Birding Around the World

SUNDAY, MAY 21:

This morning, I woke up in a rest area at the crack of dawn in order to find my lifer and long-time nemesis Greater Prairie-Chicken. Would I? Read on and find out next!

The day started off with a gorgeous sunrise:

And two beautiful BLUE GROSBEAKS:

Just after I texted Simon asking for other locations for the Prairie-Chickens, I spotted this lone hen out by herself in the middle of an agricultural field! Wow!!!! Different from its lookalike Ring-necked Pheasant by more distinct barring and more distinct facial pattern…

And the more blunted tail in flight, and fly it did soon after starting to admire it:

An awesome nemesis conquered, and my 1151st life bird!!!!! Greaaat!!!!

Other birds were around the grassland area too, including this male AMERICAN GOLDFINCH:

And DICKCISSELS a-plenty:

EASTERN KINGBIRD:

Soon, I continued my drive southward and a bit past Mt Vernon, IL I spotted a denizen of southern IL birding: BLACK VULTURE, a species that has become increasingly common in this area in recent years! (And I’m talking very recent, Isoo and I had trouble finding these in 2020!)

My first stop in truly “southern” Illinois was the beautiful Ferne Clyffe State Park for birding.

And birds, I found! Here is a nice RED-EYED VIREO:
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And a WHITE-EYED:

RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD:

And a nice KENTUCKY WARBLER, another classically-southern bird:

And a nice brief but clinching view of a MISSISSIPPI KITE through the treetops, another species I struggled finding back in 2020:

Beautiful butterfly on the trail:

BROAD-WINGED HAWK was also nice:

As was ACADIAN FLYCATCHER:

And LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH:

Then, I was treated to stunning views of a male PRAIRIE WARBLER briefly accompanied (and bullied) by a male RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD:

RED-TAILED HAWK:

Then, I made it to Tony’s place where I will stay for the next three nights! There, I was treated to incredible views of MISSISSIPPI KITES:

And less-impressive views of a flyover FISH CROW:

Male SCARLET TANAGER:

Tony’s guineafowl never cease to entertain!

One of my favorite aspects of Tony’s place are the dozens of acres of restored native grassland he maintains. The White-tailed Deer also appreciate it.

Female PROTHONOTARY WARBLER:

He also has great ponds on his property which are thriving with herp life such as these young Red-eared Sliders:

A pair of Five-lined Skinks on his property:

It wasn’t the greatest day of herping his property but there were a few things to be found such as Northern Slimy Salamander:

This pretty gnarly-looking Midwestern Wormsnake:

And a tiny little Ring-necked Snake:

Later in the evening, Tony, his family, and I piled into his van and we headed over to Mermet Lake to try for my lifer Diamondback Watersnake. Well, there were plenty of other watersnakes such as Midland:

And Plain-bellied:

And even a venomous Northern Cottonmouth:

YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS are used to coexisting with Cottonmouths:

And it was a quintessential southern Illinois scene to watch this colony of GREAT EGRETS in a stand of cypress trees:

A beautiful way to end an eventful day of birding and herping. Bird-of-the-day to my lifer Greater Prairie-Chicken with runner-up to the Mississippi Kites as I had only ever seen that species once before today!

Good birding and herping,
Henry
World Life List: 1151 Species (1 life bird today: Greater Prairie-Chicken)

SATURDAY, MAY 20:

As I have now graduated with honors and a Bachelor’s in Music (opera)—

I rewarded myself with a multi-day, multi-faceted birding and herping trip to Indiana Dunes and southern Illinois. The itinerary would be something like this: 1 day in Indiana guiding around Kim and friends in the Dunes, 1 day to find my lifer Prairie Chickens near Kinmundy, IL, and several days of herping the hell out of southern Illinois!

Before I dive into day 1, I will include a few photos with special people from my graduation, including mom, my beloved voice teacher Marlena, the president of MSM James Gandre, piano teacher Jiayin, and my friends Ed and Madeleine. It has been such an incredible five years and though there were ups and downs, of course, I would not have traded this experience for the world. It has been AMAZING to study opera, in NYC!

