Thatcher Woods Bird Walk!

Sunday 17 April 2016 73 °F

On this beautiful April day, Sunday the 17th, I led the first of three Oak Park Kids - Illinois Young Birders' Bird Walks held at Thatcher Woods Forest Preserve this spring. The others will meet at the parking lot west of the Trailside Museum in Thatcher Woods on April 23 @ 9am and May 1 @ 8am.

A bit of scouting before the trip yielded a singing but unphotographed PURPLE FINCH as well as this White-tailed Deer:

It turned out to be a nice group of about 5 families, and Josh Engel, Illinois Young Birders' Club field trip leader and Field Museum ornithologist, led the walk with me. We saw three BLUE-WINGED TEAL, a nice uncommon sighting for Thatcher Woods:

Can you spot the BROWN CREEPER?

After seeing chickadees attending to a stump, we checked it out and they were creating a nesting cavity! Here is the stump into which they were nesting:

Some sharp-eyed members in the group spotted this small Garter Snake, my FOY (first of the year) snake sighting of any kind.

Female YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER:

Far-off male WOOD DUCK:

Beautiful butterfly:

Toward the end of the walk, Kris Gallagher spotted a pair of RUSTY BLACKBIRDS foraging in the swamp ahead of the group! This is an awesome sighting because this is a threatened species, so thanks Kris!

In total, 37 species were identified on the walk - see the list attached below. Bird-of-the-day to the foraging RUSTY BLACKBIRDS and runner-up to the BLUE-WINGED TEAL, an uncommon species for Thatcher.

To sign up for these walks, as well as other bird walks this spring, email me at: trumpetswan (@) comcast.net
To find out more about Oak Park Bird Walks, visit: https://sites.google.com/site/opbirdwalks/home
To find out more about the Illinois Young Birders' Club, visit: http://illinoisyoungbirders.org

Good birding!

Henry
World Life List: 884 Species (no recent life birds)

37 species (+1 other taxa) today:

Canada Goose 3
Wood Duck 6
Mallard 8
Blue-winged Teal 3
Turkey Vulture 2
hawk sp. 1
Killdeer 1
Ring-billed Gull 3
Mourning Dove 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 6
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 3
Downy Woodpecker 5
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Blue Jay 4
Black-capped Chickadee 7
White-breasted Nuthatch 4
Brown Creeper 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 12
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 12
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 25
Yellow-rumped Warbler 10
Chipping Sparrow 1
Field Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 1
White-throated Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 5
Northern Cardinal 14
Red-winged Blackbird 8
Rusty Blackbird 2 Wooded swamp north of Chicago Ave overflow parking lot.
Common Grackle 4
Brown-headed Cowbird 12
House Finch 1
Purple Finch 1 Heard singing.
American Goldfinch 3
House Sparrow 7