1st Oak Park Bird Walk of 2015!
Sunday 12 April 2015
71 °F
Today I led the first free Oak Park Bird Walk of this spring's migration season. For more information on upcoming walks, see the bottom of this post. 14 people in attendance, the highest for Oak Park Bird Walks EVER (!), included a reporter and a photographer from the Chicago Tribune for an upcoming story on these walks - I am so excited and will post when the story comes out!
The walk started in front of my house at 8:00am and lasted until nearly 10:00am. It was chilly (in the 40's) when we started, but it had warmed up by the end of the walk, and the temperature even reached 71 today. At right around 8, I spotted this female NORTHERN FLICKER of the "Yellow-shafted" subspecies:
CHIPPING SPARROW, a nice break from the many HOUSE SPARROWS seen on the walk:
Three blackbird species were seen: BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD, COMMON GRACKLE, and this RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD:
Female YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER, one of three woodpecker species seen:
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE:
Male RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET exposing his beautiful scarlet crown feathers:
The intinerary of Oak Park Bird Walks is adjacent to the fen at one point in Taylor Park, a nice park in northern Oak Park. Sometimes, a pair of MALLARDS nests there during the summer and hopefully these guys will stay:
Male RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. It would be nice if he stayed to nest at the fen, as well:
Male MALLARD again:
Male DARK-EYED JUNCO:
All in all, it was a great start to the spring migration season!
Bird-of-the-day goes to the nice RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET exposing his beautiful scarlet crown feathers. Runner-up to the YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKERS, also a nice typical early-spring migration species.
Here are the rest of the free Oak Park Bird Walks for this spring:
Sunday, April 19 @ 8:00am
Wednesday, May 6 @ 7:00am
Sunday, May 10 @ 8:00am
Sunday, May 17 @ 8:00am
Wednesday, May 20 @ 7:00am
Sunday, May 31 @ 8:00am
To reserve a spot in these bird walks, email me: [email protected]
For more information, visit: https://sites.google.com/site/opbirdwalks/home
Please come on the bird walk next Sunday, April 19 @ 8:00am if you live anywhere near the Oak Park area! If you aren't coming, stay tuned for a blog post on the walk!
Good birding,
Henry
[email protected]
World Life List: 751 Species (no life birds recently)
24 avian species on the bird walk:
Canada Goose 1
Mallard 2
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Ring-billed Gull 10
Mourning Dove 4
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 6
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 1
American Crow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Brown Creeper 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 15
European Starling 2
Chipping Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 5
Northern Cardinal 7
Red-winged Blackbird 2
Common Grackle 2
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
House Finch 1
House Sparrow 10
