End of March Highlights

March has been the month that it has really begun to hit home that I'm not doing another Big Year in Illinois this year. I've been birding only a fraction of the times I got out last March, and I've covered way less ground. Spring Break, which was two weeks (though it feels like an eternity!) ago, was really slow bird wise, quite different from the huge strides I made during the same week last year.

As the month rolled along, I finally was able to clean up Long-tailed Duck for the year with this cooperative bird at Monroe Harbor.

Long-tailed Duck

Monroe Harbor, Cook Co, IL

March 20, 2015

Besides the quick outing to get that guy, I had hardly been out in the past two and half weeks. So, when I saw that this weekend provided a brief window between busy seasons, I began making plans. Jen's out of town for her Spring Break. My weekend began with a retreat for my Comprehensive Exams for my current grad degree. Tomorrow morning begins the wild ride of finishing up my final project for the degree, along with final papers for my current classes - all of which will be getting done in the next three and half weeksish. So, in the quick day and a half between the retreat ending and life getting back to its busy self, I took some "me time" as a way of decompressing and getting rejuvenated. A nice solo birding trip to central Illinois and back was in order.

The retreat wrapped up at 1 on Saturday afternoon, and by 2:15 I was pulling up to the Des Plaines Conservation Area in Will County. With the overall dearth of birding in my life lately, I had accumulated a pretty significant list of easy-to-get year birds. The first time I got the scope out, my year list instantaneously took a bump of three birds: American Wigeon, Blue-winged Teal, and a singing Eastern Phoebe. Felt nice.

I then made my way to the River Rd. bridge to take a stab at the Red-necked Grebe that had been there earlier in the week. I figured it was pretty unlikely for it have stayed this long, but within moments of beginning to scan, I spotted it out in the river! A very nice bird to kickstart the trip.

Red-Necked and Horned Grebe

Des Plaines Conservation Area, Will Co, IL

March 28, 2015

Red-Necked Grebe

Des Plaines Conservation Area, Will Co, IL

March 28, 2015

From there I booked it down to Bloomington, where I picked up a couple county ticks among the nice assortment of waterfowl at White Oak Park. The main destination for the day was Springfield, so I needed to keep moving if I was going to get there with enough light to see anything.

I pulled up to Lake Springfield with a little less than an hour worth of sunlight left, so the birding was quick as I made my way around the lake. From Center Park I pulled in my first Common Loons and Bonaparte's Gulls of the year, just as I had done at the end of March in 2014, interestingly enough. The waterfowl diversity on the lake was outstanding, and I wished I could have had an extra hour or two to pick through it. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable evening of counting ducks with the backdrop of a lazily setting sun. As I got back to my car at the last stop, an Eastern Towhee was calling from a nearby bush, securing my seventh year bird of the day. Not bad!

Sunday, March 29.

I was up early this morning, leaving Springfield well before sunrise, Starbucks in hand. The first year bird of the day came from a singing Eastern Meadowlark as I drove the backroads around Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary. Between last evening and this morning, I added ten new county ticks for Sangamon. I also found this little guy:

"Oregon" Dark-eyed Junco

Sangamon Co, IL

March 29, 2015

I stayed on backroads as I crossed from Sangamon to Morgan County. The Dredging Ponds near Jacksonville were really the main destination of the whole trip. I arrived there at 7:45 am, greeted by a steady breeze around 20mph, and wind chills in the low 20s, quickly reminding me why cold "Spring" days take more of a toll on me than the bitter cold Winter days we learn to grow accustomed to. These were not the conditions I had wanted, but the birding still turned out to be great. The waterfowl numbers were a small fraction of what had been reported earlier in the week, but the diversity was still decent. My first Tree Swallows of the year flew by overhead, and my first Savannah Sparrow flushed while I walked around. In the same little patch, American Tree Sparrows declared that Winter was still hanging on, while Savannahs pleaded their case for the hope of Spring. The former were far more convincing.

I was getting frustrated by the cold, and the fact that I wasn't finding my target bird. Before turning to head back to the car, I decided to hike across a portion of a grassy area I hadn't yet checked out. As I approached, I heard that distinctive rattle I had been waiting for. A group of birds bustled on the ground nearby, though the first one to take flight wasn't what I was expecting - an American Pipit.

