1/21/12 McDonald Woods Comes up Big

Well, following yesterday's snowstorm I was hoping for some good birds today. I started as per usual at Waukegan Harbor and beach but the place was almost completely iced in. There was a bit of open water at the end of the piers, but nothing but ice in the harbor. The regulars were visible: Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, all 3 mergansers, Mallards, Greater Scaup. Not much happening so I headed for Lyons Woods. Things were a little better here. I could hear some Black-capped Chickadees in the background, so I headed off-trail into the pines area. As I emerged from the spruces, an adult SHARP-SHINNED HAWK flushed and landed on a branch not too far away.

Very nice! New year bird #1 for the day. Also calling was a Red-breasted Nuthatch. On to IBSP South to check the beach. Completely iced in. Not a water bird in sight. Headed to the North Unit and got nothing there either, so I finished my lakefront run at NPM (North Point Marina aka "Gull Heaven"). Hoping to find some gulls, I pulled up behind the yacht club and parked. The place was complete ice save for a hole near the south docks and some open water at the mouth of the harbor. Unfortunately not very many gulls were present. Probably 40 or so gulls, including 2 adult THAYER'S GULLS.

From here I headed to Van Patten Woods to look for finches, but even though there are some nice pine trees and birch stands, there were no finches. As I was walking the trail, though, I heard some high-pitched "tree-tsee-tsee, tsee-tsee" which sounded very much like a kinglet. I walked under some pines and, sure enough, 2 GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS were flitting up in the needles.











Year bird #2 on the day. For my last stop, I decided to hit the trails at McDonald Woods in Lindenhurst. There are some good feeder set ups here as well as some varied habitat. Needless to say, the Woods did not disappoint. It was very birdy here with White-breasted Nuthatches, American Goldfinches, House Finches, American Tree Sparrows, 4 species of woodpeckers, crows, blue jays, and brown creeper. Nothing new, though, until I saw a juvenile COOPER'S HAWK hanging around by the feeders.

They like these spots due to the high density of prey items, songbirds. A very nice bird, indeed. I headed into the pines, which, once again, look like prime habitat for White-winged crossbills but no such luck. So I headed back. On my way back, I heard the single, longer "seeee" calls of some type of sparrow. I've heard White-throated, Song, Savannah, and Fox all give similar calls as these, so I began scanning the shrubbery and found a tree of American Robins, a Northern Flicker, and the source of the calls, a beautiful FOX SPARROW. My first ever January Fox Sparrow! Very cool.

So I ended up with 4 new year birds today to give me 75 for the year so far. All 'n all a pretty good day considering the slow start and lack of water birds this am.