The day started at COLSP as always at 2:00am. We started at our favorite owl spot and, for only the 2nd time in my 14 Big Days, we were skunked. It was a clear night with a mild breeze, so the conditions seemed good, but, alas, no owls. Never fear, spot #2 was also pretty reliable, and BINGO, we shortly had a nicely responding EASTERN SCREECH OWL... bird #1. The next bird proved to be a serious challenge.
One of my biggest nemesis birds over the past 14 months has been GREAT HORNED OWL. I've probably missed them as many times as I've seen them, and they are notoriously ambivalent about responding to calls. Yesterday was no exception. We whiffed on them at no less than 6 locations and were leaving #7, when I spotted an owl roadside atop a tree. Unfortunately, as I backed up to see the owl, it flushed, and all we got was the famous rear end shot. No good. We started to leave feeling a bit miffed about our near miss, when Jeff says, "We can always go back and see if we can find it." Great idea, Jeff. A quick u-turn later and we were slowly meandering back to the spot when Jeff spots the owl in a distant tree. Amazing. Bird #2 in hand after some persistent tracking. Whew! I hate missing GHO, so that was a nice win.
Barred Owl is traditionally a difficult bird to get in Lake County, and while there are some at Ryerson and Daniel Wright, they are very difficult to find and very finicky about responding. I've only been successful a couple of times in the past year at getting them to respond. So Saturday during my scouting run, as I'm walking around one of my favorite forest preserves, I hear a Barred Owl call out spontaneously. That was awesome. And yesterday it took all of 3 seconds for Steve's Barred Owl call to get a response that continued for a good 3 or 4 minutes!
Owling is one of my favorite parts of the Big Day, and though we missed on short-eared, saw-whet, and snowy, it was a great start to the day to get 3 owls.
The rest of the day was great, save for the wind. The birds were hard to come by, though. We had to work seriously hard to get our birds. It took us probably 15-20 minutes to get a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH to respond at Lyons Woods. We missed at 3 locations where I/or others had seen a NORTHERN SHRIKE in the past week before finding one at COLSP where I have not yet seen one this year. It was a lesson in persistence yesterday but we had a few nice surprises. Here are the highlights:
Surprise #1: At a feeder of a friend, we had a calling TUFTED TITMOUSE. A tough bird for Lake County.
Surprise #2: At Bluff Lake bridge on Grass lake Rd. we had a small group of swans, one of which was a beautiful TRUMPETER SWAN right next to the road.
Those were my two new year birds yesterday.
Other nice finds were a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK nicely picked out of almost the same tree as the GHO at the South Unit by Jeff, and 2 RED-THROATED LOONS, also found by Jeff, at the South Unit, and 2 BALD EAGLES, that we thought we were going to miss, at COLSP and the exit roads. We also had 5 HORNED LARKS flying around and landing on the road at Sportsman's Dr. near Campbell airport. FOX SPARROWS are always tough to get in winter, but the feeder's at Bowen Park have been good for this bird for a couple of months.
Frustrations:
1. Raptors were extremely difficult to find. We had about 4 or 5 Red-tails, but only 3 raptor species. It was only the 2nd time I've missed AMERICAN KESTREL in 14 months. Cooper's Hawks are incredibly tough for me to stake out in winter and I haven't seen one for a long time. I have yet to be able to stake out a raptor other than a Rough-leg this year.
2. Rollins was eerily devoid of birds. The cold and heavy snow have driven out the raptors, I believe. If anyone finds anything besides a red-tail there, please ebird or post.
3. We missed 2 birds I had Saturday, YR Warbler and Song Sparrow. Birds we missed from January were Eastern Bluebird, Northern Flicker, and others already mentioned. We had 6 spots yesterday where we had no new birds.
4. We missed Black Scoter and Northern Harrier that Nat Carmichael had at Waukegan. I continue to fail at finding other people's birds. We scoped that place from both piers, too. Black Scoter is definitely a nemesis bird for me in Lake County. I've seen 1 in the past 3 years and it was a 2 second flyby.
5. The CAROLINA WREN at a friend's house, that I have seen, was a no-show yesterday.
6. We had 3 dirty birds yesterday, Belted Kingfisher, GB Heron, and a Thayer's Gull that I got a great look at the underwing of as the gulls lifted off at NPM, but that not all of us could pick out of the flurry of wings. The Kingfisher was flushed by another couple walking along the bridge at Riverwalk Dr. and I was walking ahead of Jeff and Steve, so I heard the bird rattle as it took off, while they missed it. The GB Heron was obscured by some tree limbs as it flushed around the bend of the river, so it was blocked by the others.
Interesting Stat:
Last year we had the same number of species but 10 different birds, so 70 in Lake County, with good weather and a mild winter, is definitely doable in February.
Best spot:
The Riverwalk Dr. trail at the Des Plaines River gave us BELTED KINGFISHER, GB HERON, RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD (amazingly spotted atop a distant snag by Steve) which then flew over us, BROWN CREEPER, NORTHERN PINTAIL (male and female pair), AMERICAN COOT, and GADWALL. Except for Gadwall and coot, that was the only spot we saw/heard the others.
2nd best: The South Unit:
We had 2 RED-THROATED LOONS, 5 RED-HEADED WOODPECKERS, GHO, and ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK here.
And the last bird of the day was a beautiful adult GLAUCOUS GULL about 10 ft. away on the ice at the rt. 12 overpass in Fox Lake.
Thanks again to Jeff and Steve for the laughs, the stories, the wipeouts on the ice, and, of course, the awesome birds!
Until March (here's praying for some warmth!)......
Beau Schaefer
Here's the list:
ake county big day, Lake, US-IL
Feb 23, 2014 2:00 AM - 7:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
200.0 mile(s)
Comments: w/steve bailey and Jeff Sundberg
60 species
Canada Goose 1
Mute Swan 1
Trumpeter Swan 1
Gadwall 1
American Black Duck 1
Mallard 1
Northern Pintail 1
Canvasback 1
Redhead 1
Greater Scaup 1
Lesser Scaup 1
White-winged Scoter 1
Long-tailed Duck 1
Bufflehead 1
Common Goldeneye 1
Common Merganser 1
Red-breasted Merganser 1
Ruddy Duck 1
Red-throated Loon 2 white face, slender build, upturned bill; 2 side-by-side
Great Blue Heron (Blue form) 1
Bald Eagle 1
Red-tailed Hawk (Eastern) 1
Rough-legged Hawk 1
American Coot 1
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull (American) 1
Thayer's Gull 1
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1
Glaucous Gull 1
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 1
Mourning Dove 1
Eastern Screech-Owl 1
Great Horned Owl 1
Barred Owl 1
Belted Kingfisher 1Red-headed Woodpecker 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Shrike 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
Horned Lark 1
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Brown Creeper 1
American Robin 1
European Starling 1
Cedar Waxwing 1
American Tree Sparrow 1
Fox Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1
House Finch 1
American Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow 1
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