American Pipit

Dredging Ponds, Morgan Co, IL

March 29

Ok, back to the rattles. It didn't take too long before I had a flock of 35 Smith's Longspurs scurrying and flying and rattling all around me. Having only ever seen three quick flybys before today, this moment was quite surreal for me. I managed my first ever pics of this species, even pulling off a couple decent flight shots. But the highlight of the whole experience was getting to view a few individuals on the ground through the scope at close range. These were the looks I had been hoping for, though that's not at all the kind of thing you can count on. Success!

Smith's Longspurs

Dredging Ponds, Morgan Co, IL

March 29

By the end of the morning, I had picked up 15 county ticks in Morgan altogether. Then it was on to Mason and Fulton to check out Chautauqua and Emiquon. I didn't have anything out of the ordinary, though the blackbird flocks ended up producing a hefty number of Rusties (one flock was actually dominated by them) and a single Brewer's in Mason. And, any shorebird other than a Killdeer is always an encouraging sight, as was the case with the Pectorals I had at Emiquon. I've made enough trips down to this area by now, so picking up county birds is a little tougher, but I still was able to add a handful in both and inadvertently ended on a couple round numbers: Fulton 170, Mason 180.

Rusty Blackbirds

Mason Co, IL

March 29, 2015

I kept moving pretty quickly, hoping to be able to get back in time to catch part of the Gonzaga game (which they ended up losing, oh well). But thankfully I slowed down long enough to check IBET before leaving Emiquon, because the bird that had been in the back of my mind the whole weekend had showed up at Evergreen Lake. This was directly on the way home, and thanks to Matthew Winks helping me out with the location, I was able to drive right up to the striking bird, almost in full breeding plumage!

Eared Grebe

Evergreen Lake, McLean Co, IL

March 29, 2015

What a great way to end this productive whirlwind of a trip! I was hoping for 10-15 year birds, and I wound up tallying 17 altogether. And somehow, at 132, I'm only ten behind my pace from last year.

Now, it's back to a few weeks of long days strung one after another. I'll be more than ready to resurface in April once the work is done. I'm glad I was able to take this weekend as a sort of deep breath before the plunge.

Trip total: 83

ABA 2015: 150
Illinois 2015: 132

Another Wintery Weekend

By the time Friday morning rolled around, I was ready for some time spent off campus and breathing in some fresh air. That's basically the case at the end of every week, but it was particularly true this week for various reasons. And, after temps had been generally warmer in the preceding days, I was hoping for a pleasant day out birding.

As luck would have it, the temps fell again and I woke up to wind chills in the -20s, which understandably gave me a little slower start to the day. I eventually made it to the Calumet River, where the best birds were the 17 White-winged Scoters. I was hoping for a couple other winter waterfowl for my year list, but instead my day quickly turned into a White-winged Scoter survey. Here's 13 of them flying off.

White-winged Scoters

Bend of the Calumet River, Cook Co, IL

February 27, 2015

I continued my solid streak of striking out on decent gulls at 126th St. Marsh, and only had a couple Herrings at the Deadstick Pond overlook. The river was completely iced over and no barges had come through recently to break things up. The most interesting bird in the area was this Red-tailed Hawk with a dark breast band, sharp looking bird.

Red-tailed Hawk

Calumet Area, Cook Co, IL

February 27, 2015

I made it to Calumet Park, the plan being to work my way north and scour the lakefront for some decent waterfowl. That's harder to do when most of the lake looks like this:

Calumet Park, Cook Co, IL

February 27, 2015

Most of the day from that point on consisted of diving ducks in little pockets of water here and ther, Greater Scaup and White-winged Scoters being most prominent.

Greater Scaup and White-winged Scoters

Park #523, Cook Co, IL

February 27, 2015

My only year bird of the day came from Park #523. While picking through White-crowned and American Tree Sparrows, I heard the sweet call notes of Snow Buntings, then looked up to see two birds with white bellies and bright white wing patches dive behind one of the large cement walls at the park. Snow Buntings are less regular along the lakefront at this time of year, so that was a nice surprise!

The situation at Jackson Park was similar, with the only open water still at scoping distance. This White-winged Scoter was sitting on the ice in the harbor. An adult Thayer's Gull was present out on the ice. Singing cardinals and chickadees made for the slightest glimmer of hope, a mild hint of warmer days still to come.

