Well, the Big Year has drawn to a close, so it's only fitting that some time be spent in reflection on the past year. There are a number of thoughts that cross my mind right about now, so I will try to present them in some orderly fashion. Firstly, I would like to give thanks to all my birding compadres and all of you who have taken the time to read my blog. I greatly appreciate it. To my birding pals, especially my Lake County brethren, Al Stokie, Jim Solum, and Adam Sell, thanks for helping me either directly or indirectly to see some pretty nice birds this year. Also thanks to the Hawkwatch crew of Sell, Sweet, and Berardi. I would have missed even more if not for you guys. Thanks. Also thanks to Todd Anderson for getting the word out so quickly on that EVENING GROSBEAK. That was the only lifer I had this year, and it was only seen that one day. Got pretty lucky on that one. So.....what other reflections are appropriate at this time? I like lists, so let's go that route:
Best Bird: Obviously a tough one as I had a few county lifers, but I only had 1 ABA lifer, an EVENING GROSBEAK. Coolest bird of the year. A close second was the big rush I got from seeing a SWAINSON'S HAWK give us killer looks as it flew over Adam Sell, Paul Sweet, and myself at the Hawkwatch. I think 2nd runner-up would be the BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS that I never in a million years thought I would get in Lake County. I actually had them on multiple days in 2 different locations. I love those birds.
Bird I worked the hardest to get: No question. Black-billed Cuckoo. I must have searched for that bird all summer in every possible location that had suitable habitat. Ryerson/Daniel Wright Woods, Chain O Lakes SP, IBSP North and South, Grant Woods.....you name it. When I finally saw that bird in Late August, I did the Happy Dance. I got great looks at the buffy throat, too, which was key for me.
Most Frustrating Miss: This is tough. I think I had 3 birds that were frustrating for different reasons. I have never worked so hard to find a bird and been so close so many times without getting an identifiable look as I did with my search for a Long-eared Owl. I searched every possible habitat on public land in Lake County and flushed no less than 4 owls that I was pretty sure, based on size, were Long-eared. I never saw enough of the bird, due to distance or obstruction, to tell which owl it was, though. Still bugs the snot out of me that I couldn't get that bird. It also bugs me that we have all kinds of great Long-eared habitat in Lake County......all on private land. Public land has almost none. It was also frustrating that I missed the Whimbrel at Waukegan Beach even though I was there the day Al saw it, but I didn't walk down to the end of the beach, and I didn't go back the next day because I figured it would be gone. Dumb. Lastly, the Mississippi Kite at the hawkwatch I missed about 5 or 6 times. Yeah..that was irritating.
Luckiest Find: Just the fact that I got my bins on a NORTHERN GOSHAWK as it passed by and got great looks at it, just as Vic Berardi yelled out, "GOSHAWK!" If I would have had any trouble finding it at all, which is normal for me, I would have missed anything but a butt shot. Was really happy about that one.
Runner-up would have to be the FRANKLIN'S GULLS that flew by me in about 5 seconds about 30 ft. off the shoreline at NPM. I got nice looks even though they were brief. Incidentally, I got both those birds on the same day. Must have been my lucky day :)
Unexpected Surprise: The number of CAROLINA WRENS I saw/heard this year. This bird was a county lifer for me this year, and I had them in at least 5 different locations. Amazing. Runner up would be the number of RED-THROATED LOONS that I saw this year. I had at least 5 on the water and a number of fly bys. This bird is usually a tough bird for me to find every year.
Unexpected Difficulty: BLACK SCOTER. Even though I saw this bird, it was a fleeting fly by and that was the only time all year that I saw one well enough to ID. Never saw any actually on the water.
Misses for the year that other people had:
1. Purple Sandpiper- Jan
2. Harlequin Duck- Feb
3. Northern Mockingbird (2)- Apr, May
4. Yellow-throated Warbler (at Rollins no less!)- May
5. Whimbrel- Aug
6. Swallow-tailed Kite- summer/fall
7. Mississippi Kite- hawkwatch
8. Say's Phoebe- hawkwatch
9. Lark Sparrow- (2) Jun, Aug
10. Greater White-fronted Goose- (2) March, Oct.
ABA Lifers:
1. Evening Grosbeak
Illinois Lifers:
1. Evening Grosbeak
2. Laughing Gull
Lake County Lifers:
1. Evening Grosbeak
2. Carolina Wren
3. Swainson's Hawk
4. Tufted Titmouse
5. Harris' Sparrow
6. Yellow-crowned Night Heron
7. Laughing Gull
8. Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Favorite Birding Location:
1. Rollins Savanna- right near my house and all habitats, though not as much for forest birds.
2. Geotube in Grass Lake- amazing oasis for shorebirds/water birds during migration. Had 1 state lifer here and 3 or 4 more rare birds this year.
It was a challenging year, but very rewarding. At the beginning of the year I was hoping for 250 and even as late as Oct. I wasn't thinking I was going to surpass 255, so I'm really happy to have reached 261 which was good enough for 2nd place all time to Eric Walters' 265.
Thanks again for following along and best wishes for 2013!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Beautiful Weather Bird
Today I took my customary trip down to the lakefront to look for rare birds. I was determined to take my time today and not overlook anything of importance. I started at Sterling Lake and Ethel's Woods looking for Greater White-fronted Goose. No go. Then I headed to North Point Marina to check for any number of possibilities. I started by walking down to the far southern point past the locked gates.
This area at the southeastern tip of the marina has great rocky shoreline for Harlequin Ducks or Purple Sandpipers. Unfortunately neither were present. It also happens to be an excellent spot for watching lake birds fly by or for scanning the lake for waterbirds. As I was scanning I saw large numbers of RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS both flying and in the water. As I was watching a small group of these birds fishing with some gulls, I noticed 2 birds close by but separated from the group. They looked shorter bodied and chunkier with big heads. This could be interesting, so I increased the magnification to 50x and was able to see the white cheeks, triangular head, brownish neck, and the best field mark, the bright yellow dagger-like bill of 2 RED-NECKED GREBES!!!! An excellent bird for Lake County and Big Year bird #261. Woohoo! The lighting was excellent and I was fortunate to have such good looks at a high magnification.
Red-necked Grebe internet photo
This area at the southeastern tip of the marina has great rocky shoreline for Harlequin Ducks or Purple Sandpipers. Unfortunately neither were present. It also happens to be an excellent spot for watching lake birds fly by or for scanning the lake for waterbirds. As I was scanning I saw large numbers of RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS both flying and in the water. As I was watching a small group of these birds fishing with some gulls, I noticed 2 birds close by but separated from the group. They looked shorter bodied and chunkier with big heads. This could be interesting, so I increased the magnification to 50x and was able to see the white cheeks, triangular head, brownish neck, and the best field mark, the bright yellow dagger-like bill of 2 RED-NECKED GREBES!!!! An excellent bird for Lake County and Big Year bird #261. Woohoo! The lighting was excellent and I was fortunate to have such good looks at a high magnification.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
After the Cold Front
I still needed Golden Eagle and Northern Goshawk so far for the year, so my plan for today was to hang out at the hawk watch all day after checking the regular lakefront spots for ducks and gulls. After the passage of a cold front and accompanying low pressure is traditionally the best time for a good hawk flight and also the best chance to see a Franklin's Gull in the fall. So I started off my morning routine, as I usually do, by going to Waukegan Beach. There is rarely anything at Waukegan, and today was no exception. Zilch. Next stop was IBSP South. I pulled into the parking lot at the employee entrance right next o the beach where you can overlook a nice section of the lake and scan for waterfowl without walking 2 miles to the Dead River and back. As I got out of the car I heard the "Chit-Chit" of RED CROSSBILLS in the pines around the parking lot. I walked around to get a better look and 9 of them flew out of the pines and bolted. Nice bird. I then scanned the lake. There was a huge raft of scaup/redhead midway down the beach that, on most days, I would walk down and pick through. Today, however, I had to get to NPM before going to the hawk watch, so I didn't search for the needle in the haystack. I wish I would have after seeing that Montrose had a Harlequin Duck, but I just couldn't do everything. C'est le vie. I did see another distant RED-THROATED LOON, however, which you could tell from the white on its face and it's habit of lifting it's head up when sitting on the water. Nothing else, though, so I headed up to NPM to check the gulls and docks for grebes. Stateline Beach had nothing, so I headed to the south end and parked in the fisherman's parking area. The gates are locked now, so you have to walk to the southeastern tip. This I did. There were a large number of gulls on the docks, but, except for 1 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, nothing interesting. I walked up to the fisherman's pier and scanned the lake. Nothing on the lake, but then I noticed some birds flying toward me from the NE. They looked like small gulls. What is this!? I followed them carefully as they approached and passed right by me. These birds were twisting and turning and were smaller gulls with pointed wings. I also got a nice look at the tops of the wings which were solid gray with a white border all the way to the tip which had some black in it. I also saw the black masks on the face....FRANKLIN'S GULLS!!!! These birds were definitely migrating as they shot their way past me and down the lakefront. Awesome. Bird #259! And I wasn't even at the hawkwatch yet. Things were looking good.
