Big day scouting
Chicago Portage Woods, IL
Saturday 6 January 2024
32 °F
MONDAY, JANUARY 1:
Today, Parker and I did some scouting of target birds at Chicago Portage Woods for my upcoming big day tomorrow.
Target birds: Fox and Swamp Sparrow, Winter Wren, Brown Creeper, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker which are all decently difficult to find in Chicago during the winter.
My first bird out of the car was a calling BROWN CREEPER which I was thrilled to get so quickly.
A few AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES were around:
In the back stretch of river, there were COMMON GOLDENEYE along with a couple very distant COMMON MERGANSERS:
And I spotted a really notable bird, this drake GREEN-WINGED TEAL among the MALLARDS. Very hard to get in winter, so I was excited to get this one on the list!
FOX SPARROW in a mixed flock was another target checked off:
Here it is along with a WHITE-THROATED, a much more common bird this winter than last here in Chi-town:
I also happened upon a flock of AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS:
A calling WINTER WREN was yet another good species for the scout, one that is very tough to get on big days.
With DARK-EYED JUNCOS:
Bird-of-the-day to the Green-winged Teal with runner-up to the Fox Sparrow. I will definitely be stopping here tomorrow along the big day route, stay tuned to see if my buddies and I can break 76 species on a January day!
Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1174 Species
Good Luck! Looking forward to your lists!
by Poo