White-winged Scoter

Jackson Park Harbor, Cook Co, IL

February 27, 2015

I made the precarious walk out the iced over pier (falling only once), where scoping yielded more of the same, plus a first cycle Great Black-backed Gull. You know you're a birder when these conditions, with a biting wind off the lake, don't slow you down. If nothing else, winter birding in Chicago has toughened me up a bit, and I'm the better for it!

63rd St. Beach, Cook Co, IL

February 27, 2015

My biggest mistake of the day came when I scoped from 39th St., then chose not to try again from 31st, where a Red-throated Loon was later reported. Oops.

Belmont Harbor was completely iced over as well, with yet another White-winged Scoter resting nearby on the ice, this time a nice adult male.

White-winged Scoter

Belmont Harbor, Cook Co, IL

February 27, 2015

It was more of the same as I rounded out my day at Montrose. I wound up with 42 species on the day, which wasn't too shabby. My White-winged Scoter tally rose to 72, and this third cycle Great Black-backed was a nice sight too.

Great Black-backed Gull

Montrose, Cook Co, IL

February 27, 2015

Greater Scaup

Montrose, Cook Co, IL

February 27, 2015

Saturday rounded out the coldest February that Chicago had seen in 140 years, which is really wild to me especially after last year! I had a quick window for birding after I dropped Jen off in Geneva to do some shopping. I was hoping for Snow Buntings along Seavey Road, but came up empty. The nice looks at Lapland Longspurs along the road provided a nice consolation though.

Lapland Longspur

Seavey Rd, Kane Co, IL

February 28, 2015

Sunday afternoon it was back to the buddy list. Andrew and I had a couple targets. Unfortunately the Barrow's Goldeneye didn't cooperate, even though it had been seen consistently for a while, including the previous day. That was a bummer, but the second part of our search was successful:

Long-eared Owl

March 1, 2015

This makes nine buddy list birds for us already this year and puts us in good shape to make a run at 300 in the next couple of months.

And now we're on to March. I'm trying to steel myself for the long, slow arrival of Spring.

ABA 2015: 143
Illinois 2015: 103
Andrew + Joshua Buddy List: 283

Barrow's and Bohemian!

Northeast Illinois provided yet another excellent stretch of birding this weekend. If you're going to have to endure a solid week of wind chills below zero, it's nice to at least have the consolation of some high quality birds along the way.

Friday morning found me making the trek up to Lake County in hopes of finding some good gulls. Jen and I were in Tennessee last weekend, which kept me from the Gull Frolic. In my mind, a week of frigid temperatures meant I had a good shot at getting my targets, but instead I arrived at North Point Marina to find the harbor completely frozen over, with only a small handful of gulls too far to identify out on the ice. With winds howling insufferably off the crusty lake, I was thoroughly unenthused and decided to keep moving.

With the shore being so socked in with ice, I thought the fairgrounds may be a good bet. On the way there, I saw a couple Herring Gulls flying over, then followed their trail to a flock of over 100 gulls circling above. I pulled over to assess the situation, and found that a large group of gulls was roosting on top of the Kiefer retail building. The viewing was a little difficult because there was no angle where the roosting birds could actually be seen, but they were an active bunch, and within the first few minutes I had an adult Thayer's, a crisp first cycle Lesser Black-backed, and a stunning first cycle Iceland Gull give good views in flight. It was a totally random find, and quite efficient as the latter two were year birds for me. I should have stayed and chummed longer to see what I could bring in, because my eagerness to get to the fairgrounds was unfounded. They were completely empty.

The continuing winds made me reluctant to spend much time birding outside, so I decided to head back to Kane County. My first stop was the bridge in West Dundee, where the continuing Barrow's Goldeneye was quite conspicuous and easy to pick out.

Barrow's Goldeneye

West Dundee, Kane Co, IL

February 20, 2015

The uncooperative weather persisted, so I called it a day, thinking my birding for the weekend was over.

Then Saturday came, and a handful of great birds showed up in Chicago, with a Bohemian Waxwing topping the list of excitement. Jen decided she was up for coming with me, so we made an afternoon of it. Along Lake Shore Drive, my first Merlin of the year flew by, and shortly after we were at Jackson Park. The bird couldn't have been much easier. Andrew arrived just as I was getting there, and after talking for a minute, the bird flew directly over our heads and landed in the top of a nearby tree. An amazing state lifer (318) and buddy list (282) bird, and a ridiculously easy one at that! It's bizarre that the bird has actually been here a week, and that it is completely solitary.

