Steve Bailey, Andy Stewart, and I meandered our way through myriads of birds on Sunday, Sept. 14 for my 21st consecutive monthly Big Day. The weather was beautiful, though a bit chilly in the early morning hours as it dropped to 41 degrees! I'm definitely not ready for bone-chilling cold again.
We started the day at Rollins Savanna at 2:00am and promptly ticked off both VIRGINIA and SORA RAILS. This was a big lift since these birds have been a tad difficult to get since May. We also heard a juvenile GREAT HORNED OWL doing a very high-pitched squeal that sounded rather odd to me, so I was hoping we would get another one. We heard 2 other juveniles during the course of the night, and had nice looks at 3 adults during the day/night. No adults were calling, though, which was interesting given the number we had last month (only 2 weeks ago).
We then were off to Lakewood. Steve let fly with his famous Barred Owl call but we heard nothing initially. Then on about the 3rd try, we heard our buddy off in the distance. Definitely clearly audible but, also, definitely not close. He's been moving around quite a bit these days. At COLSP we had 2 calling EASTERN SCREECH OWLS, so the only bird left for us was the Whip. We arrived at IBSP around 4:30 and played the call. Shortly we had a nicely responding EASTERN WHIPPOORWILL behind the nature center. A great start to the day with all of our expected nocturnal species. We finished the evening at Middlefork trying for a Least Bittern or King Rail but no luck. We also had numerous calling SWAINSON'S THRUSHES flying over us during the night, but we could not hear anything else. A nicely silhouetted GREAT HORNED OWL in the wetland tree was our last bird of the evening hours.
We started the day at Daniel Wright where we had no less than 4 calling WOOD THRUSHES and a kekking COOPER'S HAWK. We then headed quickly over to Ryerson where my first tactical error occurred. With visions of Warbler Grandeur dancing in my head on the heels of Doug Stotz's post yesterday about his 20 Warbler species, I figured we would head to the river where Doug had most of his birds. This probably would have worked well had it been May.....and the birds were singing. In September, when the birds are definitely NOT singing, however, this is a recipe for advanced frustration. There were definitely birds around us, but they were not visible and the leaf cover is too dense around the river to see much, so we ended up not being able to ID very many. We hurried back to the Brushwood parking lot and were able to get a couple of species, but nothing even close to what I was expecting, and our vireo count was a whopping 1....not the beginning I had hoped for. I should have done Warbler Alley on the west side of the preserve along the river. Birds congregate here in the morning sun and they are close. The leaf cover isn't nearly as dense either. Lesson learned. I also missed a HOUSE FINCH! while going to the bathroom. Really? That was only the beginning of the Dirty Bird Debacle.
Stop #3 was at Ft. Sheridan which continues to be probably my 3rd favorite birding spot after Rollins and COLSP. We had the usuals although we missed orioles on the day. Best bird here was a MOURNING WARBLER that I unfortunately didn't get Steve and Andy on quick enough before it disappeared for our second dirty bird on the day. This was the challenge. Getting all 3 of us on quickly moving warblers, falcons, and kinglets proved to be a very frustrating endeavor during the course of the day. We also had 3 or 4 RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS in the jewelweed tangle along the path. We then moved over slightly to the Openlands preserve where CHIPPING SPARROWS had been reported a couple of weeks ago on ebird. Andy did some stellar scouting on Saturday and found a small flock very close to the road which was still there Sunday morning. That was a great bird to get seeing as I missed it in August. Steve also found a nicely singing WHITE-THROATED SPARROW that Andy had also locate day before, so some timely scouting paid off for us early.
Waukegan was interesting. We initially got there, picked up our AMERICAN KESTREL family, and then saw only SANDERLINGS, SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, and a SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER on the beach along with some HOODED MERGANSERS. This actually proved to be pretty good seeing as we had none of these shorebirds anywhere else. We were definitely hoping for something rarer, like a Red Knot or Buffie or Whimbrel, but nothing like that ever appeared. The weather was probably too nice. The pines area was almost completely devoid of birds, with the exception of a small clump of shrubs behind the locked fence area of the water plant. This shrubby clump had 5 or 6 birds in it, that stayed very hidden for most of the time, but we eventually found a couple of warblers and what I'm fairly certain was a YB Flycatcher, but I never saw the back of the bird to rule out Least Fly so that bird remained UF. On the way out, Steve noticed a couple of birds on Government Pier to the south, so we scanned them quickly and had nice looks at 2 RUDDY TURNSTONES just before someone flushed them. On the way back out we checked the fenced in prairie and had a juvenile BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD, our only one of the day. Near the parking area pavilion were some secluded warblers and sparrows. Andy was able to dig up a WILSON'S WARBLER but neither Steve nor I was able to get on it before it disappeared. Another dirty bird. So Andy decided to walk around to the back of the shrubby area to flush birds toward us. In so doing, he flushed an AMERICAN WOODCOCK. All I could see was some wings flapping as the bird disappeared. Another dirty bird. This was getting ridiculous.....and it would get worse. A BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER in the fenced in pond area was a nice gift on our way out. A trip down Clayton Ave. toward Bowen Park netted us a nice flock of RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS and 2 COMMON GRACKLES, the only ones of the day. The main goal, though, was to find the Peregrine. We stopped at Doehringer Rd. to check out the stacks for the Peregrine. I don't know where those guys were looking, but right in front of me flies the PEREGRINE FALCON into the back of a tree. We could not find him, though, since he was on private property behind a closed fence. Another dirty bird. Amazing....and disturbing. On to Lyons Woods where we had a yanking RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, a GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH, and nice looks at a foraging PINE WARBLER that also responded nicely to its song by flying right in to a tree right in front of us. While watching the Pine, Andy Yells out that he has a MERLIN flying overhead. Steve gets on it but I couldn't see anything and the bird disappeared over the trees. ANOTHER DIRTY BIRD????!!! Seriously? This is killing me.
We headed to IBSP hoping for some good warblers. It was now around noon and our warbler count was about 6 sp. Not real encouraging. No worries, though, because IBSP delivered the goods. We walked out and back along the middle trail beyond the locked gate and had literally flocks of birds moving all along the trail. We were here for 2 hours getting birds. Of course we also got more DIRTY birds. Andy found an OVENBIRD and a RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET but the birds were moving around quickly and both disappeared before I could see them. We saw a lot, though, and ended the day with 17 warbler species, most of which we got here between noon and 2pm. Pretty unbelievable.
The rest of the day played out like this:
North Unit- Belted Kingfisher, Least Flycatcher, and Yellow-throated Vireo snagged by Andy at eye level in the clump near the gate.
Spring Bluff- Swamp Sparrow
Rt. 173- Bald Eagle
COLSP- Osprey
Rt. 59 and Grand Ave- Turkey Vulture
and then......ROLLINS! As always, Rollins came up huge. Even though the shorebird habitat is nonexistent save for a small, muddy island. We still got 3 shorebird sp. there. AND in the process of walking around the pond searching for our absentee Nelson's Saprrow, Steve flushes a beautiful AMERICAN BITTERN that EVERYBODY had nice looks at. Great bird. We then pulled out GREAT EGRET, BOBOLINK, SANDHILL CRANE, LINCOLN'S SPARROW, NORTHERN SHOVELER, NORTHERN PINTAIL, PURPLE MARTIN, GREEN-WINGED TEAL, GADWALL, and PIED-BILLED GREBE. On the way out we had nice looks at 4 or 5 MARSH WRENS. By now it was only about 45 minutes to sunset, so we quickly headed to Almond Marsh and picked up BC Night Heron and 2 female AMERICAN WIGEON, as well as a couple of cruising COMMON NIGHTHAWKS. With darkness creeping in, we headed to Allegheny ballfields and just had enough light to see and hear a small flock of HORNED LARKS in the bare dirt and scrubby weedy edges of the fields at the top of the hill.
It was another stellar day birding with some great weather and great compadres. The dirty bird element was frustrating but not debilitating. We finished with 122 species and 8 dirty birds. The 5% rule only allows us 6 dirty birds so we had to take 2 birds off of our list to give us 120 species. This put us 3rd for a Northern Illinois Big Day. I've only been able to accomplish this 1 other time, last year in June with Jeff Sundberg, so Sunday was truly a great day. Thanks again to Steve and Andy for the laughs, the great stories, and some awesome birds. The next Big Day in October will find temps even cooler, so I'm a little sad at bidding the summer weather farewell. There were a lot of great birds, though. Thanks for reading and I'll see you in October!
Lake county big day, Lake, US-IL
Sep 14, 2014 2:00 AM - 10:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
200.0 mile(s)
Comments: w/steve bailey and andy stewart
122 species
Canada Goose 1
Mute Swan 1
Wood Duck 1
Gadwall 1
American Wigeon 1
Mallard 1
Blue-winged Teal 1
Northern Shoveler 1
Northern Pintail 1
Green-winged Teal 1
Hooded Merganser 1
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 1
American Bittern 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Green Heron 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Bald Eagle 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Virginia Rail 1
Sora 1
Sandhill Crane 1
Black-bellied Plover 1
Semipalmated Plover 1
Killdeer 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Ruddy Turnstone 1
Sanderling 1
Least Sandpiper 1
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1
American Woodcock 1
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 1
Caspian Tern 1
Mourning Dove 1
FERAL PIGEON 1
Eastern Screech-Owl 1
Great Horned Owl 1
Barred Owl 1
Common Nighthawk 1
Eastern Whip-poor-will 1
Chimney Swift 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-headed Woodpecker 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
American Kestrel 1
Merlin 1
Peregrine Falcon 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Alder/Willow Flycatcher (Traill's Flycatcher) 1
Least Flycatcher 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
Yellow-throated Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
Horned Lark 1
Purple Martin 1 juvenile bird; dark, large swallow, long periods of gliding, brownish-gray throat on otherwise white underside.
Tree Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 1
Cliff Swallow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
House Wren 1
Marsh Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Eastern Bluebird 1
Gray-cheeked Thrush 1
Swainson's Thrush 1
Wood Thrush 1
American Robin 1
Gray Catbird 1
European Starling 1
Cedar Waxwing 1
Ovenbird 1
Northern Waterthrush 1
Black-and-white Warbler 1
Tennessee Warbler 1
Nashville Warbler 1
MOURNING WARBLER 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
American Redstart 1
Cape May Warbler 1
Magnolia Warbler 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Blackpoll Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 1
Pine Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Wilson's Warbler 1
Eastern Towhee 1
Chipping Sparrow 1
Field Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1
Lincoln's Sparrow 1
Swamp Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 1
Bobolink 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Common Grackle 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
House Finch 1
American Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow 1
Monday, September 15, 2014
Monday, September 1, 2014
Bring on the Warblers!!!
8/31/14
Yesterday ace photographer, Nat Carmichael, and I embarked upon my August Big Day for 2014. Last year August proved to be a troubling month for me. I had some time management and planning issues due to less sunlight time that I forgot to take into consideration. So this year I fixed the route planning, but not the time management issues.....though for a different reason. I haven't been out birding in 6 days, which is an eternity for me. Since I started school on the 18th, it's been very busy around my house, so I haven't been able to get out much. So yesterday I was basically chomping at the bit to just get out and see some birds. Consequently I spent WAY too much time gawking at my favorite birds, the warblers. Yes, THEY'RE BACK! Woohoo! As we all know, finding warblers is challenge number 1 as they dart back-and-forth willy nilly through the foliage. This requires time. Challenge number 2 is ID'ing them after finding them. Some first year female birds can have odd color variations, usually muted but sometimes bright yellow, which make birds look very confusing, indeed. For example, I had a first year female ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER (early, I know) that looked like the bird in The Warbler Guide (Peterson) p. 50, except the the throat and chest (which is all that I saw) were the brightest yellow I have ever seen on an Orange-crowned. The head was gray-green, but hooded, with a nicely-broken bold eye-ring. So I'm thinking, Is this a MacGillivray's Warbler!?! I don't think it was, but I had to search repeatedly for the bird, which never sat still long enough for a pic. This was definitely a time suck. I also wanted to get some nice pictures for the blog and take advantage of Nat's photo skills. This also put us behind a bit. But, whatever. It was fun. So anyway, it was a great day, as always, but we missed going to 4 spots that would definitely have added birds, and we missed.....this is really embarrassing......a ROCK PIGEON! Are you kidding me!? Yes, that's right, I didn't get to either of the 2 good spots in Lake County for Rock Pigeon. That's the kind of day it was.
Nat and I began our BirdQuest at 2:00am at Rollins. Have I ever said that I love this place? I do. Got a whining juvenile GREAT HORNED OWL for bird #1 followed closely by a bird we missed last month, a SORA, squeaking from the east trail marsh. Interestingly we had 3 Soras on the day. I'm guessing these were juveniles exercising their calling capabilities or running around in plain sight because juveniles think they're invincible. Wait, are we talking people or birds?
Next stop was our Barred Owl spot.....and our first disappointment of the night. Alas, my Barred Owl friend, who has been with us all year so far, failed to come out and play last night. We were a little downtrodden after this unfortunate event. To add insult to injury we got no new birds at either Volo or COLSP either. These places have both been money in the past so this was especially difficult to swallow. Next stop was our favorite private residence, which has an incredible cattail marsh, and also has delivered for us on our Big Days. Fortunately, today was no exception or I might have quit and gone home......just kidding. We had a grunting VIRGINIA RAIL and a distant whinnying EASTERN SCREECH OWL to give us two big birds for the evening. High fives were exchanged and an immediate lifting of the spirits commenced. The last nocturnal bird we were hoping for was a whippoorwill. We missed this bird last year in August, so I wasn't confident of our chances, but as soon as we got out of the car at IBSP we had a roadside calling WHIPPOORWILL, no taping required. How 'bout it! So we ended our nocturnal sojourn with all the owls, including an amazing 12 Great Horned Owls, save our Barred Owl, all the rails, a spontaneously calling Whippoorwill, and some nice mojo coming into daybreak.
Usually I start on the Des Plaines River for songbirds and then hit the lakefront. This time, however, I decided to start at Waukegan. The thing about Waukegan is that if you're not the first person there, the birds often flush and sometimes are not seen again. I was determined to get there first, so Nat and I were there ready to go at 6am.....and we STILL weren't first. People were there before sunrise for cryin' out loud. We didn't miss anything, though, and had nice looks at an adult BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER as we walked down the beach.
(all photos in this blog post courtesy of Nat Carmichael)
Also had some SANDERLINGS and a SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER but no Ruddy Turnstone or Red Knot. Walking the beach takes time, though, so we were pushing to get to the pines and check for songbirds. As we were walking back to the parking lot a pair of BREWER'S BLACKBIRDS flew by us given away by the all black male and gray female combination. Nice bird. In the pines the best birds were a group of juvenile BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS foraging on the lawn and our only dirty bird of the day, a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH which Nat saw but would not show its face for me. There were warblers in the air but the only one we could ID in a tree was a BLACKPOLL.
We headed to IBSP South next which was the most time-consuming stop of the day other than Rollins. We were at the South Unit for close to 2 hours. We checked 3 places along the beach for Buffies but were shut out. We had a nice pocket of warblers, though, along with multiple SWAINSON'S THRUSHES and a VEERY. We definitely had lots of nice birds but the loss of time hurt us in the end. Other highlights:
Best warbler spots: IBSP South and the south ravine at Ft. Sheridan. We ended with 12 sp. of warblers. The best being the aforementioned Orange-crowned at Lyons Woods. Lyons also gave us a nice BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO.
Best Shorebird/waterbird spot: Rollins as usual, though we got PIED-BILLED GREBE at Almond Marsh. Here's a few shots from Rollins:
Female Northern Pintail and juvenile Short-billed Dowitcher
2 Stilt Sandpipers (bottom birds) with Lesser Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs with Baird's Sandpiper
Great Egrets, Great Blue Heron, and Northern Shoveler
Most People- COLSP and Fairmont Shores. The goldfinch trail literally had a person come by every 30 seconds to a minute for the first 5 minutes we were on the trail. OK that's an exaggeration, but it SEEMED like it was that many. We got the LAST parking spot at Fairmont Shores to check for Bald Eagle, which we whiffed on, but I've never seen that place crowded on a Sunday night before, though I guess Monday being Labor Day would make a difference. Here's a couple of nice shots from COLSP.
Osprey
Unleashed dogs- only 2. both at Ft. Sheridan. We had good luck with dogs.
Constant Companions: American Goldfinches. They were everywhere and in most spots were the only vocalizing birds. Cedar Waxwings were a close second.
Wader Heaven- At Almond Marsh, we had all 4 waders, which isn't big news, but it's still cool. Here's a nice Black-crown shot:
105 species
Yesterday ace photographer, Nat Carmichael, and I embarked upon my August Big Day for 2014. Last year August proved to be a troubling month for me. I had some time management and planning issues due to less sunlight time that I forgot to take into consideration. So this year I fixed the route planning, but not the time management issues.....though for a different reason. I haven't been out birding in 6 days, which is an eternity for me. Since I started school on the 18th, it's been very busy around my house, so I haven't been able to get out much. So yesterday I was basically chomping at the bit to just get out and see some birds. Consequently I spent WAY too much time gawking at my favorite birds, the warblers. Yes, THEY'RE BACK! Woohoo! As we all know, finding warblers is challenge number 1 as they dart back-and-forth willy nilly through the foliage. This requires time. Challenge number 2 is ID'ing them after finding them. Some first year female birds can have odd color variations, usually muted but sometimes bright yellow, which make birds look very confusing, indeed. For example, I had a first year female ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER (early, I know) that looked like the bird in The Warbler Guide (Peterson) p. 50, except the the throat and chest (which is all that I saw) were the brightest yellow I have ever seen on an Orange-crowned. The head was gray-green, but hooded, with a nicely-broken bold eye-ring. So I'm thinking, Is this a MacGillivray's Warbler!?! I don't think it was, but I had to search repeatedly for the bird, which never sat still long enough for a pic. This was definitely a time suck. I also wanted to get some nice pictures for the blog and take advantage of Nat's photo skills. This also put us behind a bit. But, whatever. It was fun. So anyway, it was a great day, as always, but we missed going to 4 spots that would definitely have added birds, and we missed.....this is really embarrassing......a ROCK PIGEON! Are you kidding me!? Yes, that's right, I didn't get to either of the 2 good spots in Lake County for Rock Pigeon. That's the kind of day it was.
Nat and I began our BirdQuest at 2:00am at Rollins. Have I ever said that I love this place? I do. Got a whining juvenile GREAT HORNED OWL for bird #1 followed closely by a bird we missed last month, a SORA, squeaking from the east trail marsh. Interestingly we had 3 Soras on the day. I'm guessing these were juveniles exercising their calling capabilities or running around in plain sight because juveniles think they're invincible. Wait, are we talking people or birds?
