Two surprise lifers

Common Loons have been reported on several lakes in Lake County (where we live) and nearby Cook County. We made a lame attempt at getting loons late last week but were skunked. The lakes we tried, where birds were reported, are very difficult to access as they are surrounded by private homes.

American White Pelicans have also been reported in the last few days, and today a report came in on a sighting that was almost too good to be true: pelicans and loons on a lake about 10 minutes from our house – with a detailed description on how to access a viewing area. We grabbed our scope and headed out minutes after reading the report.

The birds were sighted on Fox Lake, and could be seen from the parking lot of Mineola Marina, a restaurant and marina facility on the southeast side of the lake.

We arrived at the parking lot under heavy rain. We scanned the water for birds and could see three loons and several pelicans, all very far away, with the naked eye. You might be able to make out a few white spots – pelicans – in this one (click to view full size).

Fox Lake from Mineola Bay

Before getting the scope, we took photos of the closest loon. This is the best photo and a short video. You can hear the rain coming down in the video. The sound like thunder is actually wind – no thunder or lightening here today.

loonamy

The loons were very hard to photograph or get in the scope as they were constantly diving. Well, that is what they do.

We also took a few photos of the pelicans. They were a bit more slow-moving. In the second photo you can see the fibrous plates on their upper bills, which are grown during breeding season. The plates are shed after the eggs are laid. Pretty wild, huh?

American White Pelicans on Fox Lake

American White Pelicans on Fox Lake

Next we brought out the scope to get better looks.

Looking through the scope in the rain

We tried our hand at digiscoping but it didn’t go too well. We’ve ordered a universal adapter to attach our camera to the scope, but it’s on backorder.

American White Pelican, badly digiscoped

That’s okay, I’m still getting used to handling the scope and tripod on their own. I still reach down towards the tripod when I want to move the scope laterally – the knob for that is much higher up, on the head. D’oh!

The weather couldn’t have been more miserable – the pileup of snow we got on Sunday was melting, making the ground soft and muddy. The sky was a dark grey curtain spilling down a constant stream of rain. True duck weather. But you know what they say – the weather’s always perfect for birding! Especially when there’s a prospect for lifers involved. Both of these were new birds for us!

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2 new yardies

We’ve seen European Starlings in the trees around our house almost since we moved in, but I didn’t really want to count them as a yard bird until I had a photo. I didn’t think that would be too hard, but how wrong I was. Last week was the first time we spotted one on our feeders. I’ve always known Starlings to be bold and gregarious, but the ones in our neighborhood seem to be skittish and wary. This Starling visited our feeders very early one morning when it was still nearly dark out. The photo was taken by our birding robot, the Wingscapes Birdcam. I had to brighten up the image a lot so you could tell what kind of bird it is – yard bird #14, the exotic, endangered European Starling! 😉

European Starling

The Birdcam found yard bird #15, too. It would be several days before we saw this one for ourselves – the American Tree Sparrow.

American Tree Sparrow

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Chattanooga Cowbirds

Last November we took a short road trip down to Tennessee and the Carolinas. While in Chattanooga we saw this huge flock of Brown-headed Cowbirds feeding along the road.

Cowbirds in Chattanooga

Cowbirds in Chattanooga

Cowbirds have recently returned to our area. We’ve even seen them in our yard!

Brown-headed Cowbirds

I wonder if any of our Cowbirds are the same ones we saw in Chattanooga…?

Cowbirds in Chattanooga/span>

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Are you participating in Earth Hour?

Today is Earth Hour. Earth Hour is a worldwide initiative from the World Wildlife Fund to encourage participants to turn off their lights for one hour, at 8:30pm local time. The purpose is to show support for action on climate change. You can learn more about the initiative by reading the Earth Hour FAQs. Remember to turn your lights off at 8:30pm!

earthhour

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Robins love controlled burn

We visited Chain O’Lakes State Park on Saturday and walked the short Badger Trail on the north side of the park.

Chain O'Lakes State Park

The grass around this loop trail was recently burned and the scorched ground was bustling with recently-arrived American Robins.

Robin on burnt ground

Robins were everywhere – singing in the trailside trees, hopping along the ground and feeding like crazy on the dirt.

Controlled Burn

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New to the yard list

We’re up to 12 birds on the yard list. I’ve seen American Robins playing in the yard for the last week or so. They mostly hang around the fences – I don’t see them scurrying on the grass too often.

American Robin

I was really surprised to see a Downy Woodpecker in the tree behind the yard the other day. He had a look at our suet feeder but didn’t stay on it. He did, however, go to town pecking at the tree. Check out the video below.

Downy Woodpecker

I almost had a heart attack when I looked out the window last week to see three American Goldfinches on the nyger sock. That sock has been out there – untouched! – since we moved in. They stayed on the sock for about 10 minutes before taking off.

Goldfinches on Nyger Sock

Any guesses what lucky #13 will be?

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Early Spring Migrants

On Sunday morning we had the extreme pleasure to join experienced birder Jim Solum for the Early Spring Migrants program by the Lake County Forest Preserve District. To our surprise, we were the only participants, which meant that we had a private birding guide for the morning – awesome!

We met Jim at Spring Bluff Forest Preserve where we walked down a closed service road to look for birds. Right away we saw Northern Shoveler and Blue-winged Teal in the water through Jim’s scope. Soon an Eastern Meadowlark landed in a nearby tree for great looks. Song Sparrows were back and everywhere. During our walk (also by the lake at North Point Marina) we had Common Snipe, Wood Ducks, Northern Pintail and several Sandhill Cranes flying over.

Since we’re new to the area (sort of – I wasn’t really birding much before I moved to Holland) it was great to be able to ask Jim some basic questions – like when certain migrants can be expected to return, where we can see birds like Yellow-headed Blackbirds, and do Common Loons breed here (because they’re being reported everywhere! They are just passing through on their way to more northerly breeding grounds).

After the walk, we left Jim and had a short walk around the marina and then on a trail in another part of Spring Bluff. Besides lots of Song Sparrows and Red-winged Blackbirds, we saw Bufflehead and one Horned Grebe. Not nearly as many birds as we saw with our guide! 😉

Bufflehead

Horned Grebe

We also saw this a cute black squirrel. We don’t see them too often so it was a treat.

Black Squirrel

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Scope!

Last Wednesday, we drove up to Appleton in Wisconsin to purchase a used spotting scope from a member of the Wisconsin Birding Network (wisb). It’s a Leica Televid 77 in great shape.

Leica Spotting Scope

You’ll notice it’s a straight scope rather than angled. I’ve read that birders prefer to have an angled body for several reasons. However, some do prefer the straight body and it comes down to a personal preference. The deal on this used scope seemed pretty great so I decided to give the straight body a try. Before committing to buy the used Leica, we went to an optics shop to look at different scopes and body types. I really liked being able to keep my head straight when looking through the scope so I thought it would be fine to try the straight body Leica.

I also picked up the Manfrotto tripod (a discontinued model) that was for sale with the scope – but it came without the head. I ordered a Manfrotto head online and it arrived today!

Spotting Scope on Tripod

I can’t wait to use it in the field – hopefully we can try it out sometime this week. I’m sure it will take some practice before I am used to carrying it and setting it up on a walk. Until then, I’m getting really nice looks at our back yard juncos, finches and doves. 😉

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