The September Dirty Bird Debacle

  Steve Bailey, Andy Stewart, and I meandered our way through myriads of birds on Sunday, Sept. 14 for my 21st consecutive monthly Big Day. The weather was beautiful, though a bit chilly in the early morning hours as it dropped to 41 degrees! I'm definitely not ready for bone-chilling cold again.

  We started the day at Rollins Savanna at 2:00am and promptly ticked off both VIRGINIA and SORA RAILS. This was a big lift since these birds have been a tad difficult to get since May. We also heard a juvenile GREAT HORNED OWL doing a very high-pitched squeal that sounded rather odd to me, so I was hoping we would get another one. We heard 2 other juveniles during the course of the night, and had nice looks at 3 adults during the day/night. No adults were calling, though, which was interesting given the number we had last month (only 2 weeks ago).

  We then were off to Lakewood. Steve let fly with his famous Barred Owl call but we heard nothing initially. Then on about the 3rd try, we heard our buddy off in the distance. Definitely clearly audible but, also, definitely not close. He's been moving around quite a bit these days. At COLSP we had 2 calling EASTERN SCREECH OWLS, so the only bird left for us was the Whip. We arrived at IBSP around 4:30 and played the call. Shortly we had a nicely responding EASTERN WHIPPOORWILL behind the nature center. A great start to the day with all of our expected nocturnal species. We finished the evening at Middlefork trying for a Least Bittern or King Rail but no luck. We also had numerous calling SWAINSON'S THRUSHES flying over us during the night, but we could not hear anything else. A nicely silhouetted GREAT HORNED OWL in the wetland tree was our last bird of the evening hours.

  We started the day at Daniel Wright where we had no less than 4 calling WOOD THRUSHES and a kekking COOPER'S HAWK. We then headed quickly over to Ryerson where my first tactical error occurred. With visions of Warbler Grandeur dancing in my head on the heels of Doug Stotz's post yesterday about his 20 Warbler species, I figured we would head to the river where Doug had most of his birds. This probably would have worked well had it been May.....and the birds were singing. In September, when the birds are definitely NOT singing, however, this is a recipe for advanced frustration. There were definitely birds around us, but they were not visible and the leaf cover is too dense around the river to see much, so we ended up not being able to ID very many. We hurried back to the Brushwood parking lot and were able to get a couple of species, but nothing even close to what I was expecting, and our vireo count was a whopping 1....not the beginning I had hoped for. I should have done Warbler Alley on the west side of the preserve along the river. Birds congregate here in the morning sun and they are close. The leaf cover isn't nearly as dense either. Lesson learned. I also missed a HOUSE FINCH! while going to the bathroom. Really? That was only the beginning of the Dirty Bird Debacle.

  Stop #3 was at Ft. Sheridan which continues to be probably my 3rd favorite birding spot after Rollins and COLSP. We had the usuals although we missed orioles on the day. Best bird here was a MOURNING WARBLER that I unfortunately didn't get Steve and Andy on quick enough before it disappeared for our second dirty bird on the day. This was the challenge. Getting all 3 of us on quickly moving warblers, falcons, and kinglets proved to be a very frustrating endeavor during the course of the day. We also had 3 or 4 RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS in the jewelweed tangle along the path. We then moved over slightly to the Openlands preserve where CHIPPING SPARROWS had been reported a couple of weeks ago on ebird. Andy did some stellar scouting on Saturday and found a small flock very close to the road which was still there Sunday morning. That was a great bird to get seeing as I missed it in August. Steve also found a nicely singing WHITE-THROATED SPARROW that Andy had also locate day before, so some timely scouting paid off for us early.