Next stop was our Barred Owl spot.....and our first disappointment of the night. Alas, my Barred Owl friend, who has been with us all year so far, failed to come out and play last night. We were a little downtrodden after this unfortunate event. To add insult to injury we got no new birds at either Volo or COLSP either. These places have both been money in the past so this was especially difficult to swallow. Next stop was our favorite private residence, which has an incredible cattail marsh, and also has delivered for us on our Big Days. Fortunately, today was no exception or I might have quit and gone home......just kidding. We had a grunting VIRGINIA RAIL and a distant whinnying EASTERN SCREECH OWL to give us two big birds for the evening. High fives were exchanged and an immediate lifting of the spirits commenced. The last nocturnal bird we were hoping for was a whippoorwill. We missed this bird last year in August, so I wasn't confident of our chances, but as soon as we got out of the car at IBSP we had a roadside calling WHIPPOORWILL, no taping required. How 'bout it! So we ended our nocturnal sojourn with all the owls, including an amazing 12 Great Horned Owls, save our Barred Owl, all the rails, a spontaneously calling Whippoorwill, and some nice mojo coming into daybreak.
Usually I start on the Des Plaines River for songbirds and then hit the lakefront. This time, however, I decided to start at Waukegan. The thing about Waukegan is that if you're not the first person there, the birds often flush and sometimes are not seen again. I was determined to get there first, so Nat and I were there ready to go at 6am.....and we STILL weren't first. People were there before sunrise for cryin' out loud. We didn't miss anything, though, and had nice looks at an adult BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER as we walked down the beach.
Also had some SANDERLINGS and a SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER but no Ruddy Turnstone or Red Knot. Walking the beach takes time, though, so we were pushing to get to the pines and check for songbirds. As we were walking back to the parking lot a pair of BREWER'S BLACKBIRDS flew by us given away by the all black male and gray female combination. Nice bird. In the pines the best birds were a group of juvenile BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS foraging on the lawn and our only dirty bird of the day, a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH which Nat saw but would not show its face for me. There were warblers in the air but the only one we could ID in a tree was a BLACKPOLL.
We headed to IBSP South next which was the most time-consuming stop of the day other than Rollins. We were at the South Unit for close to 2 hours. We checked 3 places along the beach for Buffies but were shut out. We had a nice pocket of warblers, though, along with multiple SWAINSON'S THRUSHES and a VEERY. We definitely had lots of nice birds but the loss of time hurt us in the end. Other highlights:
Best warbler spots: IBSP South and the south ravine at Ft. Sheridan. We ended with 12 sp. of warblers. The best being the aforementioned Orange-crowned at Lyons Woods. Lyons also gave us a nice BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO.
Best Shorebird/waterbird spot: Rollins as usual, though we got PIED-BILLED GREBE at Almond Marsh. Here's a few shots from Rollins:
Most People- COLSP and Fairmont Shores. The goldfinch trail literally had a person come by every 30 seconds to a minute for the first 5 minutes we were on the trail. OK that's an exaggeration, but it SEEMED like it was that many. We got the LAST parking spot at Fairmont Shores to check for Bald Eagle, which we whiffed on, but I've never seen that place crowded on a Sunday night before, though I guess Monday being Labor Day would make a difference. Here's a couple of nice shots from COLSP.
Not-so-Common Nighthawk
Unleashed dogs- only 2. both at Ft. Sheridan. We had good luck with dogs.
Constant Companions: American Goldfinches. They were everywhere and in most spots were the only vocalizing birds. Cedar Waxwings were a close second.
Wader Heaven- At Almond Marsh, we had all 4 waders, which isn't big news, but it's still cool. Here's a nice Black-crown shot:
Unfortunately, the big misses were glaring:
Rock Pigeon, Chipping Sparrow, Dickcissel, Purple Martin, Brown Thrasher, Horned Lark, Barred Owl, Solitary Sandpiper, Bald Eagle, Cooper's Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, Scarlet Tanager, Yellow-throated Vireo, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Henslow's Sparrow, Hooded Merganser, Sedge Wren, Eastern Meadowlark, Common Grackle........yikes.
But it was great to be out birding with Nat, the weather was fantastic for a change, and the warblers are back. We finished with 105 sp. which was 6 better than last year, so I reached goal #1. All is good with the world.
See you in September!
Here's the List:
105 species
Canada Goose 1
Mute Swan 1
Wood Duck 1
Gadwall 1
Mallard 1
Blue-winged Teal 1
Northern Shoveler 1
Northern Pintail 1
Green-winged Teal 1
Wild Turkey 1
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Green Heron 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Virginia Rail 1
Sora 1
Sandhill Crane 1
Black-bellied Plover 1
Semipalmated Plover 1
Killdeer 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Stilt Sandpiper 1
Sanderling 1
Baird's Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 1
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 1
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 1
Caspian Tern 1
Mourning Dove 1
Black-billed Cuckoo 1
Eastern Screech-Owl 1
Great Horned Owl 1
Common Nighthawk 1
Eastern Whip-poor-will 1
Chimney Swift 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Red-headed Woodpecker 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
American Kestrel 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Willow Flycatcher 1
Least Flycatcher 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
Warbling Vireo 1
Philadelphia Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
Tree Swallow 1
Bank Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 1
Cliff Swallow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
House Wren 1
Marsh Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Eastern Bluebird 1
Veery 1
Swainson's Thrush 1
American Robin 1
Gray Catbird 1
European Starling 1
Cedar Waxwing 1
Black-and-white Warbler 1
Tennessee Warbler 1
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
American Redstart 1
Magnolia Warbler 1
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Blackpoll Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 1
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Wilson's Warbler 1
Eastern Towhee 1
Field Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1
Swamp Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Indigo Bunting 1
Bobolink 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Brewer's Blackbird 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Baltimore Oriole 1
House Finch 1
American Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow 1
Monday, July 14, 2014
Ya Just Never Know What Ur Gonna Get.....
7/14/14
Yesterday Andy Stewart and I journeyed forth on my 19th straight monthly Big Day, 18 of those in Lake County. As always it was filled with surprises and frustrations, but it ended up being my 2nd most rewarding Big Day (after May) of the year.
The day started rather bleakly and with a great deal of uncertainty. I have never started a big day in the rain before, and I wasn't about to this month, but at 12:00 midnight it was raining and only a few minutes earlier there had been some nasty thunderstorms and wind. We were currently under a tornado watch until 1am. Not exactly ideal conditions for nocturnal forays to hear birds. I was ready to cash it in right there at 11:30pm and go back to bed, but the radar showed the storms to be moving fairly quickly. Sure enough the rain was all but done by 1:00am. I called Andy and picked him up at his house at 12:45. After loading the car up, we headed to our first stop, Bowen Park. Bowen has since been ousted by COLSP as my favorite place for EASTERN SCREECH OWL, but I wanted to go east to west and start daybreak at Grant Woods. This necessitated starting at Bowen to maximize our chances for screech owl. Cue the first major frustration of the Big Day: powerless iPod. I made sure to check my iPod for power before leaving the house and it showed a full green battery. So I THOUGHT I was good to go. However, no sooner did I pull said iPod out of my pocket and turn it on, than the "charge battery" light went on. NOOOOOO! This ticked me off quite a bit, but I still had my iPhone which WAS powered up. It's not very loud, though, which is why I like the iPod w/speaker. Anyway, I played the tooting and whinnying calls a couple of times with no response. After about 5-10 minutes, I decided to play the "squeals and bill snaps" choice from the Sibley App. I didn't even get through half of it before a screech owl flew right over our head squealing. I had never heard this call from a screech owl before, so it scared the bodily fluids right out of me momentarily, but then became probably the coolest birding moment of the day. Pretty nice bird #1 at 1:27am.
From here we headed to the South Unit where we had a juvenile GREAT HORNED OWL making begging calls not far from the visitor center, and a distant, but clearly audible EASTERN WHIPPOORWILL calling. 2 great birds, but we were disappointed with 0 rails. IBSP is always a great rail spot, so getting none was a little disturbing. We then headed to Spring Bluff where we had our only Sora in June. Today we got nuthin except a nicely hooting adult GREAT HORNED OWL, which was a bird that Eric Lundquist and I missed last year. So we had 2 owls and 1 whip but 0 rails as we headed west. Our private residence for Common Gallinule gave us no gallinule but it did give us a nicely grunting VIRGINIA RAIL. No Sora, though. Deja vu. In June we struggled to get this bird, as well. Since when is Sora a tough bird? I had them through September last year with no problem. I wasn't liking our Sora-less landscape in Lake County right now. Sure enough, neither COLSP nor Volo Bog, another great rail spot, surrendered a Sora, which became our first big miss of the day. Big Disappointment soon became Jubilant Elation, however, as our ever-faithful BARRED OWL took all of 1 second to respond to my "who-cooks-for-you" call at Lakewood FP. Love that bird. So we ended the night with all 3 owls, which was 2 better than last year. Nice.