Internet photo Franklin's Gulls
Then I headed over to the Hawkwatch where we saw a couple of juvenile Red-shouldered Hawks and beautiful dark morph Rough-legged Hawk.....
We watched this hawk for a few minutes as it passed by. Thinking I had a minute to sit down and eat, I pulled up to the picnic table to open up my lunch. Not more than 2 seconds after I swung my leg over the bench, Vic Berardi yells out, "Goshawk....juvenile going left!" I quickly get up and throw my bins up to my face and turned left. Miraculously, I actually saw the NORTHERN GOSHAWK (#260) juvenile pass right next me for, what seemed like a long time even though it was only a few seconds. Great bird and Vic got some awesome photos:
NORTHERN GOSHAWK #260! Vic Berardi photos
Thanks, Vic, for an awesome bird!
Then I headed over to the Hawkwatch where we saw a couple of juvenile Red-shouldered Hawks and beautiful dark morph Rough-legged Hawk.....
Thanks, Vic, for an awesome bird!
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
The Feeder Bird
Sometimes the best birds can be right outside the kitchen/patio/office windows. This doesn't happen to me because I had to take my feeders down due to an ever increasing mouse problem in my house. Consequently I need to check other feeders periodically to find feeder birds, especially finches. Ryerson Woods has a couple of nice feeder set ups, there are a couple in backyards near the path at McDonald Woods, and a couple of private residences that I know of have some elaborate feeding stations. Anyway, feeders became a major focus this fall due to the current finch invasion from the north. One finch in particular, the Evening Grosbeak, would be a lifer for me, so I was pretty excited that some had been seen in the surrounding Milwaukee and Indiana areas. None had been spotted in Illinois up to this time, however.
On this day, as is my custom during the day, I was checking IBET posts during a free period, and saw one from fellow Lake County birder, Todd Anderson. It said that he had seen an Evening Grosbeak at his feeder off and on through the day. My heart almost stopped. Todd lives about 8 minutes from where I teach at LHS, so I quickly emailed him to see if I could come over after school. No problem, he replied. When the bell chimed 3:00, I was out the door and at Todd's house at 3:10. No bird, though. Steve Bailey, Jeff Skrentny, Craig Taylor, and Paul Sweet joined Todd and I as we staked out the feeders. 10 minutes.....20 minutes......still no bird. Finally after about 30 minutes, someone yelled out, "There it is!" "Where," I said. At that time it flew down to the feeder in front and we had great looks at a female EVENING GROSBEAK #258! It eventually flew down right next to the window, so it was real close. Very cool. I know Jeff got some great pictures:
EVENING GROSBEAK (female) photos by Jeff Skrentny
A very exciting bird to see.
On this day, as is my custom during the day, I was checking IBET posts during a free period, and saw one from fellow Lake County birder, Todd Anderson. It said that he had seen an Evening Grosbeak at his feeder off and on through the day. My heart almost stopped. Todd lives about 8 minutes from where I teach at LHS, so I quickly emailed him to see if I could come over after school. No problem, he replied. When the bell chimed 3:00, I was out the door and at Todd's house at 3:10. No bird, though. Steve Bailey, Jeff Skrentny, Craig Taylor, and Paul Sweet joined Todd and I as we staked out the feeders. 10 minutes.....20 minutes......still no bird. Finally after about 30 minutes, someone yelled out, "There it is!" "Where," I said. At that time it flew down to the feeder in front and we had great looks at a female EVENING GROSBEAK #258! It eventually flew down right next to the window, so it was real close. Very cool. I know Jeff got some great pictures:
A very exciting bird to see.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
The Challenge of the Lakewatch
Last night while doing my night-before-birding prep of checking the weather forecast and reading the latest IBF/IBET updates, the prevailing thought was that today would bring NE winds and provide a nice opportunity for seeing some birds moving over the lake (a.k.a. a lakewatch). The NE winds theoretically blow the birds closer to shore. The challenge with the lake watch, for me, anyway, is twofold: 1.) the wind is blowing right in your face, is cold, and makes your scope and binoculars shake like a leaf; and 2.) the birds are distant, the sun is in the background, and ID is difficult. I've been looking at bird silhouettes quite a bit this fall, and I feel like I have a better, albeit still rudimentary, grasp of some of the shapes of the waterbirds. So today I was ready to find some good birds. I started the morning off at Ethel's Woods looking for a Greater White-fronted Goose but came up empty for about the 56th time in the past month. I've scanned more goose flocks than most hunters. I then headed to North Point Marina to check for Purple Sandpiper, which also was AWOL. I did, however, get some nice looks at my FOS (first of season) SNOW BUNTINGS.
I then headed over to IBSP South to the concession stand on the north end of the park which blocks the wind pretty well. From about 8:45-10:30am I scanned the lake from this point. There were a large number of birds moving over the lake, but as is usually the case with a lake watch, most of the birds are backlit and too far away to ID. I did get too see a fair number well enough to ID, though, including #257 BLACK SCOTER! Black Scoters are all dark birds with paler underwings. The female has a distinctive pale cheek, while the male has an orange knob on his bill. I've only seen 1 male ever. He was a cool bird, though. Mostly it's the females that show up in Illinois for some reason. Today was no different, though I may have had a first year male with a dull bill. I had 1 bird that was darker than the other two which were grayish-brown. They did fly close enough for me to see the pale cheeks on 2 of the birds and ID them as female-type Black Scoters.
INTERNET PHOTO
Other Highlights:
Black Scoter-3
Surf Scoter- 10 (ID'd by their thick bodies and block-shaped heads in silhouette at 30x. They were at about 300-400 yds)
White-winged Scoter-21 (easy ID. All black birds at about 200yds. flying with the water behind them. Easy to see the white secondaries)
Red-throated Loon- 2 (ID'd by the thinner, seemingly longer neck and smaller body but still the hunchbacked shape and slower wingbeats of a loon. Too silhouetted to see the coloration)
Common Loon- 9
Loon sp. 34
Red-breasted Merganser- 150+
Horned Grebe-1
Common Goldeneye-5
A great day to see some uncommon lake birds!
Other Highlights:
Black Scoter-3
Surf Scoter- 10 (ID'd by their thick bodies and block-shaped heads in silhouette at 30x. They were at about 300-400 yds)
White-winged Scoter-21 (easy ID. All black birds at about 200yds. flying with the water behind them. Easy to see the white secondaries)
Red-throated Loon- 2 (ID'd by the thinner, seemingly longer neck and smaller body but still the hunchbacked shape and slower wingbeats of a loon. Too silhouetted to see the coloration)
Common Loon- 9
Loon sp. 34
Red-breasted Merganser- 150+
Horned Grebe-1
Common Goldeneye-5
A great day to see some uncommon lake birds!
Saturday, October 20, 2012
The Return to the Hawkwatch
Today's forecast was for WNW winds following the passage of Friday's cold front. This is the usual recipe for a pretty good day at the Illinois Beach State Park Hawkwatch at the north unit on 17th St. and Sheridan Rd. I got to the hawkwatch around 10:00am after stopping at Waukegan Beach to look for Franklin's Gull and Purple Sandpiper (no and no), IBSP South to check for scoters and grebes (saw none), and NPM to check for the same. Nada. Best birds I had on the morning before the hawkwatch were flyover AMERICAN PIPIT, LAPLAND LONGSPUR, PURPLE FINCH, and HORNED LARK along with 21 CANVASBACK off of Stateline Beach.
I had a small catastrophe at Waukegan Beach where I saw Al Stokie, Adam Sell, and Nate Schirmacher. Somehow my scope fell off my tripod and into the sand. I didn't think it would be too bad because it was sand, but when I tried to look through it, all I saw was eternal blackness. The lenses were knocked off kilter, so now I have to send it in for repairs. Bummer. So I had no scope for the rest of the morning which made looking for waterfowl on the lake pretty futile.