  Waukegan was interesting. We initially got there, picked up our AMERICAN KESTREL family,  and then saw only SANDERLINGS, SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, and a SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER on the beach along with some HOODED MERGANSERS. This actually proved to be pretty good seeing as we had none of these shorebirds anywhere else. We were definitely hoping for something rarer, like a Red Knot or Buffie or Whimbrel, but nothing like that ever appeared. The weather was probably too nice. The pines area was almost completely devoid of birds, with the exception of a small clump of shrubs behind the locked fence area of the water plant. This shrubby clump had 5 or 6 birds in it, that stayed very hidden for most of the time, but we eventually found a couple of warblers and what I'm fairly certain was a YB Flycatcher, but I never saw the back of the bird to rule out Least Fly so that bird remained UF. On the way out, Steve noticed a couple of birds on Government Pier to the south, so we  scanned them quickly and had nice looks at 2 RUDDY TURNSTONES just before someone flushed them. On the way back out we checked the fenced in prairie and had a juvenile BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD, our only one of the day. Near the parking area pavilion were some secluded warblers and sparrows. Andy was able to dig up a WILSON'S WARBLER but neither Steve nor I was able to get on it before it disappeared. Another dirty bird. So Andy decided to walk around to the back of the shrubby area to flush birds toward us. In so doing, he flushed an AMERICAN WOODCOCK. All I could see was some wings flapping as the bird disappeared. Another dirty bird. This was getting ridiculous.....and it would get worse. A BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER in the fenced in pond area was a nice gift on our way out. A trip down Clayton Ave. toward Bowen Park netted us a nice flock of RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS and 2 COMMON GRACKLES, the only ones of the day. The main goal, though, was to find the Peregrine. We stopped at Doehringer Rd. to check out the stacks for the Peregrine. I don't know where those guys were looking, but right in front of me flies the PEREGRINE FALCON into the back of a tree. We could not find him, though, since he was on private property behind a closed fence. Another dirty bird. Amazing....and disturbing. On to Lyons Woods where we had a yanking RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, a GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH, and nice looks at a foraging PINE WARBLER that also responded nicely to its song by flying right in to a tree right in front of us. While watching the Pine, Andy Yells out that he has a MERLIN flying overhead. Steve gets on it but I couldn't see anything and the bird disappeared over the trees. ANOTHER DIRTY BIRD????!!! Seriously? This is killing me.

  We headed to IBSP hoping for some good warblers. It was now around noon and our warbler count was about 6 sp. Not real encouraging. No worries, though, because IBSP delivered the goods. We walked out and back along the middle trail beyond the locked gate and had literally flocks of birds moving all along the trail. We were here for 2 hours getting birds. Of course we also got more DIRTY birds. Andy found an OVENBIRD and a RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET but the birds were moving around quickly and both disappeared before I could see them. We saw a lot, though, and ended the day with 17 warbler species, most of which we got here between noon and 2pm. Pretty unbelievable.

  The rest of the day played out like this:
North Unit- Belted Kingfisher, Least Flycatcher, and Yellow-throated Vireo snagged by Andy at eye level in the clump near the gate.
Spring Bluff- Swamp Sparrow
Rt. 173- Bald Eagle
COLSP- Osprey
Rt. 59 and Grand Ave- Turkey Vulture
and then......ROLLINS! As always, Rollins came up huge. Even though the shorebird habitat is nonexistent save for a small, muddy island. We still got 3 shorebird sp. there. AND in the process of walking around the pond searching for our absentee Nelson's Saprrow, Steve flushes a beautiful AMERICAN BITTERN that EVERYBODY had nice looks at. Great bird. We then pulled out GREAT EGRET, BOBOLINK, SANDHILL CRANE, LINCOLN'S SPARROW, NORTHERN SHOVELER, NORTHERN PINTAIL, PURPLE MARTIN, GREEN-WINGED TEAL, GADWALL, and PIED-BILLED GREBE. On the way out we had nice looks at 4 or 5 MARSH WRENS. By now it was only about 45 minutes to sunset, so we quickly headed to Almond Marsh and picked up BC Night Heron and 2 female AMERICAN WIGEON, as well as a couple of cruising COMMON NIGHTHAWKS. With darkness creeping in, we headed to Allegheny ballfields and just had enough light to see and hear a small flock of HORNED LARKS in the bare dirt and scrubby weedy edges of the fields at the top of the hill.

  It was another stellar day birding with some great weather and great compadres. The dirty bird element was frustrating but not debilitating. We finished with 122 species and 8 dirty birds. The 5% rule only allows us 6 dirty birds so we had to take 2 birds off of our list to give us 120 species. This put us 3rd for a Northern Illinois Big Day. I've only been able to accomplish this 1 other time, last year in June with Jeff Sundberg, so Sunday was truly a great day. Thanks again to Steve and Andy for the laughs, the great stories, and some awesome birds. The next Big Day in October will find temps even cooler, so I'm a little sad at bidding the summer weather farewell. There were a lot of great birds, though. Thanks for reading and I'll see you in October!