DAYBREAK:
Friday and Saturday this week I put in a lot of time into scouting, and I found some pretty nice birds, so I wanted to maximize my chances for getting them on Sunday obviously. I thought that the best way to do this would be to hit Grant Woods first and then Daniel Wright before heading to the lakefront. This strategy added a couple of birds, but should have given up more. At Grant Woods, we heard/saw our only BROWN THRASHER and OVENBIRD of the day, but the Alder Flycatcher and Pine Warbler were silent and invisible. I knew the Alder would be tough, but I thought we would get the Pine. As it turned out, we missed 5 birds yesterday that I had on Friday. That was incredibly frustrating. It makes me wonder what the actual point of scouting is???? Scouting for habitat and probability is useful, I suppose. I need to realize, though, that birds are fickle. Just another of the challenges of Big Day Birding. So on to Daniel Wright which gave us our only HOODED WARBLER as a "good" bird. Off to the lakefront where we got nothing of note at Waukegan except CASPIAN TERN, a beautiful buffy-chested juvenile PEREGRINE FALCON at the Midwest Gen, a calling YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO in the woods at Lyons Woods (we had another YB fly in right in front of us at Middlefork), LARK SPARROW, BREWER'S BLACKBIRD, and a calling BELTED KINGFISHER at IBSP South (Andy also spotted one fishing from a wire off of 173), BLUE GROSBEAK at the North Unit, and a pair of HOODED MERGANSERS in the slip at NPM. Biggest miss at this point was Grasshopper Sparrow. Not sure how we missed that bird. We were there around 10:00am. Maybe they were siesta-ing by then? Who knows. Anyway we headed west to Kelly Rd. and Crawford Rd. where, at 1:00pm, I was not hopeful of getting a Vesper Sparrow. However, joy-of-joys, our last stop on the way out I heard a singing VESPER SPARROW off the road by a farm building. Woohoo! Andy missed hearing it, though, so that was our 2nd dirty bird of the day (I heard a couple of Yellow Warblers earlier as well). At East Loon Lake we had 2 BLACK TERNS (we had 5 at the boat launch at COLSP) but our golden spot for Yellow-headed Blackbird, which I had on Friday, gave us nada after looking for 15 minutes. That was probably the toughest miss for me because I know that bird is there. We headed to COLSP hoping for a bundle of birds that we needed.....and we got most of them, which was awesome. COLSP is a great place to bird and consistently gives you SCARLET TANAGER and YELLOW-THROATED VIREO, which it did yesterday as well. It was the only spot for these birds as well as ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK, and OSPREY. Best bird here, though, may have been a low-flying flyover PECTORAL SANDPIPER- our first migrant shorebird of the day.
After leaving Chain-O-Lakes I played my Shot-in-the-Dark Card and strolled over to Sullivan Lake to check for swans. We saw 1 bird on the lake, but it was a good one, a beautiful adult TRUMPETER SWAN. Hadn't seen that bird for a few months so that was a big pick-me-up. Over at Lakewood the CLAY-COLORED SPARROWS were still buzzing away at 3:30 in the afternoon, which was awesome as well.
The Make-or-Break spot for us has always been Rollins, though. It's by far the best waterfowl spot, and this year, the ONLY shorebird spot in the county. And today it did not disappoint. We had 6 shorebird species here with the best being 2 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS. We also had 2 RUDDY DUCK males and a calling PIED-BILLED GREBE. The big question I have, though, is "where, o where, have the Blue-winged Teal gone?" I have not seen one of these birds since the beginning of July. Don't ever remember them being tough to find in July. I had 8 of them last year. Hope this isn't a nasty harbinger of some sort, along with the dearth of Soras.
With a couple of stops left we headed to Almond Marsh for BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON and GREEN HERON (also another HOODED MERGANSER), to Independence Grove for PURPLE MARTIN, and then to Fort Sheridan. We still needed Baltimore Oriole and Red-headed Woodpecker. Strangely enough, we had probably 5 or 6 ORCHARD ORIOLES but no Baltimores, so we hopped on our bikes and slowly rode around the wood-chip trail near the south ravine by the parking lot. In about 5 minutes we had a great look at a head-high male BALTIMORE ORIOLE followed by nice looks at an adult RED-HEADED WOODPECKER.
We finished off the day at Middlefork looking at a YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO and then sipping gatorade on the patio of a friend while we watched her hummingbird feeder to no avail.
I stopped at Rollins on the way home for 2 HENSLOW'S SPARROWS which had eluded us on the day, so that gave us 3 dirty birds: Vesper Sparrow, Yellow Warbler, and Henslow's Sparrow.
It was a pretty awesome day, and we did pretty well, but I'm always thinking how it could have been better. We missed 3rd place for a Northern Illinois Big Day by 1 bird and 2nd place by 7. I can't help thinking we had a good shot at 2nd place if we would have gotten the 5 birds I had on Friday. Those plus a coot, Bw Teal, and grasshopper sparrow give us a tie for 2nd which would be spectacular. I'll take 108 for a July Big Day in one county, though. A day which beat our June Big Day of 104.
Thanks again to my compadre, Andy Stewart, whose good-natured temperament and patience even out my spastic personality, and whose sharp eyes always pick up a good bird when we need it (can you say distant turkey vulture?). Thanks also for hauling that heavy scope through vegetation for an hour and a half! Thanks also to all the people who responded very quickly and clearly to my many emails. Your help is greatly appreciated.
As always, Good Birding!
Here's the List:
lake county big day, Lake, US-IL
Jul 13, 2014 1:30 AM - 9:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
200.0 mile(s)
Comments: w/andy stewart
108 species
Canada Goose 1
Mute Swan 1
Trumpeter Swan 1
Wood Duck 1
Gadwall 1
Mallard 1
Hooded Merganser 1
Ruddy Duck 1 male, non-breeding w/white cheek patches
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Green Heron 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Virginia Rail 1
Sandhill Crane 1
Killdeer 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Least Sandpiper 1
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 1
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 1
Caspian Tern 1
Black Tern 1
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 1
Mourning Dove 1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Eastern Screech-Owl 1
Great Horned Owl 1
Barred Owl 1
Eastern Whip-poor-will 1
Chimney Swift 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-headed Woodpecker 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
American Kestrel 1
Peregrine Falcon 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Willow Flycatcher 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
Yellow-throated Vireo 1
Warbling Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
Horned Lark 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1
Purple Martin 1
Tree Swallow 1
Bank Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 1
Cliff Swallow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
House Wren 1
Sedge Wren 1
Marsh Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Eastern Bluebird 1
Wood Thrush 1
American Robin 1
Gray Catbird 1
Brown Thrasher 1
European Starling 1
Cedar Waxwing 1
Ovenbird 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Hooded Warbler 1
American Redstart 1
Yellow Warbler 1
Eastern Towhee 1
Chipping Sparrow 1
Clay-colored Sparrow 1 continuing
Field Sparrow 1
Vesper Sparrow 1 continuing
Lark Sparrow 1 breeding at this site; singing
Savannah Sparrow 1
Henslow's Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1
Swamp Sparrow 1
Scarlet Tanager 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Blue Grosbeak 1 continuing
Indigo Bunting 1
Dickcissel 1
Bobolink 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Eastern Meadowlark 1
Brewer's Blackbird 1 continuing
Common Grackle 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Orchard Oriole 1
Baltimore Oriole 1
House Finch 1
American Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow 1
Yesterday Andy Stewart and I journeyed forth on my 19th straight monthly Big Day, 18 of those in Lake County. As always it was filled with surprises and frustrations, but it ended up being my 2nd most rewarding Big Day (after May) of the year.
The day started rather bleakly and with a great deal of uncertainty. I have never started a big day in the rain before, and I wasn't about to this month, but at 12:00 midnight it was raining and only a few minutes earlier there had been some nasty thunderstorms and wind. We were currently under a tornado watch until 1am. Not exactly ideal conditions for nocturnal forays to hear birds. I was ready to cash it in right there at 11:30pm and go back to bed, but the radar showed the storms to be moving fairly quickly. Sure enough the rain was all but done by 1:00am. I called Andy and picked him up at his house at 12:45. After loading the car up, we headed to our first stop, Bowen Park. Bowen has since been ousted by COLSP as my favorite place for EASTERN SCREECH OWL, but I wanted to go east to west and start daybreak at Grant Woods. This necessitated starting at Bowen to maximize our chances for screech owl. Cue the first major frustration of the Big Day: powerless iPod. I made sure to check my iPod for power before leaving the house and it showed a full green battery. So I THOUGHT I was good to go. However, no sooner did I pull said iPod out of my pocket and turn it on, than the "charge battery" light went on. NOOOOOO! This ticked me off quite a bit, but I still had my iPhone which WAS powered up. It's not very loud, though, which is why I like the iPod w/speaker. Anyway, I played the tooting and whinnying calls a couple of times with no response. After about 5-10 minutes, I decided to play the "squeals and bill snaps" choice from the Sibley App. I didn't even get through half of it before a screech owl flew right over our head squealing. I had never heard this call from a screech owl before, so it scared the bodily fluids right out of me momentarily, but then became probably the coolest birding moment of the day. Pretty nice bird #1 at 1:27am.
From here we headed to the South Unit where we had a juvenile GREAT HORNED OWL making begging calls not far from the visitor center, and a distant, but clearly audible EASTERN WHIPPOORWILL calling. 2 great birds, but we were disappointed with 0 rails. IBSP is always a great rail spot, so getting none was a little disturbing. We then headed to Spring Bluff where we had our only Sora in June. Today we got nuthin except a nicely hooting adult GREAT HORNED OWL, which was a bird that Eric Lundquist and I missed last year. So we had 2 owls and 1 whip but 0 rails as we headed west. Our private residence for Common Gallinule gave us no gallinule but it did give us a nicely grunting VIRGINIA RAIL. No Sora, though. Deja vu. In June we struggled to get this bird, as well. Since when is Sora a tough bird? I had them through September last year with no problem. I wasn't liking our Sora-less landscape in Lake County right now. Sure enough, neither COLSP nor Volo Bog, another great rail spot, surrendered a Sora, which became our first big miss of the day. Big Disappointment soon became Jubilant Elation, however, as our ever-faithful BARRED OWL took all of 1 second to respond to my "who-cooks-for-you" call at Lakewood FP. Love that bird. So we ended the night with all 3 owls, which was 2 better than last year. Nice.
