0 for 4.... 2/22/12

Birding has been a little tough lately. I've whiffed on all my target birds for the past 4 days. My goal right now is to find owls, geese, and a Black Scoter. Those are all pretty tough in Lake County but I'll need them to have a crack at the record.
  I headed out to Volo Bog on Sunday and thought I had found some great habitat for a Saw-whet owl but after checking EVERY tree, I came up empty. The one highlight of the day was seeing my FOY SANDHILL CRANES. One was actually doing a mating dance in the middle of the bog! Pretty cool stuff.

On Monday I started the day off with great looks at a staked out NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL. The first time I've ever seen one. That was awesome! Unfortunately, the owl was in Cook County.

  Then I traipsed around Grant Woods and COLSP. Didn't see much at all. Best birds were a FOX SPARROW and my FOY RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD.
  Yesterday I headed out to Middlefork Savanna to check out some Long-eared Owl ebird records from '08. Unfortunately, I could not see anywhere that a Long-eared Owl would be found. What I did see was a lot of wiped out shrubs and hedgerow along the trailside creeks where many warblers, sparrows, etc. used to hang out. Won't be seeing those anymore at Middlefork. It amazes me how our forest preserve district just clear cuts huge areas without replanting anything. Aren't they supposed to be preserving habitat? One of the trees they removed was box elder, a native tree, and a favorite of finches. Not understanding this philosophy. Anyway, on my walk back to the car, I had a flyover female WOOD DUCK #97.

  Today was pretty frustrating, though. I went to both Daniel Wright Woods and Ryerson Conservation Area to look for Barred Owls which have been seen/heard there numerous times by others. I've already tried calling them in 3 previous times in the past 2 months with no success, so today I really wanted to get one. I spent over 40 minutes trying to call one in today but couldn't get a response. Very frustrating and I don't understand why the owls are not responding.
Anyway, I'll have to try again another time. Saw about 100 Robins picking through the forest litter which was kind of interesting to see.
(all photos from the internet)