Bohemian Waxwing

Jackson Park, Cook Co, IL

February 21, 2015

I made it back up to Belmont Harbor right around dusk and was happy to find that the Black Scoters Fran reported earlier in the day were still there, along with a couple White-wings. Getting a close scope view of a male Black Scoter is always a treat! It seems like the winter waterfowl is really beginning to get good, so it'll be interesting to see what turns up in the coming weeks.

White-winged Scoter

Belmont Harbor, Cook Co, IL

February 21, 2015

Black Scoters

Belmont Harbor, Cook Co, IL

February 21, 2015

White-winged and Black Scoters

Belmont Harbor, Cook Co, IL

February 21, 2015

We rounded out the day by joining the lively Birds and Beers crew for a really enjoyable evening of talking about all measure of bird nerdyness.

This recent flurry of birds has me over 100 species for the year in Illinois:

Illinois: 101

ABA: 141

Fantastic Day of Winter Birding in Chicago

Winter birding in Chicago is not for the faint of heart. Especially right after a week with 20+ inches of snow. You have to really want to see some birds, and you have to be willing push through a bit of the discomfort that comes with the task.

Yesterday morning I picked up Andrew just before sunrise and we made our way to southern Cook County to poke around for a while. The cloudy skies left dawn to feel more like the gradual lightening of a room with a dimmer switch. Lake Shore Drive wasn't too busy, but what it lacked in traffic it made up for a in flying chunks of snow and ice detaching themselves from cars that had clearly just been unburied for the first time since Chicago's fifth largest snow storm this past weekend.

Me: "Are we in Chicago or Anchorage?"

***nails cavernous pothole the size of Texas***

Andrew: "Chicago."

On we clunked, dodging flying objects above and trying to find the road below among the endless strings of potholes.

Our first stop was the bend of the Little Calumet River, where it quickly became apparent that we were the first ones to visit this area since the big snow fall. We cleared out a couple spots in the knee deep snow and settled in with our scopes to scour the waterfowl. There were impressive numbers of all the expected ducks, plus two male Northern Pintail - my first county tick of the day!

We worked our way through the Calumet area and around to Wolf Lake. On the way Andrew asked if I had Red-shouldered Hawk for Cook County. About five seconds after I had answered "No," he spotted a small buteo in a tree along the roadside right at the south entrance to Wolf Lake. I made a u-turn, and the cooperative bird gave us fantastic views. Observing it for a couple minutes confirmed that it was indeed an immature Red-shouldered Hawk! At a couple points it ruffled its feathers, showing the dark barring on the tail to be thicker than the light. And if you look closely, you can see the subtle barring on the breast already beginning to come in on the right side of the bird. When the wind would pick up, the feathers would blow away from the hawk's body, revealing all the barring to be located on just two feathers. It's definitely just on its way to becoming a snappy adult, and it was a lot of fun to get to see in this unique stage!

And it was my second county lifer already for the day!

Red-shouldered Hawk

Wolf Lake, Cook Co, IL

February 6, 2015

We pulled into Wolf Lake and scanned along the railroad tracks, where Andrew quickly picked out the Snowy Owl that's been hanging around recently, sitting on the corner of this wooden thing.

Snowy Owl

Wolf Lake, Cook Co, IL

February 6, 2015

The feeders had a nice group of Monk Parakeets, which are always enjoyable to watch, especially at eye level like this:

Monk Parakeets

Wolf Lake, Cook Co, IL

February 6, 2015

Our primary target here was the flock of redpolls that had been seen consistently throughout the winter - we still needed them for our buddy list and I needed it for the year. They've been working a section of alders along the shore of the lake, which is usually not too difficult to get to. But 20+ inches of snow changes things a little bit. The road down to the nearest parking area wasn't plowed, so we parked a little further back and began the trek.

Again the snow was knee deep, and forging our own path quickly presented itself as our only option for getting to these birds. We had just been remarking about how crazy ice fishing is (as there were some out on the lake doing this very thing at the moment), how walking out on a frozen lake just didn't seem worth it. But, seeing as how the snow on the iced-over lake was only a couple inches deep, it soon became the easier way to travel, so we forsook land and became as crazy as the ones we had just been making fun of.

