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
Your photos of the little blue heron are the best I have seen anywhere! Great to see that rare visitor to northern Illinois.
Liz
by liz cifani