Birding Around the World

Twitch: Little Blue Heron

Highland Park, IL

Thursday 9 July 2026 69 °F

SATURDAY, MAY 2:

After opera rehearsal today, I made an almost-immediately successful twitch up to Highland Park in Lake County to find a vagrant LITTLE BLUE HERON that had been hanging out in a shallow pond in a country club up there. What a beautiful species!!!

Then, I had to head to Oak Park to get ready for church tomorrow so I decided to make some birding stops closer to home. Between the tollway and Oak Park there is a reliable spot for EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE which is always a fun species to tick off for the day:

Then, I decided to stop at Thatcher Woods for a bit and do a bit of birding. My first BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER of the year was great to see:

As was TREE SWALLOW:

DOWNY WOODPECKER:

Female EASTERN BLUEBIRD:

YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:

Flyover COOPER’S HAWK:

And a RED-TAILED:

Before heading home for dinner, I did a quick check of the Lagoon where the highlight was this family of CANADA GOSLINGS — just so cute!!!

Bird-of-the-day to the Little Blue Heron with runner-up to the Eurasian Collared-Dove.

Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1504 Species

Posted by skwclar 17:52 Archived in USA Comments (1)

Birding Northwestern campus

Evanston, IL

Wednesday 8 July 2026 65 °F

FRIDAY, MAY 1:

Another quick bit of birding today, chronicled here on eBird with photos: https://ebird.org/checklist/S330598526

Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1504 Species

Posted by skwclar 19:42 Archived in USA Comments (0)

A quick birding stop at LaBagh Woods

Chicago, IL

Tuesday 7 July 2026 69 °F

SUNDAY, APRIL 26:

Read more and see photos on eBird here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S328058973

Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1504 Species

Posted by skwclar 17:22 Archived in USA Comments (0)

Birding Lakeshore East and Millennium Park

Chicago, IL

Sunday 5 July 2026 59 °F

APRIL 23:

Living downtown comes with the perk of being within walking-distance to many productive city parks during the migration season. I took advantage of some time after school to explore two nearby ones. Lakeshore East was pretty quiet but had a few things like RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH:

HERMIT THRUSH:

And my first NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH of the year!!

Nearby Millennium Park was equally quiet, with just a small pocket of WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS:

But my bird-of-the-day goes to a surprise EASTERN BLUEBIRD that came through, calling, at one point!

Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1504 Species

Posted by skwclar 21:25 Archived in USA Comments (0)

Oak Park Bird Walk & campus birding

Cook County, IL

Saturday 4 July 2026 64 °F

APRIL 22:

This morning I led the first Oak Park Bird Walk of the spring from my house, and then in the evening I squeezed in some birding around the Northwestern campus.

We started off the walk with this BLUE JAY:

And got quite a few “ooh”s and “ahh”s when this GREAT BLUE HERON flew over the alley and landed on a garage:

We enjoyed a super-cute puppy who was just dying to squeeze under the fence and meet us:

A block away from said dog, we had the best bird of the walk in the form of this getting-late PINE SISKIN:

Then, later today, I found a bit of time to bird around the Northwestern Campus. I found a few things despite it being fairly quiet. RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET: