The Return to the Hawkwatch

    Today's forecast was for WNW winds following the passage of Friday's cold front. This is the usual recipe for a pretty good day at the Illinois Beach State Park Hawkwatch at the north unit on 17th St. and Sheridan Rd. I got to the hawkwatch around 10:00am after stopping at Waukegan Beach to look for Franklin's Gull and Purple Sandpiper (no and no), IBSP South to check for scoters and grebes (saw none), and NPM to check for the same. Nada. Best birds I had on the morning before the hawkwatch were flyover AMERICAN PIPIT, LAPLAND LONGSPUR, PURPLE FINCH, and HORNED LARK along with 21 CANVASBACK off of Stateline Beach.
  I had a small catastrophe at Waukegan Beach where I saw Al Stokie, Adam Sell, and Nate Schirmacher. Somehow my scope fell off my tripod and into the sand. I didn't think it would be too bad because it was sand, but when I tried to look through it, all I saw was eternal blackness. The lenses were knocked off kilter, so now I have to send it in for repairs. Bummer. So I had no scope for the rest of the morning which made looking for waterfowl on the lake pretty futile.
   So I headed to the Hawkwatch where Paul and Janice Sweet, Adam Sell, and Nate Schirmacher were busy logging the day's eyeful of raptors. I got there around 10:00am and things got progressively better for the hour or so that I could stay. Normally, the hawkwatch is an incredibly frustrating experience for me. I can rarely stay very long, else I completely neglect my family, so it always seems that the real gems are seen right after I leave. This happened to some degree again today as 2 Goshawks were seen after I left and 1 flew by us while we were watching another bird! (really?), but I did get to see the real beauty of today's Hawkwatch extravaganza, my county lifer SWAINSON'S HAWK! #256. I'm not sure who saw it first. It seemed like Paul and Adam were on it at the same time exclaiming how this could be something "good." They made the Swainson's call shortly thereafter, but I needed the bird to fly almost directly over us and give us some sweet looks before I could absolutely tell that it was a Swainson's. Fortunately, Adam was nice enough to let me use his scope since mine was kaput, so I was able to get great looks. Unfortunately, I was so engrossed in the bird that I forgot to give the scope over to Nate. Sorry, Nate! It was a 2nd yr. immature bird and a real beauty!

                                               internet photo
   Thanks to Paul and Adam for this awesome bird today!