Why Big Days?

Well, it's almost that time to begin another year of Big Days in Lake County to see if I can best my totals from last year. As I have been preparing for my Jan. 3, 2014 Big Day run, I reflected a little bit on why I like doing Big Days. So here goes.......
  I think one of the primary reasons I enjoy Big Days is because they're competitive. I'm a very competitive person, and I like the challenge of trying to be the best. We have a large number of very skilled birders in Illinois so it's a big accomplishment to me to work hard to attain the levels of success enjoyed by other Big Day birders before me. As of right now there are no records by month of Lake County Big Days save for the month of May, so I have set goals for myself based on the Northern Illinois records. Even though it is much easier to visit a variety of habitats if one is doing a Big Day over the northern half of Illinois in its entirety, and so get many more species, I believe that it should be possible for me to get to 3rd highest for the region. So I have set my goal to be in the top 3 according to the IOS Lister's Corner for each month for Northern Illinois. This has proven to be a lofty goal as I only achieved this one month (June) in 2013. Lister's Corner publishes the top 5 regional Big Days for each month. I reached the top 5 for 8 out of the 12 months, which isn't too bad, but I'm hoping I can improve on those numbers for 2014. My biggest goal for 2014 is to crack the top 2 for a Lake County Big Day in May. I finished with the 4th highest total last year and am hoping to do much better this year. Some of the totals are incredibly high, though, so if I can just improve upon what I did in 2013, that will be a success in itself.
  I also enjoy Big Days because of the challenge of putting together a solid route and sticking to a time schedule. This has really been the biggest challenge for me. Lake County is tough to get through quickly, as is any largely suburban/urban area, and it's natural areas are widely spread out once you get off the lakefront, so it really is tough to figure out which places to go to and which places to skip. I have struggled with the "when" of the lakefront for most of the year. When do I hit the lakefront? Do I start there, or do I finish there? Generally speaking, the modus operandi of a Big Day is to get the dawn chorus or woodland species/songbirds early in the morning and hit the bodies of water later in the day since shorebirds, waterfowl, and gulls don't really care about time of day as much. On Lake Michigan, however, the birds are moving across the water early during months of migration, and tend to be less active, or non-existent, later in the day. Either way birds will be missed, so in solidifying my route from month to month, I try to cut my losses. This has been challenging. I also don't want to be on the road too much, so I try to find places close together as much as possible. Another challenge to birding Lake County is that there are few places where you can just drive up and get birds. In Cook County, you can pretty much avoid walking long distances, except at Palos perhaps, but in Lake County you need to walk, bike, and canoe to get to the best spots. Looking at some of the ABA Big Day records yesterday, I noticed that a lot them had "miles by car: hundreds; miles on foot: less than 5." Not possible in Lake County to do this unless you are willing to miss a number of good spots. I usually cover over 10 miles out of my car during Big Days. It's a lot of fun, but it also sucks up a lot of time. It essentially becomes The Amazing Race to find your target birds. This has really forced me to get to know my county well.
  That leads me to my next reason for loving these Days. I have learned quite a bit about birding in Lake County over the past couple of years and have spent time exploring the county trying to find underbirded or previously-unknown spots. One of my favorite spots that was pretty much unknown to me 3 years ago is Nippersink Marsh. This place is fantastic in late summer during dry years for shorebirds, but I had never heard of it before 2010 for the most part. There are a number of things that are frustrating about birding Lake County but there's no question that it has some nice birding areas. One of the more frustrating aspects to birding Lake County is the fact that there is great habitat on PRIVATE PROPERTY and one needs to know the property lines to avoid trespassing. I have had trouble with this one more than once in the past couple of years. I've also gotten permission to bird some areas that I had never known previously, as well, so that has been rewarding. The adventure continues, however.
  When you get right down to it, Big Day birding really fits my personality. I'm a pretty fidgety person, and I can't stand still for very long or I feel like I'm missing something somewhere else. I suck at the hawk watch or at a lake watch unless things are moving a lot. I definitely need to learn to enjoy slowing down and appreciating the birds more, but the Big Day fits right into my wheelhouse of flitting nervously from one birding locale to another. This doesn't work so much for my birding companions, however, so I can be annoying in my "hurry up" mode. Apologies to my birding compadres for incessant hassling. It's really exciting for me to see how many species I can find in any one time period, though, so the Big Day fits this mentality nicely.
  Big Days also force me to be a better birder. In order to maximize the number of species seen, one must be adept at ID'ing birds by sound and picking up field marks/behavioral cues quickly in the field. I think that I have improved greatly over the past couple of years in both of these areas. Thrush call notes have specifically been something that I learned this year which helped a great deal. I also learned a great deal about birding at night. It's amazing how many species are active at night and can be ID'd before sunrise. I looked at the youtube video the the Sapsucker team put together for their record-braeking big day this year, and I think they had 35 or 40 species before dawn! And many of them were waterfowl which I never thought of trying to get at night before. Some sparrows also are calling at night. I got Henslow's and Grasshopper Sparrows at night more than once last year. Pretty cool.
  I also love the social aspect of Big Day birding. ABA rules require you to have at least one partner on Big Days, so it essentially becomes a team sport. I have been lucky to be able to share my Big Days with 5 very skilled birders for various parts of my Big Day Year. I have learned something from all of them, and have enjoyed getting to know them better over the course of the past year. It's sometimes difficult to work personal/family schedules into the Big Day, so I've been very appreciative of the time that they have taken to join me on my quest. It's been a lot of fun, and I look forward to spending more time with them, and possibly adding some new cohorts for 2014.
  Then there's the adventure. The unknown. The bird that you found that blew your socks off.....or the one you missed that you never thought you'd miss in a million years. Big Days are full of surprises and adrenaline rushes, as well as incredible frustration. It runs the gamut of emotions but that's what really can make you feel alive. Nothing beats finding a new county bird on a Big Day!
  Lastly, I think doing County Big Days is good for the environment and good for science. It obviously cuts down on the number of miles driven over an entire region or state, and the data collected from these Big Days can be very valuable in getting accurate pictures of distribution of species at different times of the year in different habitats. I like to think I'm doing some important research that will ultimately help in establishing natural areas for our avian delights.
  Looking forward to some great birding in 2014. Have a happy holiday season and go get 'em!

The Lake County Big Year 2012 in Review

  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!

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

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!


 

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.

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!

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!