After the Cold Front

   I still needed Golden Eagle and Northern Goshawk so far for the year, so my plan for today was to hang out at the hawk watch all day after checking the regular lakefront spots for ducks and gulls. After the passage of a cold front and accompanying low pressure is traditionally the best time for a good hawk flight and also the best chance to see a Franklin's Gull in the fall. So I started off my morning routine, as I usually do, by going to Waukegan Beach. There is rarely anything at Waukegan, and today was no exception. Zilch. Next stop was IBSP South. I pulled into the parking lot at the employee entrance right next o the beach where you can overlook a nice section of the lake and scan for waterfowl without walking 2 miles to the Dead River and back. As I got out of the car I heard the "Chit-Chit" of RED CROSSBILLS in the pines around the parking lot. I walked around to get a better look and 9 of them flew out of the pines and bolted. Nice bird. I then scanned the lake. There was a huge raft of scaup/redhead midway down the beach that, on most days, I would walk down and pick through. Today, however, I had to get to NPM before going to the hawk watch, so I didn't search for the needle in the haystack. I wish I would have after seeing that Montrose had a Harlequin Duck, but I just couldn't do everything. C'est le vie. I did see another distant RED-THROATED LOON, however, which you could tell from the white on its face and it's habit of lifting it's head up when sitting on the water. Nothing else, though, so I headed up to NPM to check the gulls and docks for grebes. Stateline Beach had nothing, so I headed to the south end and parked in the fisherman's parking area. The gates are locked now, so you have to walk to the southeastern tip. This I did. There were a large number of gulls on the docks, but, except for 1 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, nothing interesting. I walked up to the fisherman's pier and scanned the lake. Nothing on the lake, but then I noticed some birds flying toward me from the NE. They looked like small gulls. What is this!? I followed them carefully as they approached and passed right by me. These birds were twisting and turning and were smaller gulls with pointed wings. I also got a nice look at the tops of the wings which were solid gray with a white border all the way to the tip which had some black in it. I also saw the black masks on the face....FRANKLIN'S GULLS!!!! These birds were definitely migrating as they shot their way past me and down the lakefront. Awesome. Bird #259! And I wasn't even at the hawkwatch yet. Things were looking good.

                                    Internet photo Franklin's Gulls

  Then I headed over to the Hawkwatch where we saw a couple of juvenile Red-shouldered Hawks   and beautiful dark morph Rough-legged Hawk.....

 We watched this hawk for a few minutes as it passed by. Thinking I had a minute to sit down and eat, I pulled up to the picnic table to open up my lunch. Not more than 2 seconds after I swung my leg over the bench, Vic Berardi yells out, "Goshawk....juvenile going left!" I quickly get up and throw my bins up to my face and turned left. Miraculously, I actually saw the NORTHERN GOSHAWK (#260) juvenile pass right next me for, what seemed like a long time even though it was only a few seconds. Great bird and Vic got some awesome photos:

                               NORTHERN GOSHAWK #260! Vic Berardi photos
      Thanks, Vic, for an awesome bird!