So I headed to the Hawkwatch where Paul and Janice Sweet, Adam Sell, and Nate Schirmacher were busy logging the day's eyeful of raptors. I got there around 10:00am and things got progressively better for the hour or so that I could stay. Normally, the hawkwatch is an incredibly frustrating experience for me. I can rarely stay very long, else I completely neglect my family, so it always seems that the real gems are seen right after I leave. This happened to some degree again today as 2 Goshawks were seen after I left and 1 flew by us while we were watching another bird! (really?), but I did get to see the real beauty of today's Hawkwatch extravaganza, my county lifer SWAINSON'S HAWK! #256. I'm not sure who saw it first. It seemed like Paul and Adam were on it at the same time exclaiming how this could be something "good." They made the Swainson's call shortly thereafter, but I needed the bird to fly almost directly over us and give us some sweet looks before I could absolutely tell that it was a Swainson's. Fortunately, Adam was nice enough to let me use his scope since mine was kaput, so I was able to get great looks. Unfortunately, I was so engrossed in the bird that I forgot to give the scope over to Nate. Sorry, Nate! It was a 2nd yr. immature bird and a real beauty!
internet photo
Thanks to Paul and Adam for this awesome bird today!
I had a small catastrophe at Waukegan Beach where I saw Al Stokie, Adam Sell, and Nate Schirmacher. Somehow my scope fell off my tripod and into the sand. I didn't think it would be too bad because it was sand, but when I tried to look through it, all I saw was eternal blackness. The lenses were knocked off kilter, so now I have to send it in for repairs. Bummer. So I had no scope for the rest of the morning which made looking for waterfowl on the lake pretty futile.
So I headed to the Hawkwatch where Paul and Janice Sweet, Adam Sell, and Nate Schirmacher were busy logging the day's eyeful of raptors. I got there around 10:00am and things got progressively better for the hour or so that I could stay. Normally, the hawkwatch is an incredibly frustrating experience for me. I can rarely stay very long, else I completely neglect my family, so it always seems that the real gems are seen right after I leave. This happened to some degree again today as 2 Goshawks were seen after I left and 1 flew by us while we were watching another bird! (really?), but I did get to see the real beauty of today's Hawkwatch extravaganza, my county lifer SWAINSON'S HAWK! #256. I'm not sure who saw it first. It seemed like Paul and Adam were on it at the same time exclaiming how this could be something "good." They made the Swainson's call shortly thereafter, but I needed the bird to fly almost directly over us and give us some sweet looks before I could absolutely tell that it was a Swainson's. Fortunately, Adam was nice enough to let me use his scope since mine was kaput, so I was able to get great looks. Unfortunately, I was so engrossed in the bird that I forgot to give the scope over to Nate. Sorry, Nate! It was a 2nd yr. immature bird and a real beauty!
Thanks to Paul and Adam for this awesome bird today!
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
The Dark
I don't like the dark. Never have. I have just never outgrown the horror movie mentality that the dark holds all manner of rotten things. Consequently, looking for owls in the early morning before sunrise is especially stressful since every creaking limb or rustling leaf freaks me out. So this morning I thought I would head out to my favorite owl spot in Lake County, Lyons Woods, to look for my favorite owl, the saw-whet. I packed myself with iPod, iPhone, flashlight and headlamp and headed into the forest preserve about 5:30am. There was actually a fair amount of moonlight so it wasn't too bad. Yesterday there were some NW winds before they turned south last night, but the early morning this morning was one of the few times that it hasn't been windy in the past 2 weeks, so I figured I had a decent shot at hearing an owl.
I found my first spot and leaned up against a large spruce tree to the side of the trail. I played the barking calls and cat whine calls from my iPod and waited. 2 minutes. 5 minutes. Nothing. I played the toots, and some more whine calls. More waiting......and more nothing. Then I hear a very clear bark...right in front of me. I scan with the flashlight but couldn't see anything. Branches were too dense. No doubt it was a saw-whet. It was too brief a call for me, though. I needed something more diagnostic, so I kept trying. I walked farther down the trail to another spruce stand and played the bark and whine calls again. After waiting a few minutes, I thought I heard some sounds coming from farther ahead on the trail so I walked down further and moved off trail under another spruce. I played the combo of calls again and waited. The next sound I heard nearly gave me a heart attack. It was a PERSON walking along the trail! What the heck is a person doing here in the darkness? There can't be another crazy owl-watcher out here.....can there? Two thoughts immediately went through my head. Either this guy is some creep looking for an innocent victim or coming back from some drug party somewhere OR he's going to see me and freak cuz he thinks I'M some kind of lunatic. In either case, I don't want to be seen, so I scrunch up next to the tree and hope he walks right by. As it turns out, there are 2 guys who are out walking their dogs. NOW I'm hoping that the dogs don't sniff me out and start barking or anything. I rotate around the tree as the four of them walk by me. No sound from the dogs. I wait until they're out of hearing distance and let out a deep sigh. That was close! I then play the calls 1 more time. Almost immediately I hear a loud whine come from right above my head!
whine
I look up with my flashlight and see nothing. I move to a different angle and try again. This time, about 15-20ft up I see a white form with a roundish head. The brightness of my flashlight and the large number of branches made it tough to see, but I saw the owl look down at me and move his head a couple of times before flying off. A NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL! #255. Very cool.
I found my first spot and leaned up against a large spruce tree to the side of the trail. I played the barking calls and cat whine calls from my iPod and waited. 2 minutes. 5 minutes. Nothing. I played the toots, and some more whine calls. More waiting......and more nothing. Then I hear a very clear bark...right in front of me. I scan with the flashlight but couldn't see anything. Branches were too dense. No doubt it was a saw-whet. It was too brief a call for me, though. I needed something more diagnostic, so I kept trying. I walked farther down the trail to another spruce stand and played the bark and whine calls again. After waiting a few minutes, I thought I heard some sounds coming from farther ahead on the trail so I walked down further and moved off trail under another spruce. I played the combo of calls again and waited. The next sound I heard nearly gave me a heart attack. It was a PERSON walking along the trail! What the heck is a person doing here in the darkness? There can't be another crazy owl-watcher out here.....can there? Two thoughts immediately went through my head. Either this guy is some creep looking for an innocent victim or coming back from some drug party somewhere OR he's going to see me and freak cuz he thinks I'M some kind of lunatic. In either case, I don't want to be seen, so I scrunch up next to the tree and hope he walks right by. As it turns out, there are 2 guys who are out walking their dogs. NOW I'm hoping that the dogs don't sniff me out and start barking or anything. I rotate around the tree as the four of them walk by me. No sound from the dogs. I wait until they're out of hearing distance and let out a deep sigh. That was close! I then play the calls 1 more time. Almost immediately I hear a loud whine come from right above my head!
whine
I look up with my flashlight and see nothing. I move to a different angle and try again. This time, about 15-20ft up I see a white form with a roundish head. The brightness of my flashlight and the large number of branches made it tough to see, but I saw the owl look down at me and move his head a couple of times before flying off. A NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL! #255. Very cool.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
The Search for the Needle in the Haystack
It's October so it's peak time for Sparrows, the beginning of waterfowl migration, and peak migration for most raptors and owls. Having checked reports from Wisconsin, and seen large numbers of geese moving, I decided that my best chance for a new bird would be to scan flocks of Canada Geese for a Snow Goose or a Greater White-fronted Goose, both of which I still need for the year.
Scanning goose flocks is a painstaking and potentially dangerous activity. Most of the time you only see hundreds of Canadas and usually the flocks are adjacent to busy roads, so getting hit by someone is a real possibility. Once in a while, though, you get lucky and find that diamond in the rough...that needle in a haystack, so the risk pays exciting dividends.
Last Sunday was one such day. I had finished checking out the lakefront and was on my way home. I usually take 9th Ave. to 173 when I'm returning from North Point Marina as I was today. On the corner of 9th and Lewis is a small church with a small pond. This pond often has geese in it. This day was no exception. As I passed by and glanced at the flock, something white caught my attention. I quickly pulled into the church parking area and glassed the pond with my bins. Walla! Right in front of me was #254, a SNOW GOOSE!
