and then meeting up with my mom and dad
> later that week and watching the show! Sometimes the best things are in
> your own “backyard”!
>
> Thank you to everyone that shared their sightings, yards, and scopes. I
> ran into a lot more folks throughout the year and was able to put some more
> names to faces. I truly appreciate all the help along the way, including
> looking at some exceptionally subpar pics of ibis, gulls, and shorebirds.
> Your patience is a gift.
>
> This year my husband (not a birder, but I’m still trying) and I have a
> trip to Aruba and hiking at the Grand Canyon/Phantom Ranch. Looking forward
> to lots of new birds and fun stuff. If you have any tips or must do’s and
> see’s, please share with me.
>
> Hope you have a great 2026 and I can catch up with you somewhere along the
> way!
> Becky Lutz
> Franklin County
> 636-432-9442
>
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