Another Nemesis No More!

  The last 24 hrs. have been wrought with moderate to fairly strong NW winds. This usually bodes well for fall migration along the Lake County lakefront. So today I headed to Waukegan Beach and both units of Illinois Beach State Park to see if I could find some thing interesting. Unfortunately there was only 1 shorebird at Waukegan, a SANDERLING. The prairie grasses and dogwoods abutting the parking area were alive with sparrows and warblers, however. I had 9 sp. of sparrow, and could have gotten more if I worked at it. Here's a few of them:

                                      Lincoln's Sparrow

                                      Savannah Sparrow

                               Chipping Sparrow

 Also had a PHILADELPHIA VIREO and a BLACK-THROATED    GREEN WARBLER.
    From Waukegan, I headed to IBSP South. My goal was to walk the Dead River trail to look for two birds, Lark Sparrow and Black-billed Cuckoo. Both are birds that I have never seen in Lake County. My chances of seeing a Lark were pretty slim, but I thought I had a decent chance of seeing a cuckoo. There had been a large number of BB Cuckoo reports in the past week, so I was thinking that they were on the move and more visible at this time.
Remember, if you will, that I have been looking for this bird since May.....and all of last year. It has truly been a nemesis bird for me in Lake County. In fact, the only place I've ever seen BB cuckoo is at Montrose where they practically sit out in the open. No such luck in Lake County. Today was to be a different day for me....though it didn't seem so in the beginning.
   As I headed down the trail I saw a couple of FOS (first of season) birds. I had 3 HERMIT THRUSHES and 2 BROWN CREEPERS. Creepers winter here and Hermits sometimes do, so a definite cold weather flavor was in the air. As I neared the end of the trail I entered an open area in between woodlots. In this area are a couple of willow shrubs and a dogwood thicket along the Dead River. I saw a couple of Lincoln's Sparrows here and as I entered the opening, a bird flew out of a willow and buried itself in an oak tree. I knew immediately that it was a cuckoo based on its brown color, slim body, and long tail. I couldn't tell if it was a yellow-billed or a black-billed, though, and that was frustrating. I walked up to the oak and the bird flushed above my head. I saw it fly to the next tree but couldn't make out any details. I looked into the tree but could see nothing so I walked up closer. The bird flushed again into the dogwood thicket where it buried itself. I was really frustrated at this point, because I had 3 chances to see the bird and missed them all. I finally gave up and continued around the bend to take the woodland trail back to the parking lot. I had walked about 1/4 of the way down the trail when I started thinking. What's my best chance to see a cuckoo, continue on or go back and retrace my steps along the Dead River? I decided to head back, hoping the bird had returned to the open after I left. Sometimes I make good decisions...this was one of them. I walked back to the same clearing and as I approached , the bird flew out of some dogwoods across the path to the edge of another thicket where it incredibly sat out in the open! I had great looks at the buffy throat of a juvenile bird and the black bill. A BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO!!! #252 and Nemesis No More!

                                     juv. BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO
    It's a good feeling when you finally find a bird that you've worked very hard to see. A very cool bird, indeed.