Another benefit to searching through the goose flocks is that you may find some other good birds. Tuesday I was at Independence Grove for lunch and happened to see a large group of loafing Canadas on the swimming beach. I went down to take a look at them and again saw something white. I figured it was another Snow Goose, but after I got my scope on it, I saw that it was actually the much rarer ROSS' GOOSE! Not a new bird for me, since I had Steve Bailey's bird in the spring, but a great bird nonetheless, and the first time I had ever seen two Ross' in one year in Lake County.
internet photo
The main difference, aside from the fact that the Ross' is Smaller, is the bill. The Ross' Goose has a small, cute, pink bill with an obviously purple base to it while the Snow Goose has a big honker of a bill with a black "grin" or line separating the upper and lower mandibles. Pretty sweet bird!
Since I still need A GWF goose, I continue to search through more flocks. Yesterday I saw a sizeable group on the east side of Rt. 45 in Lindenhurst, so I pulled off the road, which fortunately has a large shoulder, and scoped out the birds. Off to the left, at the top of a ridge, I again saw something white. I trained the scope on the birds and was treated to the sight of my 2nd TRUMPETER SWAN of the year.
There were actually 4 birds. So I, once again, find a nice bird but miss my target. Such is birding. Today the weather is pretty horrible, so hopefully I will be able to find something nice tomorrow. Good Birding!
Scanning goose flocks is a painstaking and potentially dangerous activity. Most of the time you only see hundreds of Canadas and usually the flocks are adjacent to busy roads, so getting hit by someone is a real possibility. Once in a while, though, you get lucky and find that diamond in the rough...that needle in a haystack, so the risk pays exciting dividends.
Last Sunday was one such day. I had finished checking out the lakefront and was on my way home. I usually take 9th Ave. to 173 when I'm returning from North Point Marina as I was today. On the corner of 9th and Lewis is a small church with a small pond. This pond often has geese in it. This day was no exception. As I passed by and glanced at the flock, something white caught my attention. I quickly pulled into the church parking area and glassed the pond with my bins. Walla! Right in front of me was #254, a SNOW GOOSE!
Another benefit to searching through the goose flocks is that you may find some other good birds. Tuesday I was at Independence Grove for lunch and happened to see a large group of loafing Canadas on the swimming beach. I went down to take a look at them and again saw something white. I figured it was another Snow Goose, but after I got my scope on it, I saw that it was actually the much rarer ROSS' GOOSE! Not a new bird for me, since I had Steve Bailey's bird in the spring, but a great bird nonetheless, and the first time I had ever seen two Ross' in one year in Lake County.
The main difference, aside from the fact that the Ross' is Smaller, is the bill. The Ross' Goose has a small, cute, pink bill with an obviously purple base to it while the Snow Goose has a big honker of a bill with a black "grin" or line separating the upper and lower mandibles. Pretty sweet bird!
Since I still need A GWF goose, I continue to search through more flocks. Yesterday I saw a sizeable group on the east side of Rt. 45 in Lindenhurst, so I pulled off the road, which fortunately has a large shoulder, and scoped out the birds. Off to the left, at the top of a ridge, I again saw something white. I trained the scope on the birds and was treated to the sight of my 2nd TRUMPETER SWAN of the year.
There were actually 4 birds. So I, once again, find a nice bird but miss my target. Such is birding. Today the weather is pretty horrible, so hopefully I will be able to find something nice tomorrow. Good Birding!
Saturday, September 29, 2012
The "Grass" Plover #253
This morning I had a birding appointment with my good friend, Jim Solum. Since we had west winds overnight we decided to hit the lakefront and hope for some good sparrows or shorebirds. We headed first up the beach which looked incredibly vacant save for some gulls. The habitat on the beach looked great, however, with a few small sandbars and some nice algae mats. Unfortunately, we saw no shorebirds as we headed north. Jim is very adept at hearing flight calls and picking up flying birds. Usually I just stand there in awe as Jim calls out all these birds flying over us. I've gotten pretty good at picking them out over the last couple of years, though, and I was right with him today as we heard LAPLAND LONGSPURS and PINE SISKINS flying over us. Felt pretty good about that :) We continued to the small beach pond where we saw the ever-present juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron and a juvenile Pied-billed Grebe. While we were standing there a MERLIN flew right by us. We were lucky enough to see a second bird later in the morning, so that was pretty cool. Nothing else noteworthy, though. We decided to head back to the pier and parking lot. As we walked down the beach talking, I was paying minimal attention to what I had already determined to be "nothing on the beach." I should know better, though. At Waukegan there can be nothing one minute and something amazing the next minute. As we're walking Jim suddenly exclaims, "Plovers ahead flying along the beach!" Plovers were our target birds for the day, specifically AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER and BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. These birds can be tough to ID in juvenile plumage since they look very similar. The one easily distinguishable feature is the color of the axillaries, or "armpits," in flight. Black-bellied Plovers have black armpits and Golden Plovers have gray armpits.
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American Golden Plover
Black-bellied Plover
(internet photos)
As our birds turned and flew away from the beach and then came toward us, we could see that 2 of the birds had black armpits and one of the birds had pale armpits. The paler bird was also slightly smaller than the other 2, another characteristic of American Golden Plover. So, even though we didn't get extended looks, we saw the bird well enough to ID it as an AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER #253!
I was doubtful about getting a chance to see this bird as it is normally found on sod farms along with other "grasspipers" like Upland Sandpipers and Buff-breasted Sandpipers. Amazingly, there are 0 sod farms in Lake County, so I thought my chances were slim of seeing any of these 3 birds. I know they show up on the beach at times, but that's always iffy, so I'm really happy I was able to see 2 of the 3 of these birds this year (missed Upland).
On the way out we stopped in the pines and along the parking lot to look for sparrows. We had 1 GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH, and 3 LINCOLN'S SPARROWS as highlights.
Thanks to Jim for another great morning of birding!
.jpg)
(internet photos)
As our birds turned and flew away from the beach and then came toward us, we could see that 2 of the birds had black armpits and one of the birds had pale armpits. The paler bird was also slightly smaller than the other 2, another characteristic of American Golden Plover. So, even though we didn't get extended looks, we saw the bird well enough to ID it as an AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER #253!
I was doubtful about getting a chance to see this bird as it is normally found on sod farms along with other "grasspipers" like Upland Sandpipers and Buff-breasted Sandpipers. Amazingly, there are 0 sod farms in Lake County, so I thought my chances were slim of seeing any of these 3 birds. I know they show up on the beach at times, but that's always iffy, so I'm really happy I was able to see 2 of the 3 of these birds this year (missed Upland).
On the way out we stopped in the pines and along the parking lot to look for sparrows. We had 1 GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH, and 3 LINCOLN'S SPARROWS as highlights.
Thanks to Jim for another great morning of birding!
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Ammodramus Slam
Today I had the day off for Yom Kippur, so while my wife was working out at the gym, I headed out to Rollins to look for a Red-necked Phalarope and some sparrows. In the past week, Bob Hughes, Fran Morel, and Steve Bailey have seen a number of Ammodramus sparrows. These are some of my favorite birds and definitely my favorite sparrows probably because they are so difficult to get good looks at but also because of their rich orange, yellow, and ochre colors. There are 4 species of these found in Illinois: Henslow's Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Nelson's Sparrow, and Le Conte's Sparrow. Henslow's and Grasshopper both breed at Rollins so I have seen them a number of times this year. Nelson's and Le Conte's migrate through at the end of April and September. Nelson's is very difficult to find in spring but much more common in fall. By the time Nelson's and Le Conte's come through in the fall, though, Henslow's and Grasshopper are usually gone. I have never seen all 4 of them on the same day......until today :) I had a great time this morning watching sparrows pop up all over the place as I walked around the main pond. Nelson's were very common with 8 of them being seen. I never had great photo ops with them, however, and only managed 2 mediocre blurry shots:
Nelson's Sparrow
These sparrows love the Bidens plants which border the lower wet spots around the main pond.
Le Conte's Sparrow has always been a difficult bird for me to find. They have this terribly frustrating habit of waiting until you almost step on them in the grasses and then fly about 3 feet and dive back in the grass. Then they run. Seriously. You see them go into the grass and think you have them, but they are nowhere to be seen. Evaporated like a whisp of smoke. Unbelievable. So today when I saw, not 1, but 2 of them sit right up for pictures, I snapped about 30 shots to make sure I got a couple of good ones.
Le Conte's Sparrow
Le Conte's is similar in appearance to Nelson's, but Nelson's are grayer and more orange with a gray nape and crown stripe. Le Conte's are buffy yellow and more faded in coloration with a white crown stripe and subtle purplish streaks in the nape that you can vaguely make out in the above photo. A truly beautiful bird as is the Nelson's!