Before long, we had made it to the patch of alders where the redpolls had been seen, and it didn't take much time at all to locate the flock.

Common Redpoll

Wolf Lake, Cook Co, IL

February 6, 2015

A couple minutes into watching the group of 13 feeding in the trees above us, we had the following interaction:

Andrew: "Hey, there's a bird on the left side of the tree, out towards the end of the branch, that's, umm..."

Me: "A little lighter?"

Andrew: "Yeah."

We had been independently studying the same bird unbeknownst to each other. The bird preferred to stay on the backside of the alder initially, but when it would pop out, the undertail coverts stood out as being stark white and unmarked, which always raises a red flag when you're watching redpolls.

Could it be a Hoary Redpoll?

And all of a sudden we had an ID dilemma - a potentially a very good bird - on our hands. We were struggling to get better views of it, but then the flock moved trees and began feeding at a much more viewable height. As we watched carefully and snapped pictures, the following traits became apparent:

Very faint streaking on the flanks (compare with Common above):

The bird was stingy when it came to giving clear rump looks, but I did get a couple pics from a few different angles, all of which looked pretty clear white (bird on right in first shot):

I think the matter becomes a little clearer when you compare these shots with this one of a standard, heavily streaked rump that I captured on one of the Commons:

The frosty edging on the primaries:

And, though it can really only be used as a supporting piece of evidence, never a standalone proof, the bill was stubby and noticeably shorter than the others:

All these features point to a first year Hoary Redpoll of the exilipes subspecies. Our bird was basically identical to the bottom left bird under this subspecies at this link: http://www.jeaniron.ca/2015/redpollsRP.htm. Both the Commons and the Hoary were buddy list birds for us, bringing us up to 281. And these were the third and fourth species in Illinois that I didn't get last year.

With the momentum in our favor, we headed back to cover a couple different parts of the river to try to find some gulls. The only highlight at 126th St. Marsh was the pair of resident Peregrine Falcons. The overlook at the end of Deadstick Pond looked promising as we could see a flock of gulls circling after a barge passed through. But once again, we faced an unplowed road and a hike through knee deep snow to get where we wanted to go. And even then viewing conditions included scoping from awkward angles, looking through a combo of bushes and chain link fences, and of course remaining submerged in snow banks. At least identifying gulls is easy, right? Oh wait.

It was all Herrings and Ring-bills for a while, until I repositioned and got on a first cycle bird that piqued my attention. The lighter primaries with pale edging plus the frosty scapulars confirmed it as a Thayer's Gull, which was my third county lifer of the day! Through the chain link fence I was only able to manage one decent digiscoped shot. Funny how the angle and posture make it look larger than the Herring in the foreground.

Thayer's Gull

Deadstick Pond Overlook, Cook Co, IL

February 6, 2015

All that, and it was only 10:30 am. This was remarkably efficient, especially for us. So we took our last couple available hours and worked our way north along the lakefront, which was pretty quiet with the exception of 63rd St. Beach at Jackson Park. While there we picked up an adult Glaucous Gull out on the ice, plus two adults and a first cycle Great Black-backed Gull. Andrew also picked out an adult male White-winged Scoter south of the park.

The birds dwindled again as we moved north, though we wound up with a total of three White-winged Scoters, including this female at Burnham Park:

White-winged Scoter

Burnham Park, Cook Co, IL

February 6, 2015

Our day ended with checking the feeders at North Pond, where a male "Cassiar" and female "Oregon" Dark-eyed Junco were the highlights.

"Cassiar" Dark-eyed Junco

North Pond, Cook Co, IL

February 6, 2015

"Oregon" (front) and "Cassiar" Dark-eyed Juncos

North Pond, Cook Co, IL

February 6, 2015

After sorting through the subtleties distinguishing between the two redpoll species earlier, it seemed ironic to end the day with three very distinct kinds of juncos that only count as one species.

It comes with its difficulties, but if you're willing to tough it out, Chicago has some fantastic birds to yield in the winter. For me, it's just a reminder that, if you approach the weather like it's some cruel force you simply have to endure until Spring, you'll miss out on the beauty still inherent in it. But if you stay positive and like a little adventure here and there, there's always something worth seeing out there!

With this being my first time actually getting out in northeast Illinois this year, 21 of our 47 species were state year birds for me.

Illinois 2015: 92
ABA 2015: 126
Cook County Life List: 236