After Aaron Gyllenhall's report of both Plegadis species at Emiquon, Nathan Goldberg and I made plans to take a trip down there. Nathan still needed any ibis species for Illinois, and I was really hoping to add Glossy to my year and state list. So I picked him up early on the morning of June 9th. We arrived at Emiquon a little before 9, parked along Prairie Rd, and began walking the main road that borders the marsh north of the visitor's center. In less that five minutes I saw a dark wader, got the scope on it, and announced to Nathan that I had his first state ibis. He came and took a look, and upon further inspection determined that it was the Glossy. I got back on it and sure enough, the blue facial skin outlined partially with a white border meant we had a Glossy Ibis. As we enjoyed this bird, several White-faced began emerging from the reeds around it.
We decided to go down to the visitor's center parking lot to see if we could get better looks. Al Stokie and Andy Sigler pulled up right as we got there, and the four of us went looking for them. Apparently we were closer than we thought, because the birds spooked pretty quickly. They gave us nice views in flight, though my pics didn't turn out too well.
Glossy Ibis
Emiquon NWR, Fulton Co, IL
June 9, 2014
The Glossy is the bird on top in the next two photos, and the left bird in the third.
Glossy Ibis and White-faced Ibis
Emiquon NWR, Fulton Co, IL
June 9, 2014
While talking with Andy, he spotted a Least Bittern flying by, shortly followed by a Black-crowned Night Heron.
Black-crowned Night Heron
Emiquon NWR, Fulton Co, IL
June 9, 2014
From there, Nathan and I went on a little misadventure to find the Brown County Bewick's Wren. We arrived in the middle of the day and found very little activity, and no wren. It was helpful for me to learn the location though, and we got a lot of fun county listing in along the way.
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