This morning we went birding at Glacial Park in McHenry County.
We do most of our MOON survey around the park but until today we had only really seen it in the dark. Glacial Park has a variety of habitats, including marshland, bog, forest, meadow and kame.
Kames are irregularly shaped hills or mounds formed by retreating glaciers. The path we walked near the center of the park was quite hilly and we were surprised to see a few people jogging on the up-and-down path. We got winded just walking it!
We saw a total of 33 species. This was the first time we kept track of all species we saw on a birding outing (holiday birding lists excluded) and I have to say, it was kind of fun. Next time we visit Glacial Park we’ll see if we can beat our “record” of 33 birds seen there. Here are some of our favorites.
Mrs. Bluebird with a bug
Lifer Eastern Kingbird
Our top bird of the day was a pair of – wait, can you guess from the photo?
In March we visited Chain O’ Lakes State Park and walked the Badger Trail. The area had recently been subjected to a controlled burn and we could really notice the Robins in particular were lovin’ it.
Earlier this month we walked the Badger Trail again. What a difference!
Everything was so green! The trees are still a bit bare, but the ground was lush with fresh vegetation covering the ground. Ground that was black from burning just six weeks ago.
Another difference we noticed: instead of Bluebirds on the Bluebird houses, there were Tree Swallows.
During our March visit, we saw at least three pairs of Bluebirds on the houses. On our walk last week, we saw only saw two individual Bluebirds, and they were sitting on tree branches and not near any of the houses. The houses all appeared to be occupied by swallows. Here’s the female Bluebird we saw. At least she found a nice branch upon which to perch.
We also saw this group of five Sandhill Cranes. I always love seeing these guys.
I saw a bird perched on the hummingbird feeder close to the house this morning. It took my just-woken-up brain a moment to process what I was seeing and then I let out a huge GASP which scared Arthur and Arby both. A Baltimore Oriole! He flew back to the jelly feeder after a moment.
He knew just what to do. Yum! Enjoy, Mr. Yard Bird #18. Now go find a lady friend to bring over!
Sibley says these are uncommon in eastern North America. Don’t tell these guys. I saw this gang of four White-crowned Sparrows in my parent’s back yard last week.
We even have a couple up here in our yard in Round Lake Beach. Check out the straddle action on this guy!
Lots of sparrows are difficult to identify (I’m looking at you, Vesper and Grasshopper. Or maybe I mean you, Lincoln’s and Savannah! Actually I have no idea, I can’t tell you guys apart. But I’m looking at you!). But White-crowned Sparrows are easy. Not to mention cute.
For more bird photos, be sure to check out the submissions at this week’s Bird Photography Weekly.
We went out this morning with the Lake-Cook Chapter of the Illinois Audubon Society to two Lake County Forest Preserves: Daniel Wright Woods and Ryerson Woods. For a group hoping for a warbler fallout, the excursion was a bit short on warblers but heavy on flycatchers (5 species). It was a great morning out with about 28 other birders and 57 different species seen by the group.
We started at Daniel Wright at 7:00am.
The trees were full of birds.
I swear, they were! What else would these people be looking at? (Can’t tell they are birders, can you?)
I didn’t have a prayer to photograph most of the birds we saw today. You know how warblers are.
We saw this Olive-sided Flycatcher (the one that says “quick, three beers!”) working over a bug, maybe a bee.
We also spotted a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher nest and two adults foraging on a picnic table. We got very nice looks but I only managed these butt shots.
All during the morning our large group had to clear the path for runners, walkers, and bikers. We would shout out “bikers!” or “runners!” to warn the rest of the our group of birders to clear the way. At one point during the walk, our group split up a bit and the part of the group that had walked ahead spotted a Black-throated Blue Warbler – a great find. When the birders in the second group heard what we had, well, we had to shout out “running birders!” because they really hustled over to get on the bird. 🙂 Here’s part of our group working on their warbler necks.
Another interesting find for the day was this unusually-plumaged Indigo Bunting singing his heart out. He is probably young as he is rather dull and does not sport the bright blue feathers typical of this species.
The group was lead by Mike Trahan and I thought he was another outstanding leader. He, along with fellow members of Lake-Cook Audubon, made sure everyone got looks at all of the birds.
On April 29th, on our way from Chicagoland to Niagara Falls, we stopped at The Pinery Provincial Park in Ontario. It was a huge and beautiful park and I was so sorry we did not have time to explore. We kept our visit very short but were able to walk the .8 km Pine Trail before hitting the highway once more.
The trail lived up to its name. Beautiful tall pine trees reached up to the bright blue sky.
Not all trees were green yet, though. It probably won’t be too long now though, I imagine, before these are also full of leaves soaking in the sun.
The last part of the trail was flooded. We walked around the water and headed back to the car. The refreshing walk was a welcome break between many hours of highway driving.
Be sure to visit Skywatch Friday to see the other stories of the sky submitted for this week.
There are at least two birds in this photo. Can you see them?
Does this help?
Two Red-headed Woodpeckers!