Lake county big day, Lake, US-IL
Sep 14, 2014 2:00 AM - 10:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
200.0 mile(s)
Comments:     w/steve bailey and andy stewart
122 species 

Canada Goose  1
Mute Swan  1
Wood Duck  1
Gadwall  1
American Wigeon  1
Mallard  1
Blue-winged Teal  1
Northern Shoveler  1
Northern Pintail  1
Green-winged Teal  1
Hooded Merganser  1
Pied-billed Grebe  1
Double-crested Cormorant  1
American Bittern  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  1
Green Heron  1
Black-crowned Night-Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Osprey  1
Cooper's Hawk  1
Bald Eagle  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Virginia Rail  1
Sora  1
Sandhill Crane  1
Black-bellied Plover  1
Semipalmated Plover  1
Killdeer  1
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Lesser Yellowlegs  1
Ruddy Turnstone  1
Sanderling  1
Least Sandpiper  1
Pectoral Sandpiper  1
Semipalmated Sandpiper  1
American Woodcock  1
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  1
Caspian Tern  1
Mourning Dove  1
FERAL PIGEON     1
Eastern Screech-Owl  1
Great Horned Owl  1
Barred Owl  1
Common Nighthawk  1
Eastern Whip-poor-will  1
Chimney Swift  1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-headed Woodpecker  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Downy Woodpecker  1
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  1
American Kestrel  1
Merlin  1
Peregrine Falcon  1
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1
Alder/Willow Flycatcher (Traill's Flycatcher)  1
Least Flycatcher  1
Eastern Phoebe  1
Eastern Kingbird  1
Yellow-throated Vireo  1
Red-eyed Vireo  1
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  1
Horned Lark  1
Purple Martin  1     juvenile bird; dark, large swallow, long periods of gliding, brownish-gray throat on otherwise white underside.
Tree Swallow  1
Barn Swallow  1
Cliff Swallow  1
Black-capped Chickadee  1
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
House Wren  1
Marsh Wren  1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
Eastern Bluebird  1
Gray-cheeked Thrush  1
Swainson's Thrush  1
Wood Thrush  1
American Robin  1
Gray Catbird  1
European Starling  1
Cedar Waxwing  1
Ovenbird  1
Northern Waterthrush  1
Black-and-white Warbler  1
Tennessee Warbler  1
Nashville Warbler  1
MOURNING WARBLER 1
Common Yellowthroat  1
American Redstart  1
Cape May Warbler  1
Magnolia Warbler  1
Chestnut-sided Warbler  1
Blackpoll Warbler  1
Palm Warbler  1
Pine Warbler  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Black-throated Green Warbler  1
Wilson's Warbler  1
Eastern Towhee  1
Chipping Sparrow  1
Field Sparrow  1
Savannah Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  1
Lincoln's Sparrow  1
Swamp Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  1
Northern Cardinal  1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak  1
Indigo Bunting  1
Bobolink  1
Red-winged Blackbird  1
Common Grackle  1
Brown-headed Cowbird  1
House Finch  1
American Goldfinch  1
House Sparrow  1

Bring on the Warblers!!!

8/31/14
  Yesterday ace photographer, Nat Carmichael, and I embarked upon my August Big Day for 2014. Last year August proved to be a troubling month for me. I had some time management and planning issues due to less sunlight time that I forgot to take into consideration. So this year I fixed the route planning, but not the time management issues.....though for a different reason. I haven't been out birding in 6 days, which is an eternity for me. Since I started school on the 18th, it's been very busy around my house, so I haven't been able to get out much. So yesterday I was basically chomping at the bit to just get out and see some birds. Consequently I spent WAY too much time gawking at my favorite birds, the warblers. Yes, THEY'RE BACK! Woohoo! As we all know, finding warblers is challenge number 1 as they dart back-and-forth willy nilly through the foliage. This requires time. Challenge number 2 is ID'ing them after finding them. Some first year female birds can have odd color variations, usually muted but sometimes bright yellow, which make birds look very confusing, indeed. For example, I had a first year female ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER (early, I know) that looked like the bird in The Warbler Guide (Peterson) p. 50, except the the throat and chest (which is all that I saw) were the brightest yellow I have ever seen on an Orange-crowned. The head was gray-green, but hooded, with a nicely-broken bold eye-ring. So I'm thinking, Is this a MacGillivray's Warbler!?! I don't think it was, but I had to search repeatedly for the bird, which never sat still long enough for a pic. This was definitely a time suck. I also wanted to get some nice pictures for the blog and take advantage of Nat's photo skills. This also put us behind a bit. But, whatever. It was fun. So anyway, it was a great day, as always, but we missed going to 4 spots that would definitely have added birds, and we missed.....this is really embarrassing......a ROCK PIGEON! Are you kidding me!? Yes, that's right, I didn't get to either of the 2 good spots in Lake County for Rock Pigeon. That's the kind of day it was.