DAYBREAK:
Friday and Saturday this week I put in a lot of time into scouting, and I found some pretty nice birds, so I wanted to maximize my chances for getting them on Sunday obviously. I thought that the best way to do this would be to hit Grant Woods first and then Daniel Wright before heading to the lakefront. This strategy added a couple of birds, but should have given up more. At Grant Woods, we heard/saw our only BROWN THRASHER and OVENBIRD of the day, but the Alder Flycatcher and Pine Warbler were silent and invisible. I knew the Alder would be tough, but I thought we would get the Pine. As it turned out, we missed 5 birds yesterday that I had on Friday. That was incredibly frustrating. It makes me wonder what the actual point of scouting is???? Scouting for habitat and probability is useful, I suppose. I need to realize, though, that birds are fickle. Just another of the challenges of Big Day Birding. So on to Daniel Wright which gave us our only HOODED WARBLER as a "good" bird. Off to the lakefront where we got nothing of note at Waukegan except CASPIAN TERN, a beautiful buffy-chested juvenile PEREGRINE FALCON at the Midwest Gen, a calling YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO in the woods at Lyons Woods (we had another YB fly in right in front of us at Middlefork), LARK SPARROW, BREWER'S BLACKBIRD, and a calling BELTED KINGFISHER at IBSP South (Andy also spotted one fishing from a wire off of 173), BLUE GROSBEAK at the North Unit, and a pair of HOODED MERGANSERS in the slip at NPM. Biggest miss at this point was Grasshopper Sparrow. Not sure how we missed that bird. We were there around 10:00am. Maybe they were siesta-ing by then? Who knows. Anyway we headed west to Kelly Rd. and Crawford Rd. where, at 1:00pm, I was not hopeful of getting a Vesper Sparrow. However, joy-of-joys, our last stop on the way out I heard a singing VESPER SPARROW off the road by a farm building. Woohoo! Andy missed hearing it, though, so that was our 2nd dirty bird of the day (I heard a couple of Yellow Warblers earlier as well). At East Loon Lake we had 2 BLACK TERNS (we had 5 at the boat launch at COLSP) but our golden spot for Yellow-headed Blackbird, which I had on Friday, gave us nada after looking for 15 minutes. That was probably the toughest miss for me because I know that bird is there. We headed to COLSP hoping for a bundle of birds that we needed.....and we got most of them, which was awesome. COLSP is a great place to bird and consistently gives you SCARLET TANAGER and YELLOW-THROATED VIREO, which it did yesterday as well. It was the only spot for these birds as well as ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK, and OSPREY. Best bird here, though, may have been a low-flying flyover PECTORAL SANDPIPER- our first migrant shorebird of the day.
After leaving Chain-O-Lakes I played my Shot-in-the-Dark Card and strolled over to Sullivan Lake to check for swans. We saw 1 bird on the lake, but it was a good one, a beautiful adult TRUMPETER SWAN. Hadn't seen that bird for a few months so that was a big pick-me-up. Over at Lakewood the CLAY-COLORED SPARROWS were still buzzing away at 3:30 in the afternoon, which was awesome as well.
The Make-or-Break spot for us has always been Rollins, though. It's by far the best waterfowl spot, and this year, the ONLY shorebird spot in the county. And today it did not disappoint. We had 6 shorebird species here with the best being 2 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS. We also had 2 RUDDY DUCK males and a calling PIED-BILLED GREBE. The big question I have, though, is "where, o where, have the Blue-winged Teal gone?" I have not seen one of these birds since the beginning of July. Don't ever remember them being tough to find in July. I had 8 of them last year. Hope this isn't a nasty harbinger of some sort, along with the dearth of Soras.
With a couple of stops left we headed to Almond Marsh for BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON and GREEN HERON (also another HOODED MERGANSER), to Independence Grove for PURPLE MARTIN, and then to Fort Sheridan. We still needed Baltimore Oriole and Red-headed Woodpecker. Strangely enough, we had probably 5 or 6 ORCHARD ORIOLES but no Baltimores, so we hopped on our bikes and slowly rode around the wood-chip trail near the south ravine by the parking lot. In about 5 minutes we had a great look at a head-high male BALTIMORE ORIOLE followed by nice looks at an adult RED-HEADED WOODPECKER.
We finished off the day at Middlefork looking at a YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO and then sipping gatorade on the patio of a friend while we watched her hummingbird feeder to no avail.
I stopped at Rollins on the way home for 2 HENSLOW'S SPARROWS which had eluded us on the day, so that gave us 3 dirty birds: Vesper Sparrow, Yellow Warbler, and Henslow's Sparrow.
It was a pretty awesome day, and we did pretty well, but I'm always thinking how it could have been better. We missed 3rd place for a Northern Illinois Big Day by 1 bird and 2nd place by 7. I can't help thinking we had a good shot at 2nd place if we would have gotten the 5 birds I had on Friday. Those plus a coot, Bw Teal, and grasshopper sparrow give us a tie for 2nd which would be spectacular. I'll take 108 for a July Big Day in one county, though. A day which beat our June Big Day of 104.
Thanks again to my compadre, Andy Stewart, whose good-natured temperament and patience even out my spastic personality, and whose sharp eyes always pick up a good bird when we need it (can you say distant turkey vulture?). Thanks also for hauling that heavy scope through vegetation for an hour and a half! Thanks also to all the people who responded very quickly and clearly to my many emails. Your help is greatly appreciated.
As always, Good Birding!
Here's the List:
lake county big day, Lake, US-IL
Jul 13, 2014 1:30 AM - 9:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
200.0 mile(s)
Comments: w/andy stewart
108 species
Canada Goose 1
Mute Swan 1
Trumpeter Swan 1
Wood Duck 1
Gadwall 1
Mallard 1
Hooded Merganser 1
Ruddy Duck 1 male, non-breeding w/white cheek patches
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Green Heron 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Virginia Rail 1
Sandhill Crane 1
Killdeer 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Least Sandpiper 1
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 1
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 1
Caspian Tern 1
Black Tern 1
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 1
Mourning Dove 1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Eastern Screech-Owl 1
Great Horned Owl 1
Barred Owl 1
Eastern Whip-poor-will 1
Chimney Swift 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-headed Woodpecker 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
American Kestrel 1
Peregrine Falcon 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Willow Flycatcher 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
Yellow-throated Vireo 1
Warbling Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
Horned Lark 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1
Purple Martin 1
Tree Swallow 1
Bank Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 1
Cliff Swallow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
House Wren 1
Sedge Wren 1
Marsh Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Eastern Bluebird 1
Wood Thrush 1
American Robin 1
Gray Catbird 1
Brown Thrasher 1
European Starling 1
Cedar Waxwing 1
Ovenbird 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Hooded Warbler 1
American Redstart 1
Yellow Warbler 1
Eastern Towhee 1
Chipping Sparrow 1
Clay-colored Sparrow 1 continuing
Field Sparrow 1
Vesper Sparrow 1 continuing
Lark Sparrow 1 breeding at this site; singing
Savannah Sparrow 1
Henslow's Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1
Swamp Sparrow 1
Scarlet Tanager 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Blue Grosbeak 1 continuing
Indigo Bunting 1
Dickcissel 1
Bobolink 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Eastern Meadowlark 1
Brewer's Blackbird 1 continuing
Common Grackle 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Orchard Oriole 1
Baltimore Oriole 1
House Finch 1
American Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow 1
Monday, June 2, 2014
Hello, Summer!.........Goodbye, Migrants!
It was finally here. No more freezing to death looking for birds. Praise God. It was a balmy 65 degrees for much of the night and 90+ on Sunday, June 1 when Andy Stewart and I did our Lake County Big Day for June 2014. Unfortunately what I thought would be a great blessing turned out to be a great source of frustration and consternation. I also made a bad logistical decision that cost us a few birds. As always, live and learn.
We started at 12:11 at our favorite Barred Owl spot at Lakewood Forest Preserve. As we opened the car doors, we immediately heard what sounded like a big party in the woods. Whaaa?! It was not deafening but definitely loud enough to wonder how nobody had called the cops at 12:15 at night. Andy and I looked at each other like "yeah, this isn't good." In the past, our Barred has called almost immediately in response to my call, but today I called a good 4 times and got nothing. We gave up at that point and started driving away. I hate giving up, though, so I thought we would just pull down the road a little further from the racket and try again. It worked. I called and My Boy called back. Beautiful. Failure averted, but it was close. Unfortunately this theme of failure and working hard for birds would be a recurring theme for the next 19 hours.
One of the things, besides the exciting possibility of finding uncommon and rare birds, that I enjoy about monthly Big Days is that you can see how bird populations change, not only from month to month, but from week to week, and day to day. I did about 6 hours of scouting on Saturday to find some breeders. I thought I had 3 good ones, Pine Warbler, RB Nuthatch, and Green Heron, as well as other birds that I had seen for months, and others had seen recently like Vesper Sparrow, Lark Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Black Tern, and Blue Grosbeak. These were all absent from sight and sound yesterday. It was both disturbing and interesting at the same time. There must have been a reason why ALL of these birds were no shows. Part of it might be that some of the sites were hit later in the day, but I had a number of them in the morning that were AWOL as well, so there must be something else. I know the warm south winds had sent migrants packing, but it must have been other things as well since breeders don't care about south winds. And just 2 weeks ago, the area was crawling with birds. Yesterday, most everyplace we went, save for Daniel Wright, places were very quiet. Could it be that breeding territories were already established so birds were silent? Maybe, but last year Jeff Sundberg and I had 123 species and had 12 warbler species and 7 shorebird species on JUNE 2. We had 7 and 3 of these respectfully yesterday. Some points to ponder.