The Grasshopper Sparrow is the one that I thought would be the toughest to find, since I haven't seen them in a while. As I was walking along the east side, though, I heard the tinkling call, and managed to pish one out of the grasses for a nice pic.
Grasshopper Sparrow
The ochre color on the face, the flat forehead, and the bright eye ring are diagnostic for Grasshopper.
The Henslow's Sparrow was, unfortunately, a heard only bird, with it's distinctive t'slick call. Would have been nice to get pics of all 4, but so goes it. My first ever Ammodramus Slam. Gotta love it.
Another great bird for the day was the RUSTY BLACKBIRD. Only the second Rusty I've seen this year.
Rusty Blackbird
Related to our more common Red-winged Blackbird, the Rusty is jet black in the summer and difficult to tell from Brewer's Blackbirds. In the fall, however, they turn the color that gives them their name. Very cool. They don't breed around here and are declining in number, so it's always good to see one.
Another great day at My Favorite Place to Bird!
These sparrows love the Bidens plants which border the lower wet spots around the main pond.
Le Conte's Sparrow has always been a difficult bird for me to find. They have this terribly frustrating habit of waiting until you almost step on them in the grasses and then fly about 3 feet and dive back in the grass. Then they run. Seriously. You see them go into the grass and think you have them, but they are nowhere to be seen. Evaporated like a whisp of smoke. Unbelievable. So today when I saw, not 1, but 2 of them sit right up for pictures, I snapped about 30 shots to make sure I got a couple of good ones.
Le Conte's is similar in appearance to Nelson's, but Nelson's are grayer and more orange with a gray nape and crown stripe. Le Conte's are buffy yellow and more faded in coloration with a white crown stripe and subtle purplish streaks in the nape that you can vaguely make out in the above photo. A truly beautiful bird as is the Nelson's!
The Grasshopper Sparrow is the one that I thought would be the toughest to find, since I haven't seen them in a while. As I was walking along the east side, though, I heard the tinkling call, and managed to pish one out of the grasses for a nice pic.
The ochre color on the face, the flat forehead, and the bright eye ring are diagnostic for Grasshopper.
The Henslow's Sparrow was, unfortunately, a heard only bird, with it's distinctive t'slick call. Would have been nice to get pics of all 4, but so goes it. My first ever Ammodramus Slam. Gotta love it.
Another great bird for the day was the RUSTY BLACKBIRD. Only the second Rusty I've seen this year.
Related to our more common Red-winged Blackbird, the Rusty is jet black in the summer and difficult to tell from Brewer's Blackbirds. In the fall, however, they turn the color that gives them their name. Very cool. They don't breed around here and are declining in number, so it's always good to see one.
Another great day at My Favorite Place to Bird!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Another Nemesis No More!
The last 24 hrs. have been wrought with moderate to fairly strong NW winds. This usually bodes well for fall migration along the Lake County lakefront. So today I headed to Waukegan Beach and both units of Illinois Beach State Park to see if I could find some thing interesting. Unfortunately there was only 1 shorebird at Waukegan, a SANDERLING. The prairie grasses and dogwoods abutting the parking area were alive with sparrows and warblers, however. I had 9 sp. of sparrow, and could have gotten more if I worked at it. Here's a few of them:
Lincoln's Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Also had a PHILADELPHIA VIREO and a BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER.
From Waukegan, I headed to IBSP South. My goal was to walk the Dead River trail to look for two birds, Lark Sparrow and Black-billed Cuckoo. Both are birds that I have never seen in Lake County. My chances of seeing a Lark were pretty slim, but I thought I had a decent chance of seeing a cuckoo. There had been a large number of BB Cuckoo reports in the past week, so I was thinking that they were on the move and more visible at this time.
Remember, if you will, that I have been looking for this bird since May.....and all of last year. It has truly been a nemesis bird for me in Lake County. In fact, the only place I've ever seen BB cuckoo is at Montrose where they practically sit out in the open. No such luck in Lake County. Today was to be a different day for me....though it didn't seem so in the beginning.
As I headed down the trail I saw a couple of FOS (first of season) birds. I had 3 HERMIT THRUSHES and 2 BROWN CREEPERS. Creepers winter here and Hermits sometimes do, so a definite cold weather flavor was in the air. As I neared the end of the trail I entered an open area in between woodlots. In this area are a couple of willow shrubs and a dogwood thicket along the Dead River. I saw a couple of Lincoln's Sparrows here and as I entered the opening, a bird flew out of a willow and buried itself in an oak tree. I knew immediately that it was a cuckoo based on its brown color, slim body, and long tail. I couldn't tell if it was a yellow-billed or a black-billed, though, and that was frustrating. I walked up to the oak and the bird flushed above my head. I saw it fly to the next tree but couldn't make out any details. I looked into the tree but could see nothing so I walked up closer. The bird flushed again into the dogwood thicket where it buried itself. I was really frustrated at this point, because I had 3 chances to see the bird and missed them all. I finally gave up and continued around the bend to take the woodland trail back to the parking lot. I had walked about 1/4 of the way down the trail when I started thinking. What's my best chance to see a cuckoo, continue on or go back and retrace my steps along the Dead River? I decided to head back, hoping the bird had returned to the open after I left. Sometimes I make good decisions...this was one of them. I walked back to the same clearing and as I approached , the bird flew out of some dogwoods across the path to the edge of another thicket where it incredibly sat out in the open! I had great looks at the buffy throat of a juvenile bird and the black bill. A BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO!!! #252 and Nemesis No More!
juv. BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO
It's a good feeling when you finally find a bird that you've worked very hard to see. A very cool bird, indeed.
Also had a PHILADELPHIA VIREO and a BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER.
From Waukegan, I headed to IBSP South. My goal was to walk the Dead River trail to look for two birds, Lark Sparrow and Black-billed Cuckoo. Both are birds that I have never seen in Lake County. My chances of seeing a Lark were pretty slim, but I thought I had a decent chance of seeing a cuckoo. There had been a large number of BB Cuckoo reports in the past week, so I was thinking that they were on the move and more visible at this time.
Remember, if you will, that I have been looking for this bird since May.....and all of last year. It has truly been a nemesis bird for me in Lake County. In fact, the only place I've ever seen BB cuckoo is at Montrose where they practically sit out in the open. No such luck in Lake County. Today was to be a different day for me....though it didn't seem so in the beginning.
As I headed down the trail I saw a couple of FOS (first of season) birds. I had 3 HERMIT THRUSHES and 2 BROWN CREEPERS. Creepers winter here and Hermits sometimes do, so a definite cold weather flavor was in the air. As I neared the end of the trail I entered an open area in between woodlots. In this area are a couple of willow shrubs and a dogwood thicket along the Dead River. I saw a couple of Lincoln's Sparrows here and as I entered the opening, a bird flew out of a willow and buried itself in an oak tree. I knew immediately that it was a cuckoo based on its brown color, slim body, and long tail. I couldn't tell if it was a yellow-billed or a black-billed, though, and that was frustrating. I walked up to the oak and the bird flushed above my head. I saw it fly to the next tree but couldn't make out any details. I looked into the tree but could see nothing so I walked up closer. The bird flushed again into the dogwood thicket where it buried itself. I was really frustrated at this point, because I had 3 chances to see the bird and missed them all. I finally gave up and continued around the bend to take the woodland trail back to the parking lot. I had walked about 1/4 of the way down the trail when I started thinking. What's my best chance to see a cuckoo, continue on or go back and retrace my steps along the Dead River? I decided to head back, hoping the bird had returned to the open after I left. Sometimes I make good decisions...this was one of them. I walked back to the same clearing and as I approached , the bird flew out of some dogwoods across the path to the edge of another thicket where it incredibly sat out in the open! I had great looks at the buffy throat of a juvenile bird and the black bill. A BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO!!! #252 and Nemesis No More!
It's a good feeling when you finally find a bird that you've worked very hard to see. A very cool bird, indeed.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
My Favorite Place to Bird
It's been a frustrating couple of weeks for me. I've missed Mississippi Kite, Swallow-tailed Kite, Whimbrel, Whooping Cranes, and Snow Goose in the past 2 weeks here in Lake County. Family obligations and work schedules have kept me away from the lakefront for the most part, so I just haven't been able to go out that much. I'm 0-2 on the Mississippi Kite and 0-2 on the Whimbrel as well, so I made the effort at least. It's also been tough for me to make the 30 min. drive to the lakefront due to extreme nerve pain when sitting brought on by a pulled hamstring. The pain is literally a 9 after about 15 min. of driving. Thus, I haven't made it to the lakefront nearly as often as I would have liked.
