3rd Oak Park Bird Walk of Autumn!
Saturday 19 September 2015
69 °F
As you may be noticing, I am using nearly all of my birding time this autumn leading Oak Park Bird Walks. It is quite fulfilling and birding with others is always exponentially better than better by oneself.
Today the weather was fine with overcast skies and temperatures in the upper 50's. Six birders attended the walk and we all had a fantastic time.
We started the walk busily scanning a few mixed flocks in the vicinity of my house. ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS like these were surprisingly common:
Male WILSON'S WARBLER, not the most common warbler for Oak Park so this was a nice surprise:
This female HAIRY WOODPECKER was also a nice find because this is another uncommon species for Oak Park:
The first changing tree of autumn in my neighborhood. A beautiful sight but a melancholy one, nevertheless, as since it is only September 19, this signals another long, Chicago winter ahead of us:
Like last week, SWAINSON'S THRUSH were the most common migrant today such as the one pictured below. I expect these to be completely replaced in this area by Hermit Thush within two weeks' time.
This RED-EYED VIREO gave the group very brief and unsatisfactory looks (and photos!):
My eyes popped out my head, when suddenly towards the end of the walk, three feet above the group was a beautiful foraging male BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER. If you remember from last week's post, this is a very uncommon species for Oak Park and funnily enough this was the best bird of last Sunday's bird walk, as well. 
So bird-of-the-day goes again to the BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER continuing the very lucky streak I have been having with these beautiful birds recently. Runner-up to the ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS that were surprisingly common during the first part of today's walk. In all, 23 species were seen in total on today's walk and the complete eBird list is attached below.
To learn more about Oak Park Bird Walks, please visit: sites.google.com/site/opbirdwalks/
I still have one spot remaining on the Sunday, October 11 8am bird walk so send me an email at [email protected] if interested.
Good birding!
Henry
[email protected]
ilmigration.blogspot.com (migration forecast blog)
sites.google.com/site/opbirdwalks/ (Oak Park Bird Walks)
23 species:
Canada Goose 40
Great Blue Heron 1
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 1
Mourning Dove 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 1
Black-capped Chickadee 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Swainson's Thrush 5
American Robin 25
Cedar Waxwing 2
Common Yellowthroat 1
American Redstart 1
Blackpoll Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Wilson's Warbler 1
Northern Cardinal 5
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 2
American Goldfinch 2
House Sparrow 10