   Nat and I began our BirdQuest at 2:00am at Rollins. Have I ever said that I love this place? I do. Got a whining juvenile GREAT HORNED OWL for bird #1 followed closely by a bird we missed last month, a SORA, squeaking from the east trail marsh. Interestingly we had 3 Soras on the day. I'm guessing these were juveniles exercising their calling capabilities or running around in plain sight because juveniles think they're invincible. Wait, are we talking people or birds?

  Next stop was our Barred Owl spot.....and our first disappointment of the night. Alas, my Barred Owl friend, who has been with us all year so far, failed to come out and play last night. We were a little downtrodden after this unfortunate event. To add insult to injury we got no new birds at either Volo or COLSP either. These places have both been money in the past so this was especially difficult to swallow. Next stop was our favorite private residence, which has an incredible cattail marsh, and also has delivered for us on our Big Days. Fortunately, today was no exception or I might have quit and gone home......just kidding. We had a grunting VIRGINIA RAIL and a distant whinnying EASTERN SCREECH OWL to give us two big birds for the evening. High fives were exchanged and an immediate lifting of the spirits commenced. The last nocturnal bird we were hoping for was a whippoorwill. We missed this bird last year in August, so I wasn't confident of our chances, but as soon as we got out of the car at IBSP we had a roadside calling WHIPPOORWILL, no taping required. How 'bout it! So we ended our nocturnal sojourn with all the owls, including an amazing 12 Great Horned Owls, save our Barred Owl, all the rails, a spontaneously calling Whippoorwill, and some nice mojo coming into daybreak.

  Usually I start on the Des Plaines River for songbirds and then hit the lakefront. This time, however, I decided to start at Waukegan. The thing about Waukegan is that if you're not the first person there, the birds often flush and sometimes are not seen again. I was determined to get there first, so Nat and I were there ready to go at 6am.....and we STILL weren't first. People were there before sunrise for cryin' out loud. We didn't miss anything, though, and had nice looks at an adult BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER as we walked down the beach.

                                      (all photos in this blog post courtesy of Nat Carmichael)

 Also had some SANDERLINGS and a SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER but no Ruddy Turnstone or Red Knot. Walking the beach takes time, though, so we were pushing to get to the pines and check for songbirds. As we were walking back to the parking lot a pair of BREWER'S BLACKBIRDS flew by us given away by the all black male and gray female combination. Nice bird. In the pines the best birds were a group of juvenile BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS foraging on the lawn and our only dirty bird of the day, a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH which Nat saw but would not show its face for me. There were warblers in the air but the only one we could ID in a tree was a BLACKPOLL.

  We headed to IBSP South next which was the most time-consuming stop of the day other than Rollins. We were at the South Unit for close to 2 hours. We checked 3 places along the beach for Buffies but were shut out. We had a nice pocket of warblers, though, along with multiple SWAINSON'S THRUSHES and a VEERY. We definitely had lots of nice birds but the loss of time hurt us in the end. Other highlights:

Best warbler spots: IBSP South and the south ravine at Ft. Sheridan. We ended with 12 sp. of warblers. The best being the aforementioned Orange-crowned at Lyons Woods. Lyons also gave us a nice BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO.

