Greetings from a Geordie living in St Louis

[PMickR]

It is rather cold here at the moment and the Mississippi River is starting to ice over at the edges and in the backwater areas.

I have been reading birdforum for some time now. Last week I finally got my own computer, so I thought I would join. I have been in the US for 27 years, so I use a mixture of UK and US words and expressions. Should I use UK spelling for posting messages, I wonder?

There are lots of birds to see in this part of the world. Two hundred species have been seen in the park next to where I work in the city of St Louis, and the park doesn't even have a lake in it. We are on the Mississippi flyway, of course. Bald Eagles and Painted Buntings are recent nesting species in the close vicinity of St. Louis.

Best bird this week was a female Northern Goshawk that flew low in front of me as I was driving along the interstate highway in St. Louis. The gray underparts were clearly vsible. I am glad it was not an immature or it would have just been "My, that was a large accipiter. I wonder if ....." Anyway B (:

Best of all to everyone.
Mick

[robinm]

Hi Mick,

A warm welcome to BirdForum from all the Moderators and Admin. Glad to have you on board :t:

I'm sure the spelling doesn't matter - we'll know what you mean ;)

[Fritz73]

Hola Mick! :D Welcome to BirdForum.

[IanF]

Welcome to Bird Forum Mick :t:

[KCFoggin]

Hi Mick and a warm welcome to you. :t:

As Robin mentioned, spelling makes no difference here ;)

[Nigel Davies]

Hello Mick,
A big welcome from all good birders and a few bad one's here in Norfolk.
"Never go out without your bin's and never stay in ,if you can go out".

[Mabel]

Lo Mick!

[Tero]

Hello Mick. I may know you, as we don't seem to introduce ourselves, and I am bad with names anyway. My board name here is my middle name.

I am going out to the 1PM outing today, for a couple of hours only.

[John N]

Hello Mick, welcome to Birdforum.Enjoy yourself here.

[Gill Osborne]

Hello Mick and welcome to Bird Forum :hi:


As you can see on the left I'm living in Northumberland (in Alnwick) but was born and raised on the banks o' the Tyne in Wallsend ;) Whereabouts are you from?
There's quite a few NE members on this site - we are planning to take it over LOL :-O


Been a beautiful day up here today (and yesterday!) with clear blue skies and sun, no wind and quite warm - I think winter is giving us a miss this year ;)
Just got back from a visit to Jesmond Dene, just outside Newcastle, and had a great day watching Kingfishers, Stock Doves, Moorhens etc :t:

[Joe Ray]

Hey Mick, welcome to BF!

[will@bill]

hello from gateshead. welcome to the best forum.

[PMickR]

Hello Mick and welcome to Bird Forum :hi:


As you can see on the left I'm living in Northumberland (in Alnwick) but was born and raised on the banks o' the Tyne in Wallsend ;) Whereabouts are you from?
There's quite a few NE members on this site - we are planning to take it over LOL :-O


Been a beautiful day up here today (and yesterday!) with clear blue skies and sun, no wind and quite warm - I think winter is giving us a miss this year ;)
Just got back from a visit to Jesmond Dene, just outside Newcastle, and had a great day watching Kingfishers, Stock Doves, Moorhens etc :t:

Gill:
I was born in Wallsend in 1951 and lived there on Churchill Street until 1969. My mam is still there. I was over at Christmas and found my old diary from 1962. Interestingly, it mentioned my first ever Barn Owl, seen in Wallsend.

I am giving an informal lecture on bird taxonomy at a Birding Festival in St. Louis tomorrow, so I spent part of today checking on the latest taxonomic splitting and lumping and nomenclature changes that have been accepted by the AOU. I have to explain paraphyly, DNA hybridization, etc.

I get a big kick reading the Durham and Northumberland forums and I can see most of the places in my mind.

Good luck birding and all the best,
Mick

[Mark Bruce]

Hi Mick, a warm welcome and good to have you with us :t:!

[brianfm]

Hi Mick. Welcome to BF from a Geordie living in Geordieland! Lots of us on the forum.