Now, onto the birds! Today, (Saturday, May 20), and much closer to home, I guided Kim and friends around the Indiana Dunes area. We had a phenomenal day and hit a few stops. Other than these CASPIAN TERNS:

Michigan City beach was quiet, so we continued on to Heron Rookery Preserve a bit further south. Here the action picked up a bit with BALTIMORE ORIOLE:

EASTERN WOOD-PEWEE:

RED-EYED VIREO:

PHILADELPHIA VIREO was wonderful to find:

YELLOW WARBLER:

LINCOLN’S SPARROW was nice as well:

SWAINSON’S THRUSH:

At our next stop, Brincka Crossgardens, we searched for a fledgling Barred Owl and came up empty on that front but did find these interesting galls on the ground, created from the decomposed structure of oak trees, by Oak Wasps (each one contains a single wasp larvae in the center). No, I didn’t know this already, I had to look all this up because we had no idea what these were!

Luckily, our bad luck with the owl was made up for in a BIG way when I heard a CONNECTICUT WARBLER singing, and after about twenty minutes of thorough searching and spishing, Kim and I got FANTASTIC views — my second-best ever of this elusive species!!! Super cool!!

RED-TAILED HAWK:

HOUSE WREN:

Another nice bird here was YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER:

Beautiful male INDIGO BUNTING:

Next, after a delicious mushroom soup lunch (thanks Kim!) we hit the Richardson Preserve where I quickly spotted this Green Frog sticking its head barely out of the water, showcasing the golden glow to its eye in the sun:

CANADA WARBLER was really nice here:

As was quite the uncommon migrant, this OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER:

Indiana Dunes State Park was our last stop of the day where I had this BLUE-WINGED WARBLER on the way in:

Brief views of this PILEATED WOODPECKER on a stump:

And the PROTHONOTARY WARBLER was back at its usual nesting site!

Male EASTERN BLUEBIRD:

After saying goodbye to Kim for the day, I hit a few spots in south Cook County, IL before starting the looong southward journey downstate. Bartel Grassland/Killdeer Wetland was first on my agenda — scouting for my upcoming June Big Day! NORTHERN FLICKER:

Beaver in one of the irrigation canals:

EASTERN MEADOWLARK:

GREAT BLUE HERON:

COMMON YELLOWTHROAT:

SAVANNAH SPARROW was nice to see; this one can be tough for big days:

SONG SPARROW:

BARN SWALLOW:

I was ecstatic to see this BLUE-WINGED TEAL in another irrigation ditch; really hoping this tough bird sticks around for the Big Day, too!

My final birding stop for the day was Helmick Preserve further south where I only photographed a FIELD SPARROW:

But my best bird of the entire afternoon (since the Connecticut was the best of the day) was an unseen, crowing RING-NECKED PHEASANT which was calling from south of the bike trail. This is a heck of a bird for Cook County and my county lifer — and it would be absolutely incredible to get on the Big Day.

Bird-of-the-day to the Connecticut Warbler with runner-up to the Ring-necked Pheasant.

I wrapped up the day by driving all the way down to Kinmundy, IL so I could wake up early and find my lifer Greater Prairie-Chickens. To say I was excited would be a massive understatement!

Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1150 Species

WEDNESDAY, MAY 17:

PLEASE NOTE THE ABOVE DATE — I AM CATCHING UP STILL!!!

Yep…you read it right. The final Central Park morning! I’m graduating tomorrow so I took advantage of the morning to show my mom spring migration birding in Central Park!

We headed, no surprise, to the Loch in the North Woods which turned out to be somewhat birdless, but thankfully the few birds we did see were actually quite quality species! So mom definitely got a taste of Central Park birding.

One of the first birds we actually got turned out to be my favorite warbler, a HOODED! Unluckily for us, it never posed for adequate photos so I was left with this lemon-yellow blur, though mom was able to briefly get eyes on it.

The next warbler we actually saw was another fantastic one, a WORM-EATING just off the side of the trail!

And then later, this BAY-BREASTED WARBLER gave us phenomenal views at the Loch overlook:

Less-phenomenal but still clinching views of a male SCARLET TANAGER:

Bird-of-the-day to the Worm-eating with runner-up to the Bay-breasted Warbler.

We had to call it quits after just over an hour of birding so I could get back to my commencement award ceremony. The actual MSM graduation is tomorrow, but I was blessed enough to receive the Hugh Ross Award today which goes to one “singer of unusual promise” each year at the Manhattan School of Music. Here I am with mom after receiving the award — the real reason my mom was in town!

Now on to graduation tomorrow — I am soon to be a “Bachelor of Music!”

Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1150 Species

TUESDAY, MAY 16:

This morning, the alarm was set for 1:30am after a rather sleepless night of excitement in anticipation for the GREENWICH BIG DAY! This is a day Will S looks forward to every spring and I was so excited to take part this year along with Skyler who I met last year on Fisher Island.