Best Shorebird/waterbird spot: Rollins as usual, though we got PIED-BILLED GREBE at Almond Marsh. Here's a few shots from Rollins:

                                  Female Northern Pintail and juvenile Short-billed Dowitcher

                                  2 Stilt Sandpipers (bottom birds) with Lesser Yellowlegs

                                  Lesser Yellowlegs with Baird's Sandpiper

                                 Great Egrets, Great Blue Heron, and Northern Shoveler

Most People- COLSP and Fairmont Shores. The goldfinch trail literally had a person come by every 30 seconds to a minute for the first 5 minutes we were on the trail. OK that's an exaggeration, but it SEEMED like it was that many. We got the LAST parking spot at Fairmont Shores to check for Bald Eagle, which we whiffed on, but I've never seen that place crowded on a Sunday night before, though I guess Monday being Labor Day would make a difference. Here's a couple of nice shots from COLSP.

                                                   Not-so-Common Nighthawk

                                                                       Osprey

Unleashed dogs- only 2. both at Ft. Sheridan. We had good luck with dogs.

Constant Companions: American Goldfinches. They were everywhere and in most spots were the only vocalizing birds. Cedar Waxwings were a close second.

Wader Heaven- At Almond Marsh, we had all 4 waders, which isn't big news, but it's still cool. Here's a nice Black-crown shot:

  Unfortunately, the big misses were glaring:

Rock Pigeon, Chipping Sparrow, Dickcissel, Purple Martin, Brown Thrasher, Horned Lark, Barred Owl, Solitary Sandpiper, Bald Eagle, Cooper's Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, Scarlet Tanager, Yellow-throated Vireo, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Henslow's Sparrow, Hooded Merganser, Sedge Wren, Eastern Meadowlark, Common Grackle........yikes.

 But it was great to be out birding with Nat, the weather was fantastic for a change, and the warblers are back. We finished with 105 sp. which was 6 better than last year, so I reached goal #1. All is good with the world.

  See you in September!

Here's the List:

105 species

Canada Goose  1
Mute Swan  1
Wood Duck  1
Gadwall  1
Mallard  1
Blue-winged Teal  1
Northern Shoveler  1
Northern Pintail  1
Green-winged Teal  1
Wild Turkey  1
Pied-billed Grebe  1
Double-crested Cormorant  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  1
Green Heron  1
Black-crowned Night-Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Osprey  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Virginia Rail  1
Sora  1
Sandhill Crane  1
Black-bellied Plover  1
Semipalmated Plover  1
Killdeer  1
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Lesser Yellowlegs  1
Stilt Sandpiper  1
Sanderling  1
Baird's Sandpiper  1
Least Sandpiper  1
Pectoral Sandpiper  1
Semipalmated Sandpiper  1
Short-billed Dowitcher  1
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  1
Caspian Tern  1
Mourning Dove  1
Black-billed Cuckoo  1
Eastern Screech-Owl  1
Great Horned Owl  1
Common Nighthawk  1
Eastern Whip-poor-will  1
Chimney Swift  1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1
Red-headed Woodpecker  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Downy Woodpecker  1
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  1
American Kestrel  1
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1
Willow Flycatcher  1
Least Flycatcher  1
Eastern Phoebe  1
Eastern Kingbird  1
Warbling Vireo  1
Philadelphia Vireo  1
Red-eyed Vireo  1
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  1
Tree Swallow  1
Bank Swallow  1
Barn Swallow  1
Cliff Swallow  1
Black-capped Chickadee  1
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
House Wren  1
Marsh Wren  1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1
Eastern Bluebird  1
Veery  1
Swainson's Thrush  1
American Robin  1
Gray Catbird  1
European Starling  1
Cedar Waxwing  1
Black-and-white Warbler  1
Tennessee Warbler  1
Orange-crowned Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  1
American Redstart  1
Magnolia Warbler  1
Blackburnian Warbler  1
Chestnut-sided Warbler  1
Blackpoll Warbler  1
Palm Warbler  1
Black-throated Green Warbler  1
Wilson's Warbler  1
Eastern Towhee  1
Field Sparrow  1
Savannah Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  1
Swamp Sparrow  1
Northern Cardinal  1
Indigo Bunting  1
Bobolink  1
Red-winged Blackbird  1
Brewer's Blackbird  1
Brown-headed Cowbird  1
Baltimore Oriole  1
House Finch  1
American Goldfinch  1
House Sparrow  1