The one bright spot this month has been Rollins Savanna. Fortunately I live a mere 8 min. from Rollins, and I love this place. Though it doesn't have much in the way of woodland habitat, it has a little, and during many years, it is the single best easily accessible shorebird spot in the county. This year was no exception. It's easily the best grassland bird spot. It's also a good spot to see migrating raptors, and is also the best waterfowl spot in the county. So, unless you're looking for warblers, this is a truly awesome place to bird. The only drawback to it is that you really need to walk off trail to see the best birds. This can be difficult and treacherous at times. I've fallen into holes on more than 1 occasion but I know where most of them are by now, so I can navigate more easily.
Since it's coming up on sparrow and raptor season, I thought I would head out there this weekend and see if I could find a couple of new birds that should be migrating through soon. Last night I headed over after school and had a couple of good birds:
1 Greater Yellowlegs
1 Pectoral Sandpiper
2 Northern Harrier
1 American Pipit
And......
#250 a cruising MERLIN that passed over one of the ponds and freaked out a bunch of Killdeer.
internet photo
This morning I headed back to search for a Nelson's Sparrow. Nelson's love wetland grasses, so Rollins is a great place for both them and LeConte's. Though the latter is much harder to find. In any case, I made my way around the main pond, saw a juv. BALD EAGLE, 3 juv. COOPER'S HAWKS, 1 SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, 2 juv. NORTHERN HARRIERS, 1 fem. AMERICAN WIGEON, and #251 a beautiful NELSON'S SPARROW.
internet photo
2 pretty awesome birds, absolutely beautiful weather, and a stone's throw from my house. Gotta love Rollins!
The one bright spot this month has been Rollins Savanna. Fortunately I live a mere 8 min. from Rollins, and I love this place. Though it doesn't have much in the way of woodland habitat, it has a little, and during many years, it is the single best easily accessible shorebird spot in the county. This year was no exception. It's easily the best grassland bird spot. It's also a good spot to see migrating raptors, and is also the best waterfowl spot in the county. So, unless you're looking for warblers, this is a truly awesome place to bird. The only drawback to it is that you really need to walk off trail to see the best birds. This can be difficult and treacherous at times. I've fallen into holes on more than 1 occasion but I know where most of them are by now, so I can navigate more easily.
Since it's coming up on sparrow and raptor season, I thought I would head out there this weekend and see if I could find a couple of new birds that should be migrating through soon. Last night I headed over after school and had a couple of good birds:
1 Greater Yellowlegs
1 Pectoral Sandpiper
2 Northern Harrier
1 American Pipit
And......
#250 a cruising MERLIN that passed over one of the ponds and freaked out a bunch of Killdeer.
This morning I headed back to search for a Nelson's Sparrow. Nelson's love wetland grasses, so Rollins is a great place for both them and LeConte's. Though the latter is much harder to find. In any case, I made my way around the main pond, saw a juv. BALD EAGLE, 3 juv. COOPER'S HAWKS, 1 SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, 2 juv. NORTHERN HARRIERS, 1 fem. AMERICAN WIGEON, and #251 a beautiful NELSON'S SPARROW.
2 pretty awesome birds, absolutely beautiful weather, and a stone's throw from my house. Gotta love Rollins!
Saturday, September 8, 2012
The Hawkwatch
The hawkwatch is located at the North Unit of Illinois Beach State Park on 17th St. and Sheridan Rd. in Zion. It can be a pretty magical place in the fall as thousands of raptors migrate along the boundary of Lake Michigan. When conditions are good, typically NW winds on the backside of a cold front, you can see literally hundreds of raptors migrate past and overhead in one day. It's a very cool spectacle to behold.
This morning I went to the hawk watch to hopefully find the Mississippi Kite that has been hanging around for 2 weeks now. I've attempted to find that bird at least 3 times with no luck. Today marks 4 since the bird was a no show for the 2 hours that I watched for raptors.
The good news of the morning, though, was that I saw bird #249 for the year. A RED-SHOULDERED HAWK passed close by but slightly west of the hill. It was fairly high up but good looks could be had with my 10x bins. The coloration and striping and I couldn't see that well but the diagnostic pale windows at the terminal ends of the wing create diagnostic crescents that are only seen in Red-Shouldereds.
internet photo
The pale crescents along with the black-tipped primaries distinguishes this bird as a Red-shouldered. The coloration and stripes seals the deal, but you can still ID this bird from the crescents. A gorgeous bird!
Today's NW winds produced a good number of raptors for my time there. I saw 5 other species besides the Red-shouldered: OSPREY, SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, COOPER'S HAWK, RED-TAILED HAWK, and TURKEY VULTURE. I'm sure that more would seen through the course of the day, including the kite.
This morning I went to the hawk watch to hopefully find the Mississippi Kite that has been hanging around for 2 weeks now. I've attempted to find that bird at least 3 times with no luck. Today marks 4 since the bird was a no show for the 2 hours that I watched for raptors.
The good news of the morning, though, was that I saw bird #249 for the year. A RED-SHOULDERED HAWK passed close by but slightly west of the hill. It was fairly high up but good looks could be had with my 10x bins. The coloration and striping and I couldn't see that well but the diagnostic pale windows at the terminal ends of the wing create diagnostic crescents that are only seen in Red-Shouldereds.
The pale crescents along with the black-tipped primaries distinguishes this bird as a Red-shouldered. The coloration and stripes seals the deal, but you can still ID this bird from the crescents. A gorgeous bird!
Today's NW winds produced a good number of raptors for my time there. I saw 5 other species besides the Red-shouldered: OSPREY, SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, COOPER'S HAWK, RED-TAILED HAWK, and TURKEY VULTURE. I'm sure that more would seen through the course of the day, including the kite.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
#246, 247, and 248!
Summer birding can be very monotonous and, after a while, I kind of got tired of seeing all the same birds or no birds at all. About a week ago, however, I was checking my bird mail (listserv emails with bird sightings from Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, and Missouri) and I noticed that there were multiple sightings of Red Crossbills in Milwaukee. Now Red Crossbills are tough birds to find in northern IL and, when you do see or hear them, it's usually in November or during the winter. Seeing them in August is incredible! Anyway, I checked the weather for August 17 and noticed that there were Northwest winds overnight so I decided to give it a shot and check the two best locations for crossbills in Lake County, Van Patten Woods and Lyons Woods. I stopped first at Van Patten Woods, where I saw Red Crossbills last November. Nothing, however. Then I headed to Lyons Woods in Waukegan. The great thing about Red Crossbills is that they have very distinctive "chit-chit" flight calls. As soon as I walked onto the path at Lyons, I heard a flock of RED CROSSBILLS fly over me doing repeated "chit-chit" calls. This happened twice before I saw them land in a pine near the trail. I looked up to get a nice look but didn't see anything more than the form of the birds as they flew over me again and out of sight. They were big finches, though, which fits, since RED CROSSBILLS are the largest of the finch group.
red crossbill call
#246 and a good one!
Haven't done much birding since then except to check Nippersink mudflat once in a while. There are lots of shorebirds there but all common types. I keep thinking that it looks like a good spot for a Golden Plover or a buffy, though, so yesterday, August 24, I stopped at the mudflat to check again for buffies. BINGO! 4 awesome BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS meandered around the mudflat with the numerous other common shorebirds. #247!
Today was yet another highlight even better than yesterday's, if you can believe that! I headed out to Rollins for some quick birding before having to head to Crossfit for a workout with my son, Doug at 8:30. When I got there it was gorgeous. Calm air, moderate-warm temps. I headed down to the edge of the main pond and walked the western edge of the pond. There were a number of the more common shorebirds scurrying about in the numerous muddy edges and flats. The habitat was excellent for mud-loving shorebirds. As I walked past the Cormorant Tree the pond doglegs to the west. I followed the shoreline and as I approached the end of the inlet, I saw a very large shorebird digging through the mud along with some Semipalmated Sandpipers. I looked at its gray body, olive green legs and bright white eyeline and immediately thought, "this is a RED KNOT!" Then I simultaneously thought, "No. It can't be" But I saw it lift its head, got a nice look at the short, thick, black bill, and confirmed that it was, indeed, a Red Knot! Tremendous bird for Lake County and even better bird for Rollins Savanna. #248 Woohoo!
