Yesterday we joined another area bird club on a field trip. The Kane County Audubon Roadside Birding outing started at Peck Farm in Geneva. There we picked up a passenger, who just happened to be club president Bob Adrini. Since we hadn’t been birding in Kane County before, it was great to learn about the area specialties and birding spots from Bob. The conversation was engaging even though the birds didn’t cooperate. Our targets for the day were Snow Buntings, Lapland Longspurs and Horned Larks. We only got the larks.
We saw the larks in the parking lot of a grain mill. In the back of the mill’s lot there was a huge pile of corn. A large group of Rock Pigeons and Brown-headed Cowbirds congregated on the ground next to the pile, but these two Mourning Doves went right to the source.
Though we did see quite a few roadside Red-tailed Hawks during the drive, it wasn’t until the end of the day that we saw a pair, perched in a tree close to the parking lot where our journey began. In the same field we saw our first Northern Harrier of the day. Despite the bad luck with the birds, the miserable weather and frigid temperatures, we had a good birding day. Many thanks to Bob for the conversation!
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