Spring Break!
Saturday 26 March 2016
47 °F
Hello birding friends,
To celebrate a nice break from this hectic semester, this afternoon I covered nearby Miller Meadows and Thatcher Woods Forest Preserves in the afternoon with my friends Jill Anderson and Dan Anzia. We had two target birds for the day: Rusty Blackbird, which could be found at both locations this time of year, and Blue-winged Teal, which we were hoping to find at Miller Meadows. I will lead Oak Park Bird Walks at these locations this spring, please see the bottom of this post for information on attending these walks.
Miller Meadow was a bit slow, with the highlight being an impressive 44 (!) WILSON'S SNIPES which all flushed from the weedy vegetation as we trudged through before I could obtain any photos.
TURKEY VULTURE:
This was my first EASTERN PHOEBE of the year:
RED-TAILED HAWK, which sadly wasn't our hoped-for Red-shouldered Hawk:
Next, we made a quick stop at Thatcher Woods Forest Preserve. This is a female RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER:
Although we found a flock of blackbirds in the soccer field, they all turned out to be EUROPEAN STARLINGS (not really a blackbird anyway), COMMON GRACKLES, and BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS, which are pictured here:
FOX SPARROW:
Although we missed both of our target birds, it was fantastic to finally get out birding today and see my friends Jill Anderson and Dan Anzia. Bird-of-the-day to the impressive number of flushed Wilson's Snipes, even though I did not manage to photograph them. Runner-up to my first-of-the-year Eastern Phoebe, one of my first songbird migrants of the year (I had my first-of-the-year Yellow-rumped Warbler about a week ago, my first warbler of the year!).
For more information on Oak Park Bird Walks held at Miller Meadow, Thatcher Woods, and other locations this spring, please visit https://sites.google.com/site/opbirdwalks/
Email me at trumpetswan (@) comcast.net to reserve spaces on these walks.
Good birding!
Henry
World Life List: 887 Species (no recent life birds)