Bob Hughes internet photo
red crossbill call
#246 and a good one!
Haven't done much birding since then except to check Nippersink mudflat once in a while. There are lots of shorebirds there but all common types. I keep thinking that it looks like a good spot for a Golden Plover or a buffy, though, so yesterday, August 24, I stopped at the mudflat to check again for buffies. BINGO! 4 awesome BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS meandered around the mudflat with the numerous other common shorebirds. #247!
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
#245 AND a Least Bittern!
The day didn't start off well today or yesterday. After going 45 days in a row with little to no rain, now it's going to rain every day and eliminate all the shorebird habitat- at least that's my fear any time I read the weather forecast or look at the radar. So this morning when more rain came in, I was a little disturbed, to say the least. I had to alter my original plan to go to Vernon Hills first and check the athletic fields for Uppies. Now finding an Uppie in Lake County will take no small act of God. I've never seen 1 here and only heard of 1 or 2 in my 5 years of extensive birding. Still, I need to make the effort in order to have a shot at the record. In any case, I had to start at Waukegan Beach first, since it wasn't raining there, then hit Waukegan Airport, Vernon Hills, and Rollins to round out the morning.
Waukegan Beach is a tough place to bird mentally. Usually there's absolutely nothing there except standard fare, but 1 day you'll hit something really cool. Initially it looked pretty bleak this morning. No shorebirds except the standard SPOTTED SANDPIPERS and SANDERLINGS. I was expecting something on the beach with impending storms looming dark in the west. I did see a shorebird farther down the beach, so I headed out to walk at least to the pond and back. Yes, there's a pond on the beach. It is favored by shorebirds every once in a while, but I haven't seen many in there over the years. There was a Tricolored Heron that hung out there for a few days in spring a couple of years ago. As I approached the pond slowly, I saw a Great Blue Heron to my left along with a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron. In front of me I saw a juvenile Green Heron and next to it was a butterscotch ball with a bill staring right at me.....a LEAST BITTERN! I don't swear often, but I let one fly right there. I have never seen a Least Bittern in Lake County. I've HEARD them a few times, but never seen one. I've actually only seen them twice TOTAL in the U.S. and those were either distant looks or fleeting flybys. This was a killer look and it was AWESOME!!
That was a pretty nice start to the day. I then headed to the Waukegan Airport. Airports are sometimes used by Uppies during migration as well as sod farms and hay fields, so I thought I would check it out. It looked promising but not much was there. Then I headed to Fairway Dr. in Vernon Hills where the Vernon Hills HS and Stevenson HS athletic fields are. This area looks very promising. I had 117 KILLDEER here and over 125 RING-BILLED GULLS. Also 2 HORNED LARKS and numerous blackbirds. If that many birds like the area, I'm thinking an Uppie can slip in there somewhere. I guess we'll see. Nothing today, though. I headed back home and stopped at the Peterson Rd. fluddle which had 6 STILT SANDPIPERS, 4 LEAST SANDPIPERS, 1 LESSER YELLOWLEGS, and 1 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER. Not too shabby.
My last stop was at Rollins. My Rollins trips consist of two parts: taking my bike and riding around the loop to check the trailside ponds, and then hiking off-trail around the main pond. So I took off on my bike appropriately laden with camera, bins, and small scope. My first stop was the west trailside pond. It looks real good at the north end with a nice puddle surrounded by mud. I got off my bike and glassed the area with my bins....1 Killdeer, 2 Killdeer, and, wait....it looks like a BAIRD'S!
I got my scope on the bird and had a nice look at the buffy color on the chest, black legs and thin black bill, thin eye ring, long body, and...the key...long wings past the tail. This bird was also definitely bigger than the other peeps of the day. It was great to see this bird. I don't see many of them usually. The problem, though, was that this bird was very jumpy due to harassment by the Killdeer. It took off and flew away once only to return, but it was constantly flitting around the puddle until the Killdeer drove it off for good. Consequently I didn't get a diagnostic pic at all, which bugged me. Hopefully I will find another one, but still a great bird, #245 for the year! I finished the morning with 11 shorebird species, which isn't too bad for July in Lake County:
Killdeer 125 mostly at VHills athletic fields
Spotted Sandpiper 4
Solitary Sandpiper 2 rollins
Greater Yellowlegs 6
Lesser Yellowlegs 5
Sanderling 4
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 12
Baird's Sandpiper 1 rollins west side pond
Stilt Sandpiper 6 peterson rd. fluddle
Short-billed Dowitcher 1 rollins discovery trail main pond
Waukegan Beach is a tough place to bird mentally. Usually there's absolutely nothing there except standard fare, but 1 day you'll hit something really cool. Initially it looked pretty bleak this morning. No shorebirds except the standard SPOTTED SANDPIPERS and SANDERLINGS. I was expecting something on the beach with impending storms looming dark in the west. I did see a shorebird farther down the beach, so I headed out to walk at least to the pond and back. Yes, there's a pond on the beach. It is favored by shorebirds every once in a while, but I haven't seen many in there over the years. There was a Tricolored Heron that hung out there for a few days in spring a couple of years ago. As I approached the pond slowly, I saw a Great Blue Heron to my left along with a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron. In front of me I saw a juvenile Green Heron and next to it was a butterscotch ball with a bill staring right at me.....a LEAST BITTERN! I don't swear often, but I let one fly right there. I have never seen a Least Bittern in Lake County. I've HEARD them a few times, but never seen one. I've actually only seen them twice TOTAL in the U.S. and those were either distant looks or fleeting flybys. This was a killer look and it was AWESOME!!
My last stop was at Rollins. My Rollins trips consist of two parts: taking my bike and riding around the loop to check the trailside ponds, and then hiking off-trail around the main pond. So I took off on my bike appropriately laden with camera, bins, and small scope. My first stop was the west trailside pond. It looks real good at the north end with a nice puddle surrounded by mud. I got off my bike and glassed the area with my bins....1 Killdeer, 2 Killdeer, and, wait....it looks like a BAIRD'S!
I got my scope on the bird and had a nice look at the buffy color on the chest, black legs and thin black bill, thin eye ring, long body, and...the key...long wings past the tail. This bird was also definitely bigger than the other peeps of the day. It was great to see this bird. I don't see many of them usually. The problem, though, was that this bird was very jumpy due to harassment by the Killdeer. It took off and flew away once only to return, but it was constantly flitting around the puddle until the Killdeer drove it off for good. Consequently I didn't get a diagnostic pic at all, which bugged me. Hopefully I will find another one, but still a great bird, #245 for the year! I finished the morning with 11 shorebird species, which isn't too bad for July in Lake County:
Killdeer 125 mostly at VHills athletic fields
Spotted Sandpiper 4
Solitary Sandpiper 2 rollins
Greater Yellowlegs 6
Lesser Yellowlegs 5
Sanderling 4
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 12
Baird's Sandpiper 1 rollins west side pond
Stilt Sandpiper 6 peterson rd. fluddle
Short-billed Dowitcher 1 rollins discovery trail main pond
Tomorrow the search for the Uppie continues!
Sunday, July 22, 2012
The Tube Strikes Again!
It's shorebird season, so the best place to find shorebirds is the Geotube on Grass Lake, so my trusty compadre and rowing partner, as well as my awesome wife, Michelle, and I headed out around 6:30am to the tube. Great weather and calm water as usual, though the boat traffic was unusually heavy for the time of day. It took us about 15 min. to row out to the island where we saw that the water levels were definitely much higher than before the rains. Some mudflat still was present, though, so I was thinking some shorebirds would still be there. There were SOME but compared to last week it was slim pickins. 12 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS methodically probed the mud while 4 STILT SANDPIPERS did the same in a different area to the NE. There were 3 SPOTTED SANDPIPERS on the rocks. Other than those, there were none. Slightly disappointing to say the least. I've noticed that since the rains have come, the number of shorebirds, despite good habitat, has decreased.
So, since the action was minimal, we headed back around the island and headed toward the dock. Now, as we were watching for shorebirds earlier, I had said to my wife, "we need to check the trees around the island also because now is a good time for some wandering herons to show up." Fortunately, she was listening, because I failed to take my own advice, and as we headed around the island I was focused on rowing and paid no notice to the shoreline of the island. The south end of the island is heavily vegetated and has a nice little moat perfect for herons. As we neared this area, Michelle said, "Hey, what's that bird? It looks too small to be a Great Blue Heron." I glanced over, saw the bird, and nearly pooped my pants when I saw a gorgeous YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON staring right at me! Being the spaz that I am, I quickly fumbled with my camera to get a pic, and, in so doing, freaked the bird and it flew over the trees and out of sight before I could snap a pic. Unbelievable! Yet another county lifer for me! A truly great bird for Lake County, and one that I would never have guessed that I would see this year.