After getting My Boy, the Barred Owl, we headed to COLSP to see my favorite gate ranger who still asks me what I'm doing there at 12:45am even though I've seen and chatted with him at least 10 times in the past 2 years. It's like Groundhog Day for this guy. It's amazing. We got EASTERN SCREECH OWL at our favorite spot then headed west into the marsh. The number of calling MARSH WRENS during our nocturnal forays was astounding. 15-20 would be a good estimate. Even better, though was that we had multiple (3) calling SEDGE WRENS which had been virtually absent from the county so far this spring. Changing marshes, we headed east and tried for our rails. There was a ton of noise, most of it from Blarney's Island, the floating bar and nightclub in Grass Lake. However, there were also deafening Marsh Wren calls. We seriously had no rails for like 5-10 minutes before we finally heard a single grunting VIRGINIA RAIL. Seriously? I've rarely had trouble getting a Virginia during breeding season. Something weird was going on. AND we got NO SORA. That's even more ridiculous. They're usually the first birds to call. Incredible. We next visited a private residence we have permission to bird on and were welcomed with a PIED-BILLED GREBE (our only one of the day) and another SEDGE WREN, but no common gallinule which breeds here.
As we hit the lakefront our luck changed a bit. At NPM we drove along the entrance road and immediately heard multiple WHIPPOORWILLS and a peenting AMERICAN WOODCOCK. We tried for Least Bittern to no avail, but while doing so we heard a hooting GREAT HORNED OWL. So we did get all 3 owls yesterday, which was nice. Still no Sora, though. At the South Unit we had more Whips and Marsh Wrens, and, FINALLY, 2 SORAs. Whew! That was another close call.
We still felt good about our night birds as we headed into daybreak despite missing gallinule.
My plan for daybreak was to start at Waukegan for late shorebirds, gulls, terns, and waterfowl of any type. I knew Waukegan would be useless soon after the hordes of beachgoers arrived, so we had to hit it early. Then I wanted to hit Ft. Sheridan for grassland sparrows, RH Woodpecker, possibly some migrant warblers like the 10 sp. Jeff Sanders had on Friday, or some cuckoos before heading west and getting all the woodland birds at Ryerson and D. Wright. After that it was "play it by ear" depending on how it was at Waukegan and Ft. Sheridan.
Well, suffice it to say, it didn't go well. Waukegan was dead as a doornail. 2 gull species, Mallards and Canadas, and 0 migrant shorebirds. The retention pond had nothing but swallows, Killdeer, and a Spotted Sandpiper (breeder). Yikes. We got out of there quickly and headed to Ft. Sheridan where we biked the trail loop. I think that may have been a mistake. I think we may have missed birds, like RH Woodpecker because we covered ground TOO FAST. Biking is good in some situations, but bad in others. I will change this next time. Anyway, we stopped at the traditional Grasshopper Sparrow spot and got nothing, though we did hear at least 3 HENSLOW'S SPARROWS. We saw nothing in the air, nothing on the beach, and heard only common birds. No migrant warblers to speak of, though I think biking would hurt there as well. So we left Ft. Sheridan with not much from the lakefront. I had pretty much made my decision to go west and get birds, which probably was a big mistake and the reason for missing Lark Sparrow and Blue grosbeak for sure, as well as others probably.
I've already droned on about our difficulties yesterday but we did see some nice birds and finished with 104 sp., which was honestly way more than I thought we had. Our best birds:
RYERSON- GREEN HERON (only one of the day), and a LINCOLN'S SPARROW showing its buffiness nicely. 0 migrant warblers......again.
D.WRIGHT WOODS- best spot; singing VEERY behind south washrooms, a singing BLACK-THROATED GREEN, 2 OVENBIRDS, a WOOD THRUSH, and a "peet-SAH"ing ACADIAN FLYCATCHER near the parking lot. Also a calling YB CUCKOO doing its accelerating cow-cow-cow call.
St. MARY'S- no RB Nuthatch which I had Saturday and the previous week; HAIRY WOODPECKER
LAKEWOOD- CLAY-COLORED SPARROW, PURPLE MARTIN
GRANT WOODS NORTH- BLUE-WINGED WARBLER, ALDER FLYCATCHER, no pine warbler which I had Saturday.
FAIRMONT SHORES- BALD EAGLE
COLSP- OSPREY, no pelican, no turkey
PRIVATE RESIDENCE- YH BLACKBIRD
CRAWFORD RD.- no vesper, HORNED LARK
ROLLINS- HOODED MERGANSER (thanks, Al!), WB NUTHATCH (only one!)
ALMOND MARSH- BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON
Lakefront- BREWER'S BLACKBIRD, no Lark Sparrow, CASPIAN TERN (NPM)
Biggest misses:
There were many but other than those previously mentioned were:
Belted Kingfisher, American Kestrel, Cooper's Hawk
The weather was great, the jokes were great, and it's always good to be birding. Thanks for all your ebird lists, IBET posts, and for returning my emails, phone calls, and texts with lots of helpful info. It wouldn't be that much fun without all your help. See you in July!
the list
We started at 12:11 at our favorite Barred Owl spot at Lakewood Forest Preserve. As we opened the car doors, we immediately heard what sounded like a big party in the woods. Whaaa?! It was not deafening but definitely loud enough to wonder how nobody had called the cops at 12:15 at night. Andy and I looked at each other like "yeah, this isn't good." In the past, our Barred has called almost immediately in response to my call, but today I called a good 4 times and got nothing. We gave up at that point and started driving away. I hate giving up, though, so I thought we would just pull down the road a little further from the racket and try again. It worked. I called and My Boy called back. Beautiful. Failure averted, but it was close. Unfortunately this theme of failure and working hard for birds would be a recurring theme for the next 19 hours.
One of the things, besides the exciting possibility of finding uncommon and rare birds, that I enjoy about monthly Big Days is that you can see how bird populations change, not only from month to month, but from week to week, and day to day. I did about 6 hours of scouting on Saturday to find some breeders. I thought I had 3 good ones, Pine Warbler, RB Nuthatch, and Green Heron, as well as other birds that I had seen for months, and others had seen recently like Vesper Sparrow, Lark Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Black Tern, and Blue Grosbeak. These were all absent from sight and sound yesterday. It was both disturbing and interesting at the same time. There must have been a reason why ALL of these birds were no shows. Part of it might be that some of the sites were hit later in the day, but I had a number of them in the morning that were AWOL as well, so there must be something else. I know the warm south winds had sent migrants packing, but it must have been other things as well since breeders don't care about south winds. And just 2 weeks ago, the area was crawling with birds. Yesterday, most everyplace we went, save for Daniel Wright, places were very quiet. Could it be that breeding territories were already established so birds were silent? Maybe, but last year Jeff Sundberg and I had 123 species and had 12 warbler species and 7 shorebird species on JUNE 2. We had 7 and 3 of these respectfully yesterday. Some points to ponder.
After getting My Boy, the Barred Owl, we headed to COLSP to see my favorite gate ranger who still asks me what I'm doing there at 12:45am even though I've seen and chatted with him at least 10 times in the past 2 years. It's like Groundhog Day for this guy. It's amazing. We got EASTERN SCREECH OWL at our favorite spot then headed west into the marsh. The number of calling MARSH WRENS during our nocturnal forays was astounding. 15-20 would be a good estimate. Even better, though was that we had multiple (3) calling SEDGE WRENS which had been virtually absent from the county so far this spring. Changing marshes, we headed east and tried for our rails. There was a ton of noise, most of it from Blarney's Island, the floating bar and nightclub in Grass Lake. However, there were also deafening Marsh Wren calls. We seriously had no rails for like 5-10 minutes before we finally heard a single grunting VIRGINIA RAIL. Seriously? I've rarely had trouble getting a Virginia during breeding season. Something weird was going on. AND we got NO SORA. That's even more ridiculous. They're usually the first birds to call. Incredible. We next visited a private residence we have permission to bird on and were welcomed with a PIED-BILLED GREBE (our only one of the day) and another SEDGE WREN, but no common gallinule which breeds here.
As we hit the lakefront our luck changed a bit. At NPM we drove along the entrance road and immediately heard multiple WHIPPOORWILLS and a peenting AMERICAN WOODCOCK. We tried for Least Bittern to no avail, but while doing so we heard a hooting GREAT HORNED OWL. So we did get all 3 owls yesterday, which was nice. Still no Sora, though. At the South Unit we had more Whips and Marsh Wrens, and, FINALLY, 2 SORAs. Whew! That was another close call.
We still felt good about our night birds as we headed into daybreak despite missing gallinule.
My plan for daybreak was to start at Waukegan for late shorebirds, gulls, terns, and waterfowl of any type. I knew Waukegan would be useless soon after the hordes of beachgoers arrived, so we had to hit it early. Then I wanted to hit Ft. Sheridan for grassland sparrows, RH Woodpecker, possibly some migrant warblers like the 10 sp. Jeff Sanders had on Friday, or some cuckoos before heading west and getting all the woodland birds at Ryerson and D. Wright. After that it was "play it by ear" depending on how it was at Waukegan and Ft. Sheridan.
