I just recently had the pleasure of accompanying my birding friend, Donnie Dann, on a wetland survey at the residence of Searle Wadley and his wife. They live northwest of Antioch near the Fox River and have wetland and woodland edge habitat that is very extensive. Needless to say, the birding is good there, and Mr. Wadley and his wife are extremely sweet people. They both opened up their property to my birding adventures, so I took advantage of this yesterday and headed over there to look for cuckoos. Unfortunately, I wasn't prepared for the onslaught of deer flies that waged war on my head as I walked the grassy trail back into the woodland, so I headed hastily back to my car to grab my head net. By this time, I had been here an hour and wanted to check out the wetland, so I went there instead of back to the woods. Good move. The wetland was hopping with waders. I had 4 sp. of waders and there were over 100 GBHerons and GEgrets combined. Astonishing. I searched hard for a snowy but no luck.
As I was watching the waders, I heard the wailing call of a Common Gallinule. Now I have heard them before and seen one at Almond Marsh, but these birds are hard to come by, so any looks are good ones. A few moments later, 1 bird ventured into the open.
I heard another gallinule calling a few minutes later, as well.
I also spotted a pair of RING-NECKED DUCK, which is rather odd for June. Anyway, another great morning of birding :)
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