My Favorite Place to Bird

  It's been a frustrating couple of weeks for me. I've missed Mississippi Kite, Swallow-tailed Kite, Whimbrel, Whooping Cranes, and Snow Goose in the past 2 weeks here in Lake County. Family obligations and work schedules have kept me away from the lakefront for the most part, so I just haven't been able to go out that much. I'm 0-2 on the Mississippi Kite and 0-2 on the Whimbrel as well, so I made the effort at least. It's also been tough for me to make the 30 min. drive to the lakefront due to extreme nerve pain when sitting brought on by a pulled hamstring. The pain is literally a 9 after about 15 min. of driving. Thus, I haven't made it to the lakefront nearly as often as I would have liked.
  The one bright spot this month has been Rollins Savanna. Fortunately I live a mere 8 min. from Rollins, and I love this place. Though it doesn't have much in the way of woodland habitat, it has a little, and during many years, it is the single best easily accessible shorebird spot in the county. This year was no exception. It's easily the best grassland bird spot. It's also a good spot to see migrating raptors, and is also the best waterfowl spot in the county. So, unless you're looking for warblers, this is a truly awesome place to bird. The only drawback to it is that you really need to walk off trail to see the best birds. This can be difficult and treacherous at times. I've fallen into holes on more than 1 occasion but I know where most of them are by now, so I can navigate more easily.
  Since it's coming up on sparrow and raptor season, I thought I would head out there this weekend and see if I could find a couple of new birds that should be migrating through soon. Last night I headed over after school and had a couple of good birds:
1 Greater Yellowlegs
1 Pectoral Sandpiper
2 Northern Harrier
1 American Pipit
And......
#250 a cruising MERLIN that passed over one of the ponds and freaked out a bunch of Killdeer.

                                  internet photo
  This morning I headed back to search for a Nelson's Sparrow. Nelson's love wetland grasses, so Rollins is a great place for both them and LeConte's. Though the latter is much harder to find. In any case, I made my way around the main pond, saw a juv. BALD EAGLE, 3 juv. COOPER'S HAWKS, 1 SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, 2 juv. NORTHERN HARRIERS, 1 fem. AMERICAN WIGEON, and #251 a beautiful NELSON'S SPARROW.

                                   internet photo
2 pretty awesome birds, absolutely beautiful weather, and a stone's throw from my house. Gotta love Rollins!