Hunting activity can be heavy. Extreme caution should be taken and orange clothing worn, even on trails, during hunting seasons, especially dove and quail seasons.

The Lost Valley Trail is one of the best places in the state to find nesting Cerulean Warblers.

Any time is good here. The habitat variety is about as great as can be expected in Missouri. The 201 species checklist includes 17 species of sparrows, 13 raptors, and 33 warblers. If the chickadees at Weldon Spring were sorted out, the list would be 202 or 203.

So many rarities have been found here that birders can enter the area with high hopes of finding something special. In December, 2004, a Lark Bunting was found, in August, 2006 Swallowtailed Kite spent several days around the sealed hazardous waste mound birders call “Mt. Doom”. Recorded in August A. Busch CA, the bird flew over Weldon Spring CA more than once. A Painted Bunting was reported regularly near the Katy Trail parking lot from June 2002 into July 2007, and a Common Ground Dove spent the last six weeks of 2011 hanging around the “Blue Grosbeak Trail”.

Several parking lots provide access to trails. A favorite trail has no “official” name. Dubbed “The Blue Grosbeak Trail” by birders, it is beyond the orange gate at the first part of the parking lot nearest Fire Lake. This is the first parking lot along the south side of MO 94 when coming from I-64. It is east of the intersection with Rt. D, and is east of Francis Howell H.S.

The Blue Grosbeak trail is a birder’s delight for seeking sparrows (including Le Conte’s), Bell’s Vireo, and a host of migrant and breeding passerines. American Woodcocks can be found at dawn and dusk along the trail in late February and early March.

See the Birders' Guide for more trails.