Well, suffice it to say, it didn't go well. Waukegan was dead as a doornail. 2 gull species, Mallards and Canadas, and 0 migrant shorebirds. The retention pond had nothing but swallows, Killdeer, and a Spotted Sandpiper (breeder). Yikes. We got out of there quickly and headed to Ft. Sheridan where we biked the trail loop. I think that may have been a mistake. I think we may have missed birds, like RH Woodpecker because we covered ground TOO FAST. Biking is good in some situations, but bad in others. I will change this next time. Anyway, we stopped at the traditional Grasshopper Sparrow spot and got nothing, though we did hear at least 3 HENSLOW'S SPARROWS. We saw nothing in the air, nothing on the beach, and heard only common birds. No migrant warblers to speak of, though I think biking would hurt there as well. So we left Ft. Sheridan with not much from the lakefront. I had pretty much made my decision to go west and get birds, which probably was a big mistake and the reason for missing Lark Sparrow and Blue grosbeak for sure, as well as others probably.
I've already droned on about our difficulties yesterday but we did see some nice birds and finished with 104 sp., which was honestly way more than I thought we had. Our best birds:
RYERSON- GREEN HERON (only one of the day), and a LINCOLN'S SPARROW showing its buffiness nicely. 0 migrant warblers......again.
D.WRIGHT WOODS- best spot; singing VEERY behind south washrooms, a singing BLACK-THROATED GREEN, 2 OVENBIRDS, a WOOD THRUSH, and a "peet-SAH"ing ACADIAN FLYCATCHER near the parking lot. Also a calling YB CUCKOO doing its accelerating cow-cow-cow call.
St. MARY'S- no RB Nuthatch which I had Saturday and the previous week; HAIRY WOODPECKER
LAKEWOOD- CLAY-COLORED SPARROW, PURPLE MARTIN
GRANT WOODS NORTH- BLUE-WINGED WARBLER, ALDER FLYCATCHER, no pine warbler which I had Saturday.
FAIRMONT SHORES- BALD EAGLE
COLSP- OSPREY, no pelican, no turkey
PRIVATE RESIDENCE- YH BLACKBIRD
CRAWFORD RD.- no vesper, HORNED LARK
ROLLINS- HOODED MERGANSER (thanks, Al!), WB NUTHATCH (only one!)
ALMOND MARSH- BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON
Lakefront- BREWER'S BLACKBIRD, no Lark Sparrow, CASPIAN TERN (NPM)
Biggest misses:
There were many but other than those previously mentioned were:
Belted Kingfisher, American Kestrel, Cooper's Hawk
The weather was great, the jokes were great, and it's always good to be birding. Thanks for all your ebird lists, IBET posts, and for returning my emails, phone calls, and texts with lots of helpful info. It wouldn't be that much fun without all your help. See you in July!
the list
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
The BiggEST Day
Ah, the May Big Day. The BIGGEST of Big Days. The day where visions of myriad shorebirds, raptors, and songbirds dance around in one's head and make one dizzy with expectation and possibilities. The anticipation was exciting for me to say the least. Last year my team and I were able to glean 147 sp. from the lakes, treetops, grasslands, and shrublands of Lake County. I was happy with my first May Big Day ever. It can always be better, though, and I have my sights set on the Lake County record of 163 some day soon. This year I tweaked the route a bit, listened to some well-placed advice by my teammate, and veteran big day birder, Jeff Sundberg, and we, along with eagle-eye Andy Stewart, were able to nab 151 sp. on Sunday. My goal for the day was 150, so I was pretty happy with our efforts. Of course, learning that 2 birds were seen at Waukegan and 5 birds at Ft. Sheridan that we missed was a tad frustrating, but such things happen. Judging by the number of different birds Steve Bailey and Sheryl DeVore had Saturday, the tier 1 birds we missed, birds we missed that others had on Sunday, and birds we missed due to route issues, 160+ sp. is definitely possible in Lake County on a good weather day without flooding. I think the flooding definitely hurt our shorebirds by dispersing birds all over the area to suitable habitat. Better shorebirding by what we had last year would have given us 157 sp. So there are many opportunities to break the 160 mark next year given no flooding. Having said that the actual weather on the Big Day was fabulous, though a tad windier than expected mid-morning.
We started the day at my house to pack up the car at about 11:50pm Sat. night. Having just warmed up with a little Central Park Effect on Netflix, Opposable Chums on DVD, Birding Adventures TV on my laptop, and 2 cups of coffee, I was chomping at the bit to get out and find some birds. We started our journey at Lakewood FP to get, what has proven to be, a very consistent BARRED OWL.
From here we went to Volo Bog to get SORA, VIRGINIA RAILs, SWAMP SPARROW, and MARSH WREN but missed Sedge Wren and Screech Owl. At COLSP we had a nice chat with the gate officer who always wants to know what we're doing there in the middle of the night. I always tell him but he apparently doesn't believe me because he looks confused every time he sees us. Anyway, at COLSP we got EASTERN SCREECH OWL at a very reliable location along with some more rails but that was it. Then on to the lakefront where EASTERN WHIPPOORWILL was calling on its own at IBSP South at 3:30am. We also had GREAT HORNED OWL calling on its own and a couple of AMERICAN WOODCOCK. So far the day was playing out nicely with all expected nocturnal species save for Sedge Wren and Wilson's Snipe, two birds that eluded us for the entire 20+ hours.
We began our daylight hours predawn at Fort Sheridan circa 4:30am. We walked the west trail primarily to get some sparrows. HENSLOW'S and SAVANNAH SPARROWS were easy to hear, but my target GRASSHOPPER SPARROW was proving to be very difficult indeed. Finally it gave its characteristic high-pitched tic-tac zeeeeeee "song" along with a little "tinkling" for good measure, and we were on our way.
Grasshopper Sparrow
Other good birds seen/heard here were ORCHARD ORIOLE (3), 2 flushed AMERICAN PIPITS, COMMON NIGHTHAWK, and an OVENBIRD. From Here we headed to Ryerson for the dawn chorus. On our way to Ryerson, I was driving down Old Elm Rd. at about 35 mph and listening to bird song out the window. "Hey, there's a HOUSE WREN.........there's a NORTHERN PARULA.........and a BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER...." I wasn't really thinking of pulling over, but Jeff yelled out to stop the car, so I pulled over right across from a house on Old Elm as a cyclist and a jogger were both passing us wondering who these weirdos were. There was a hedge on both sides of the road with lots of warblers in it. We nabbed CAPE MAY, BLACKBURNIAN, N. PARULA, BT GREEN, B and W, CHESTNUT-SIDED, etc. In about 10 min. we had 10 sp. of warbler and were off. We pulled in to Ryerson, checked the old bridge for Prothonotary but whiffed, and then headed down warbler alley. It was crawling with birds. We nabbed all the vireos, including great looks at a PHILADELPHIA VIREO, and had all the regular sp. of warbler one would expect. On our way back to the lot, a COOPER'S HAWK did a nice pass right in front of us to give us another good bird. The Brushwood lot and Smith Cabin gave us no Olive-sided, so we headed to Daniel Wright for the HOODED WARBLER. As soon as we exited the car in the parking lot, we heard the Hooded singing off to the NW. We quickly trotted over only to have the bird become silent. A Chestnut-sided was also singing, so I started to doubt myself on the song. We decided to headed over to the pond for a quick loop and then come back. This added a CANADA WARBLER, TRAILL'S FLYCATCHER, YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER, and MOURNING WARBLER before returning back to the Hooded Warbler, who was singing his head off. We got real close and were able to confirm for sure that it was a Hooded before Andy was finally able to get a good look, and we headed out quickly to Waukegan. On the way there we were commenting on lack of Am. Kestrel stakeouts when Andy yells out, "Slow down. I think I have a Kestrel." "You're kidding me, right????" "No". So we pull into this factory lot of some sort on MLKing Dr. and sure enough there is a Kestrel pair nesting in some old vent on the side of the building. Heckuva spot, Andy! Onward to Waukegan.
It was Ternfest at Waukegan Beach with hundreds of COMMON TERNS and a few less FORSTER'S TERNS. The retention pond gave us flyby LESSER Y'LEGS, DUNLIN, SEMI-PLOVER, and LEAST S'PIPER. Unfortunately close scanning of gulls on the beach failed to reveal any LBB Gull which was frustratingly found later by someone else. The water was completely empty of waterfowl, the pines were dead, 0 Purple Martins were in the Martin house, and no shorebirds were on the beach, so we headed out to cover the rest of the lakefront. By the time we left Waukegan it was pretty late at around 9:30, but I think our time spent early in the Des Plaines River Valley was worth it. My only regret is that we should probably have added Middlefork before hitting the lakefront. We didn't get virtually any migrants on the lakefront that one more hour would have changed anyway.
The Rest of the Story:
Com Ed- no peregrine.......again. I don't think it exists. Just sayin'. I'm 0-93 on this bird this year.
Lyons- no RB Nuthatch. Or anything else. Really?
South Unit- We checked for ET Sparrow and got zippo, but while looking we noticed a lot of warblers in the hedge right across the entrance drive. We started picking through them and had some nice, but ordinary, warblers. Andy and I started heading back to the car to keep us moving, when Jeff yells out, "PRAIRIE!!!!" WHAAAAAT!?! So we sprint our butts over there, and I struggle to find the bird after Andy gets it in about 3 sec. Finally, I get a sweet look at a fantastic bird.
Prairie Warbler
Nicely done, Jeff!
Andy also finds another CANADA in that clump and then we head to the Dead River Trail, which was aptly named this day. Not a stinking bird on this trail except the ever-present FIELD SPARROW, and a nicely floating headless SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, which was a much-needed raptor.
