The Storms

Last night it rained. And rained. And rained more. We had a couple of inches at least along with some nice thunder and lightning. So after grocery shopping and meeting with my small group at church, I headed out to Waukegan Beach to meet my birding friend, Jim Solum. As with yesterday, expectations were a little higher than usual, but given yesterday's results, not THAT high. The beach was very windy. The winds were southerly, which was good, but at 20-30 mph it made seeing birds difficult. I heard both the wheezing of a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and the "zit-zit" calls of a Bank Swallow, but didn't see either well enough to ID them decisively. On the way out, we decided to check the flooded lot on Seahorse Dr. just opposite the beach. Good call as there were Lesser Yellowlegs, Greater Yellowlegs, Pectoral Sandpipers, and my FOY DUNLIN.

Jim and I then parted ways, with him going to North Point Marina and me going to Ft. Sheridan to look for Leconte's Sparrow.

Neither one of us found much so we headed to Middlefork Savanna. Jim got there before me so he was pretty much done when I arrived, but I wanted to check out the north end fluddles before I left, so I walked off-trail. I ran into a group of 5 Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Pectoral sandpipers, and my FOY SOLITARY SANDPIPER.

   My last stop of the afternoon was Independence Grove. Jim had 2 Forster's Terns yesterday, which I missed, and others have had Bonaparte's Gull, which I've missed about 5x now, so when Jim texted me that both were on the beach, I made haste and got there as quickly as legally possible. Got nice looks at 1 winter plumage BONAPARTE'S GULL and 2 breeding plumage FORSTER'S TERN.

                            Winter plumage Bonaparte's Gull

                                       Forster's Tern

So I ended the day with 4 new birds, though it could easily have been 6. I had a falcon fly over me that I thought was a Merlin, but then concluded it was a female kestrel with backlighting. The mask on the face was too dark for a Merlin. So the weekend ends with no real good birds like a Bittern or a Leconte's or a Lark Sparrow, all of  which were found at Montrose this weekend. Location, location, location. The morning ends at 134.