The Layover: St. Louis

¡Bienvenidos!

This post comes at you from St. Louis, MO, as we continue our quest to visit every airport in North America. We are headed to Boston and the Northeast, but decided to stop here for a day to find one particular little bird.

Before I get into this little bird, allow me to set the stage for an analogy.

A few hundred years ago, settlers came here from England (many arrived from other places, but let's focus on the English). They came forth to this land, and they multiplied. As their population grew, it expanded across the continent, overrunning the native population and settling from coast to coast.

A little later, other settlers came here from Sweden. Instead of spreading out, those settlers created relatively small, tight-knit communities in the American Mid-west. Their population grew somewhat, but not nearly as dramatically as the English.

Got it? OK, on to birds.

Think of the House Sparrow as the English. It was introduced in North America in the 1850's, and has obviously spread widely; a city lot without a House Sparrow is like a sandwich without bread.

Who is our avian counterpart to the Swedes? That would be the Eurasian Tree Sparrow! As with Sweden, many Americans haven't heard of it and most know nothing about it. This sparrow was introduced in 1870 in the St. Louis area, and hasn't really spread outside the Midwest. You can find them in St. Louis and southern Illinois, but not too many other places.

This analogy breaks down in a few ways. For instance, Eurasian Tree Sparrows have red heads and black eyes, not blonde and blue. But, go with it! It's the spirit that counts.

We were able to find a few of them fairly easily north of St. Louis, near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The whole experience was rather a non-event; the most interesting thing was our route back to town. Google Maps took us through a clean-looking neighborhood of mostly African-American folks with rather nice-looking brick houses, but many of the homes had a sign in their lawn reading, "We've got to stop killing each other!"

Seems like a reasonable request.

Mission accomplished, so now off to the Land of Chowda and Lobsta Rolls, and Pahking Your Cahr in Hahvahd Yahd! That's wicked pissa!