On the way back we had nice looks at many BLACK TERNS in various stages of molt. At least 8 were flying around.
Gotta love Grass Lake!
So, since the action was minimal, we headed back around the island and headed toward the dock. Now, as we were watching for shorebirds earlier, I had said to my wife, "we need to check the trees around the island also because now is a good time for some wandering herons to show up." Fortunately, she was listening, because I failed to take my own advice, and as we headed around the island I was focused on rowing and paid no notice to the shoreline of the island. The south end of the island is heavily vegetated and has a nice little moat perfect for herons. As we neared this area, Michelle said, "Hey, what's that bird? It looks too small to be a Great Blue Heron." I glanced over, saw the bird, and nearly pooped my pants when I saw a gorgeous YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON staring right at me! Being the spaz that I am, I quickly fumbled with my camera to get a pic, and, in so doing, freaked the bird and it flew over the trees and out of sight before I could snap a pic. Unbelievable! Yet another county lifer for me! A truly great bird for Lake County, and one that I would never have guessed that I would see this year.
Gotta love Grass Lake!
Friday, July 20, 2012
0 for 2
It's been a few days without blogging......mainly because I haven't seen much of interest. It's the beginning of shorebird season, so the shorebirds are beginning to show up. Unfortunately, they're always the same ones. Of course, when 2 new birds showed up last week, I was in Wisconsin for a week. Amazing. Well, part of the aura of doing a big year is the frustration of missing good birds. I've already missed a Mockingbird, a Harlequin Duck, and a Baird's Sandpiper this year, so I was hoping to improve on that today.
Jake Cvetas saw what he thought was a Yellow-crowned Night Heron yesterday afternoon in Buffalo Grove. That's a great bird for Lake County. In fact, it would be a county lifer for me. So I headed down there at 5:30am this morning to beat the traffic. Unfortunately, I didn't see the YC anywhere. I saw the willow tree where Jake saw it, but no bird. I looked for about an hour to no avail so I left and explored other areas. One nice side trip I took were to the athletic fields at Vernon Hills HS. There were birds all over them including 1 SOLITARY SANDPIPER, 1 LEAST SANDPIPER, 3 HORNED LARKS, numerous swallows, many blackbirds, and about 30-40 KILLDEER. Looks promising for grasspipers!
I spent the day tooling around checking shorebird spots and finding nothing, so when I got home and checked my email to find out that Al Stokie found a Lark Sparrow at IBSP South, I almost passed out. Another county lifer! I hustled down there ASAP and got there around 4:30. There was a lot of beach traffic, though, and no song at all, so I found no bird. Tough day, but it's all part of the game. There are tough days and, hopefully, some more exhilarating ones to come later :)
Jake Cvetas saw what he thought was a Yellow-crowned Night Heron yesterday afternoon in Buffalo Grove. That's a great bird for Lake County. In fact, it would be a county lifer for me. So I headed down there at 5:30am this morning to beat the traffic. Unfortunately, I didn't see the YC anywhere. I saw the willow tree where Jake saw it, but no bird. I looked for about an hour to no avail so I left and explored other areas. One nice side trip I took were to the athletic fields at Vernon Hills HS. There were birds all over them including 1 SOLITARY SANDPIPER, 1 LEAST SANDPIPER, 3 HORNED LARKS, numerous swallows, many blackbirds, and about 30-40 KILLDEER. Looks promising for grasspipers!
I spent the day tooling around checking shorebird spots and finding nothing, so when I got home and checked my email to find out that Al Stokie found a Lark Sparrow at IBSP South, I almost passed out. Another county lifer! I hustled down there ASAP and got there around 4:30. There was a lot of beach traffic, though, and no song at all, so I found no bird. Tough day, but it's all part of the game. There are tough days and, hopefully, some more exhilarating ones to come later :)
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Another Shorebird Jaunt
This morning Fran Morel and I ventured out around 6:15am to hit a couple of Lake County's better shorebird spots: Rollins and the Tube. We started at the Tube where we had 8 shorebird sp. New for the fall was a SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER. We saw 5 of these. Lots of SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS (25) and STILT SANDPIPERS (8). Otherwise standard fare. Also good numbers of BLACK TERNS (11), 2 FORSTER'S TERNS and 2 juvenile CASPIAN TERNS. Best bird was probably a BONAPARTE'S GULL which is pretty rare here in summer.
Bonaparte's Gull (foreground) and Caspian Terns
(background)
After returning the canoe around 8:45, we headed to my house, got some food and changed, and then headed over to Rollins where we hiked the western side of the main pond. Had more SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS (12) and a couple of GREATER YELLOWLEGS as well as the standard LEAST SANDPIPERS.
Still looking for that Baird's Sandpiper and some rarities!
(background)
After returning the canoe around 8:45, we headed to my house, got some food and changed, and then headed over to Rollins where we hiked the western side of the main pond. Had more SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS (12) and a couple of GREATER YELLOWLEGS as well as the standard LEAST SANDPIPERS.
Friday, July 13, 2012
2 Days, 2 New Birds....
Happy Friday the 13th! It was an awesome day today as it was yesterday. After not getting a new year bird for a week and a half, I
was greeted with #242 yesterday and #243 today. Pretty nice.
So yesterday the plan was to go to the lakefront and check the beach for shorebirds and then go to IBSP to look for the mythical Black-billed Cuckoo. I started at Waukegan Beach and found a weird-looking hybrid duck of some sort.
No shorebirds other than the resident Spotted Sandpipers, though, so I headed over to IBSP South and walked the trails there looking for the cuckoo. No luck, of course, but there were scads of Field Sparrows and Eastern Towhees. I then headed to IBSP North and Sand Pond Rd. This is a road behind a locked gate which is only locked to cars. It's perfectly OK to take your bike or walk around the gate, which everyone does. So I rode my bike down the road looking for Blue Grosbeaks, Lark Sparrows, cuckoos, and any other rarity I could find. As I was approaching the lake, there was a corridor of oaks on my right. It was from this corridor that I heard the characteristic "peer-peer" call of a CAROLINA WREN! Now the Carolina Wren is very common in southern Illinois and even in some of the southern suburbs. However, it is very rare in lake county. So rare that I have NEVER seen one in this county. I heard the call, then played the call on my iPod. No response. So I just stood on the trail waiting. At this point a walker came up to me and asked what I was looking for. On cue, the Carolina called again, and I said "That bird!" The walker, now intrigued, asked about the bird as the wren flew right into the tree I was standing next to! Alas, I couldn't get my bins on the bird, though, because it kept moving. My new birding friend followed the bird as I kept losing it in binocular transition until it finally sat in a shrub for a second so I could get a diagnostic look. Once I saw the bird, I had to get a photo:
Stilt Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
was greeted with #242 yesterday and #243 today. Pretty nice.
So yesterday the plan was to go to the lakefront and check the beach for shorebirds and then go to IBSP to look for the mythical Black-billed Cuckoo. I started at Waukegan Beach and found a weird-looking hybrid duck of some sort.
#242!
Today my goal was to look for Snowy Egret at sunrise at Red-wing Slough and then head to Rollins Savanna and hike around the main pond and cover every interior pond looking for shorebirds. No Snowies today but at Rollins things were hoppin'. I saw 8 species of shorebirds: KILLDEER, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, LEAST SANDPIPER, LESSER YELLOWLEGS, GREATER YELLOWLEGS, STILT SANDPIPER, SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER, LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER.
Lesser Yellowlegs
Long-billed Dowitcher was year bird #243! Now, dowitcher ID is very difficult- one of the most difficult ID challenges in birding. Though there are subtle differences in plumage characteristics and structure, the only way that I can truly be sure of their differences is to hear them call. The call notes are very different:
I actually had 5 Long-billed Dowitchers fly in and land in front of me for a couple of minutes WHILE CALLING, so it was easy to ID them. The Short-billeds were calling also.
To see all these shorebirds, I had to hike off-trail through some very tall plants, patches of thistles, and navigate the many potholes which you can't see due to plant growth. It was a good workout, especially in the 90 degree heat! It was a great morning to be out, though, and Rollins didn't disappoint.
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