#245 AND a Least Bittern!

  The day didn't start off well today or yesterday. After going 45 days in a row with little to no rain, now it's going to rain every day and eliminate all the shorebird habitat- at least that's my fear any time I read the weather forecast or look at the radar. So this morning when more rain came in, I was a little disturbed, to say the least. I had to alter my original plan to go to Vernon Hills first and check the athletic fields for Uppies. Now finding an Uppie in Lake County will take no small act of God. I've never seen 1 here and only heard of 1 or 2 in my 5 years of extensive birding. Still, I need to make the effort in order to have a shot at the record. In any case, I had to start at Waukegan Beach first, since it wasn't raining there, then hit Waukegan Airport, Vernon Hills, and Rollins to round out the morning.
  Waukegan Beach is a tough place to bird mentally. Usually there's absolutely nothing there except standard fare, but 1 day you'll hit something really cool. Initially it looked pretty bleak this morning. No shorebirds except the standard SPOTTED SANDPIPERS and SANDERLINGS. I was expecting something on the beach with impending storms looming dark in the west. I did see a shorebird farther down the beach, so I headed out to walk at least to the pond and back. Yes, there's a pond on the beach. It is favored by shorebirds every once in a while, but I haven't seen many in there over the years. There was a Tricolored Heron that hung out there for a few days in spring a couple of years ago. As I approached the pond slowly, I saw a Great Blue Heron to my left along with a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron. In front of me I saw a juvenile Green Heron and next to it was a butterscotch ball with a bill staring right at me.....a LEAST BITTERN! I don't swear often, but I let one fly right there. I have never seen a Least Bittern in Lake County. I've HEARD them a few times, but never seen one. I've actually only seen them twice TOTAL in the U.S. and those were either distant looks or fleeting flybys. This was a killer look and it was AWESOME!!

  That was a pretty nice start to the day. I then headed to the Waukegan Airport. Airports are sometimes used by Uppies during migration as well as sod farms and hay fields, so I thought I would check it out. It looked promising but not much was there. Then I headed to Fairway Dr. in Vernon Hills where the Vernon Hills HS and Stevenson HS athletic fields are. This area looks very promising. I had 117 KILLDEER here and over 125 RING-BILLED GULLS. Also 2 HORNED LARKS and numerous blackbirds. If that many birds like the area, I'm thinking an Uppie can slip in there somewhere. I guess we'll see. Nothing today, though. I headed back home and stopped at the Peterson Rd. fluddle which had 6 STILT SANDPIPERS, 4 LEAST SANDPIPERS, 1 LESSER YELLOWLEGS, and 1 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER. Not too shabby.
  My last stop was at Rollins. My Rollins trips consist of two parts: taking my bike and riding around the loop to check the trailside ponds, and then hiking off-trail around the main pond. So I took off on my bike appropriately laden with camera, bins, and small scope. My first stop was the west trailside pond. It looks real good at the north end with a nice puddle surrounded by mud. I got off my bike and glassed the area with my bins....1 Killdeer, 2 Killdeer, and, wait....it looks like a BAIRD'S!

I got my scope on the bird and had a nice look at the buffy color on the chest, black legs and thin black bill, thin eye ring, long body, and...the key...long wings past the tail. This bird was also definitely bigger than the other peeps of the day. It was great to see this bird. I don't see many of them usually. The problem, though, was that this bird was very jumpy due to harassment by the Killdeer. It took off and flew away once only to return, but it was constantly flitting around the puddle until the Killdeer drove it off for good. Consequently I didn't get a diagnostic pic at all, which bugged me. Hopefully I will find another one, but still a great bird, #245 for the year! I finished the morning with 11 shorebird species, which isn't too bad for July in Lake County:

Killdeer  125     mostly at VHills athletic fields
Spotted Sandpiper  4
Solitary Sandpiper  2     rollins
Greater Yellowlegs  6
Lesser Yellowlegs  5
Sanderling  4
Semipalmated Sandpiper  1
Least Sandpiper  12
Baird's Sandpiper  1     rollins west side pond
Stilt Sandpiper  6     peterson rd. fluddle
Short-billed Dowitcher  1     rollins discovery trail main pond

Tomorrow the search for the Uppie continues!