At the end of the trail, though, we nab LARK SPARROW and BREWER'S BLACKBIRD in nesting territories before heading back to the car. A quick check of the lake from the office added HORNED GREBE in nice breeding attire. The campgrounds were quiet and nothing new was in the deciduous woods near the creek, so we headed out.
North Unit- CLAY-COLORED SPARROW seen and heard north of Sand Pond Rd. bridge along the gravel trail. No YB Chat, however.
NPM- Cliff Swallow colony but nothing else of note. No Willow Flycatcher calling.
Headed west:
Crawford Rd.- HORNED LARK, VESPER SPARROW
Private Residence- YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD, COMMON GALLINULE
COLSP- WILD TURKEY, OSPREY, AM. WHITE PELICAN, WOOD THRUSH
East Loon Lake- BLACK TERN
Rollins- N. SHOVELER, PB GREBE, RUDDY DUCK, COMMON NIGHTHAWK
Almond Marsh- RING-NECKED DUCK, HOODED MERGANSER, BC NIGHT-HERON
I. Grove- PURPLE MARTIN
Then we drove to Butler Lake to look for the elusive Green Heron, which we never found, before finishing our night at 8:10 at Fairmont Shores checking out the BALD EAGLE nest as the sun disappeared over the horizon.
It was a great day birding.....again. Thanks to Jeff and Andy for all the great birds, as always, good stories, patience, and chocolate chip cookies. It's a pleasure to hang with you guys.
Biggest misses: Green Heron, Sedge Wren, Wilson's Snipe, WT Sparrow, Solitary Sandpiper, BTB Warbler, LBB Gull. If anyone knows a consistent easily accessible spot for Green Heron in Lake County, please let me know. It's becoming quite a challenge for me to find them except by accident.
Summary:
26 Warbler sp. (my all-time high in Lake County), 13 sparrow sp., 11 waterfowl sp., 2 grebes, 7 shorebird sp.
Thanks for reading. See you in June. It's coming quickly!
Here's the List:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18458099
We started the day at my house to pack up the car at about 11:50pm Sat. night. Having just warmed up with a little Central Park Effect on Netflix, Opposable Chums on DVD, Birding Adventures TV on my laptop, and 2 cups of coffee, I was chomping at the bit to get out and find some birds. We started our journey at Lakewood FP to get, what has proven to be, a very consistent BARRED OWL.
From here we went to Volo Bog to get SORA, VIRGINIA RAILs, SWAMP SPARROW, and MARSH WREN but missed Sedge Wren and Screech Owl. At COLSP we had a nice chat with the gate officer who always wants to know what we're doing there in the middle of the night. I always tell him but he apparently doesn't believe me because he looks confused every time he sees us. Anyway, at COLSP we got EASTERN SCREECH OWL at a very reliable location along with some more rails but that was it. Then on to the lakefront where EASTERN WHIPPOORWILL was calling on its own at IBSP South at 3:30am. We also had GREAT HORNED OWL calling on its own and a couple of AMERICAN WOODCOCK. So far the day was playing out nicely with all expected nocturnal species save for Sedge Wren and Wilson's Snipe, two birds that eluded us for the entire 20+ hours.
We began our daylight hours predawn at Fort Sheridan circa 4:30am. We walked the west trail primarily to get some sparrows. HENSLOW'S and SAVANNAH SPARROWS were easy to hear, but my target GRASSHOPPER SPARROW was proving to be very difficult indeed. Finally it gave its characteristic high-pitched tic-tac zeeeeeee "song" along with a little "tinkling" for good measure, and we were on our way.
Grasshopper Sparrow
Other good birds seen/heard here were ORCHARD ORIOLE (3), 2 flushed AMERICAN PIPITS, COMMON NIGHTHAWK, and an OVENBIRD. From Here we headed to Ryerson for the dawn chorus. On our way to Ryerson, I was driving down Old Elm Rd. at about 35 mph and listening to bird song out the window. "Hey, there's a HOUSE WREN.........there's a NORTHERN PARULA.........and a BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER...." I wasn't really thinking of pulling over, but Jeff yelled out to stop the car, so I pulled over right across from a house on Old Elm as a cyclist and a jogger were both passing us wondering who these weirdos were. There was a hedge on both sides of the road with lots of warblers in it. We nabbed CAPE MAY, BLACKBURNIAN, N. PARULA, BT GREEN, B and W, CHESTNUT-SIDED, etc. In about 10 min. we had 10 sp. of warbler and were off. We pulled in to Ryerson, checked the old bridge for Prothonotary but whiffed, and then headed down warbler alley. It was crawling with birds. We nabbed all the vireos, including great looks at a PHILADELPHIA VIREO, and had all the regular sp. of warbler one would expect. On our way back to the lot, a COOPER'S HAWK did a nice pass right in front of us to give us another good bird. The Brushwood lot and Smith Cabin gave us no Olive-sided, so we headed to Daniel Wright for the HOODED WARBLER. As soon as we exited the car in the parking lot, we heard the Hooded singing off to the NW. We quickly trotted over only to have the bird become silent. A Chestnut-sided was also singing, so I started to doubt myself on the song. We decided to headed over to the pond for a quick loop and then come back. This added a CANADA WARBLER, TRAILL'S FLYCATCHER, YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER, and MOURNING WARBLER before returning back to the Hooded Warbler, who was singing his head off. We got real close and were able to confirm for sure that it was a Hooded before Andy was finally able to get a good look, and we headed out quickly to Waukegan. On the way there we were commenting on lack of Am. Kestrel stakeouts when Andy yells out, "Slow down. I think I have a Kestrel." "You're kidding me, right????" "No". So we pull into this factory lot of some sort on MLKing Dr. and sure enough there is a Kestrel pair nesting in some old vent on the side of the building. Heckuva spot, Andy! Onward to Waukegan.
It was Ternfest at Waukegan Beach with hundreds of COMMON TERNS and a few less FORSTER'S TERNS. The retention pond gave us flyby LESSER Y'LEGS, DUNLIN, SEMI-PLOVER, and LEAST S'PIPER. Unfortunately close scanning of gulls on the beach failed to reveal any LBB Gull which was frustratingly found later by someone else. The water was completely empty of waterfowl, the pines were dead, 0 Purple Martins were in the Martin house, and no shorebirds were on the beach, so we headed out to cover the rest of the lakefront. By the time we left Waukegan it was pretty late at around 9:30, but I think our time spent early in the Des Plaines River Valley was worth it. My only regret is that we should probably have added Middlefork before hitting the lakefront. We didn't get virtually any migrants on the lakefront that one more hour would have changed anyway.
The Rest of the Story:
Com Ed- no peregrine.......again. I don't think it exists. Just sayin'. I'm 0-93 on this bird this year.
Lyons- no RB Nuthatch. Or anything else. Really?
South Unit- We checked for ET Sparrow and got zippo, but while looking we noticed a lot of warblers in the hedge right across the entrance drive. We started picking through them and had some nice, but ordinary, warblers. Andy and I started heading back to the car to keep us moving, when Jeff yells out, "PRAIRIE!!!!" WHAAAAAT!?! So we sprint our butts over there, and I struggle to find the bird after Andy gets it in about 3 sec. Finally, I get a sweet look at a fantastic bird.
Prairie Warbler
Nicely done, Jeff!
Andy also finds another CANADA in that clump and then we head to the Dead River Trail, which was aptly named this day. Not a stinking bird on this trail except the ever-present FIELD SPARROW, and a nicely floating headless SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, which was a much-needed raptor.
At the end of the trail, though, we nab LARK SPARROW and BREWER'S BLACKBIRD in nesting territories before heading back to the car. A quick check of the lake from the office added HORNED GREBE in nice breeding attire. The campgrounds were quiet and nothing new was in the deciduous woods near the creek, so we headed out.
North Unit- CLAY-COLORED SPARROW seen and heard north of Sand Pond Rd. bridge along the gravel trail. No YB Chat, however.
NPM- Cliff Swallow colony but nothing else of note. No Willow Flycatcher calling.
Headed west:
Crawford Rd.- HORNED LARK, VESPER SPARROW
Private Residence- YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD, COMMON GALLINULE
COLSP- WILD TURKEY, OSPREY, AM. WHITE PELICAN, WOOD THRUSH
East Loon Lake- BLACK TERN
Rollins- N. SHOVELER, PB GREBE, RUDDY DUCK, COMMON NIGHTHAWK
Almond Marsh- RING-NECKED DUCK, HOODED MERGANSER, BC NIGHT-HERON
I. Grove- PURPLE MARTIN
Then we drove to Butler Lake to look for the elusive Green Heron, which we never found, before finishing our night at 8:10 at Fairmont Shores checking out the BALD EAGLE nest as the sun disappeared over the horizon.
It was a great day birding.....again. Thanks to Jeff and Andy for all the great birds, as always, good stories, patience, and chocolate chip cookies. It's a pleasure to hang with you guys.
Biggest misses: Green Heron, Sedge Wren, Wilson's Snipe, WT Sparrow, Solitary Sandpiper, BTB Warbler, LBB Gull. If anyone knows a consistent easily accessible spot for Green Heron in Lake County, please let me know. It's becoming quite a challenge for me to find them except by accident.
Summary:
26 Warbler sp. (my all-time high in Lake County), 13 sparrow sp., 11 waterfowl sp., 2 grebes, 7 shorebird sp.
Thanks for reading. See you in June. It's coming quickly!
Here's the List:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18458099
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