Date: 5/29/26 9:09 pm From: Yang, Bobinyu <000011d835fbb54b-dmarc-request...> Subject: Sixth Repeat Location for the Painted Bunting
Late this afternoon (5/29/2026), my wife and I drove to the north end of Marion St. just east of the Midwest Sikhs Gurudwara in Lenexa (38.945870, -94.831758). We had high hopes of finding a painted bunting because we discovered one there in 2024 and had a repeat sighting in 2025. We did not have any luck there on 5/12/2026. However, we attributed the absence of the bird to the earliness of the season.
Sure enough, a very handsome male painted bunting atop a low shrub was spotted by my wife. I hurriedly trained my camera on him and snapped a few shots. Two taken at 6:39 p.m. may be viewed here:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S349143649 This sighting brings the total to six in Johnson County thus far. Out of the twelve locations shown to harbor painted buntings last year, six again produced a bird this year. This points to the bird's considerable reliability to visit the same addresses year after year. Two places from last year will not see returning birds this year. The fast and furious housing development has uprooted the trees and leveled the ground. Thus, the habitat around Prairie Star Pkwy @ Canyon Creek Blvd is gone forever.
Bob I. Yang
<yangb...>
Overland Park, Johnson County
