Date: 12/21/25 7:35 pm From: Joanna Reuter <00000304dde78ef2-dmarc-request...> Subject: Update on northern Boone County blackbird roosts
In the last week, we’ve checked on three miscanthus fields in Boone County:
1) Dunbar Lane (the big one) is amply active with blackbird roosting activity. Well worth the trip to view. On our recent visit, the trees along the field did not seem to fill in as much as they sometimes do, perhaps for two reasons: 1) Arrivals seemed late. 2) Their use of trees seemed to be concentrated farther back from the field edge then we’re used to. However, as they started to settle in to the field, the flights were quite spectacular, and the percentage of field utilized was high. If you are not familiar with this roost, there are more details in this listing for a past field trip: https://www.columbia-audubon.org/blackbird-friday-evening-roost-watch-2025/
2) There’s activity at a roost in miscanthus fields just north of the VV crossing of Rocky Fork Creek (near Prathersville, just north of Columbia). We haven’t attempted a numerical estimate. It is only a fraction of the Dunbar magnitude, but it is nevertheless getting robust use as a roost at the same time that Dunbar is active. From VV, it is possible to pull off onto Mauler Road and get a decent thought slightly distant view of the field on the west side of Rocky Fork Creek. The slightly larger miscanthus field on the east side of the creek is pretty much out of view. We have confirmed activity here several times during the past few weeks.
3) Another miscanthus field is located just north of Tri-City Lake Conservation Area, near Centralia. We wondered if this one might also be getting use as a roost, but it appears inactive based on a single visit. When we checked it out a little before sunset, we saw a lot of blackbirds in flight on a trajectory towards Dunbar, a few miles to the southwest. A group stopped in some trees within view, and we wondered if they might be preparing to settle into this field. However, they eventually took off and joined up with a later flock that was on a Dunbar flight trajectory. We saw no blackbirds settle into this miscanthus field. The folks in the vehicles driving past us almost certainly concluded that we were crazy city people who had stopped to watch cows through binoculars!
Joanna & Eric Reuter Boone County, MO
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