For today’s report, I will write an extremely abbreviated version with a couple non-bird-photos on this blog and include a link to a much more detailed report on eBird.org, written by Will and photos by yours truly, with all species covered in order to give a wider scope of what was accomplished today.

Skylar, Will, and I teamed up today to break the Greenwich, CT big day record (122 species, set by Will himself!). Our methods of birding were diverse — by car, foot, and by sea — it was an absolutely lovely day to be out on the water and out birding anywhere really! Here are a few photos from my favorite part of the day: a motorboat ride to the offshore islands of Greenwich!

And a “Great Horned Owl” from the Audubon center:

A huge thanks to Will for organizing this, hosting me last night, and driving me around. Read the full report and checklist here on eBird to see how we fared on our exhilarating big day!! Would we break 122 species? Read on and find out next!!
https://ebird.org/checklist/S138166059

Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1150 Species

Still TONS to catch up on—

MONDAY, MAY 15:

Skip this post if you don’t like serpents. I’m not kidding!!

Today, I finally had a completely free day in May so I took Will M up on his offer to go herping again in search of New York’s two species of pit viper: Timber Rattlesnakes and my lifer Eastern Copperheads. Lucky for me, Will M is the most knowledgeable Eastern Copperhead den expert in the US and one of the top experts on Rattlesnakes, too, so I was in good company and had high hopes for the day.

So, I woke up just after 6am to catch a northbound Amtrak up the Hudson River valley. Will picked me up mid-morning, and we headed to his absolute favorite site for denning and sunning pit vipers.

The habitat was gorgeous. Soon, we arrived at the first snake den/sunning location which looked like a bright white spot of sunlight in the woods from a ways away. Vipers prefer areas on sunny south-facing hills with lots of exposed rocky outcroppings surrounded by woods.

We spotted a few raptors circling in the air like RED-TAILED HAWKS and this nice pair of RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS — very cool!

Welp, almost instantly, Dylan picked out our first snake of the morning, a beautiful yellow-phase Timber Rattlesnake that was already out sunning! SO Awesome!

It ended up being extremely docile with no rattling and eventually it simply just crawled back under the rocks. Though these snakes can be deadly, they are NOT aggressive — they are only ever DEFENSIVE if you step on them or pick them up (which you absolutely shouldn’t). So know your snake species, but no need for the unnecessary, media-driven paranoia! Like sharks, these are terribly misunderstood creatures.

I was SO stoked! Any time spent with pit vipers, especially in the northeast where they are harder-to-come-by, is time well-spent with majestic and awe-inspiring creatures. This is the only valid take on finding venomous snakes in the wild!

At a rocky outcrop nearby, we searched for Copperheads where Will has had them in the past but instead turned up a nice healthy adult in-shed Northern Black Racer, the largest of this subspecies I have ever seen and only my third ever!

RED-EYED VIREO:

AMERICAN GOLDFINCH:

Then, I spotted another snake: the other species of “black snake!” It was a nice large, fat Eastern Ratsnake coiled up on a tree nearby. This harmless species is another that was a lifer for me just last spring!

Male SCARLET TANAGER:

As we were walking along the highest point of our hike today, I spotted a pointed, tapered snake head poised underneath a nearby boulder and knew I had spotted my lifer Eastern Copperhead! Absolutely amazing!!!!! LIFER DANCE! (though a careful one in venomous snake country)

Wish it had been a better first view, but there is no reason to handle venomous snakes, ever, so we were satisfied with these partial views which are typical of this species in the northeast as they wait in ambush for rodent prey.

Not too long after, we stumbled into an area where a telltale buzzing alerted us to the presence of not one, two, or three, but EIGHTEEN Timber Rattlesnakes huddled among the basking rocks in our vicinity! Carefully watching where we stepped, we admired these fabulous, communal creatures in their full glory. Most folks’ nightmare is a herper’s dream!

And a nice male BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER rounded out the hike:

What an incredible time herping — my single best day of herping to date, for sure!

So, we ended the hike with an extremely respectable total of 24 individual snakes:
21 Timber Rattlesnakes
1 Northern Black Racer
1 Eastern Ratsnake
1 Eastern Copperhead — my lifer!

And a few quality birds, as well! Bird-of-the-day to the Blackburnian Warbler with runners-up to the Red-shouldered Hawks.

Stay tuned: tomorrow I head to Greenwich, CT with my friends Will S and Skyler to hopefully break the Greenwich Big Day record! Fingers crossed for an eventful day of birding!

Happy birding and herping,
Henry
World Life List: 1150 Species