Central Illinois: Day 2!
Monday 4 September 2017
85 °F
Yesterday, my friends and I birded Chatauqua National Wildlife Refuge and Emiquon Conservation Area in search of migrant shorebirds! It was awesome! I gained three lifer shorebirds, those being Long-billed Dowitcher, Hudsonian Godwit, and White-rumped Sandpiper.
All of the shorebirds were hundreds of meters away on expansive mudflats, but I did manage to snap a few pics of the more interesting ones! First, here is one of the many ID photos I took of the area to give one an idea of just how far away these birds were:
Panorama of the first birding point at Chautauqua: (coming soon)
MERLIN, a falcon which chased the shorebirds:
Flyover RED-HEADED WOODPECKER:
American Toad:
Spider:
When it got hot and relatively birdless, we had fun chucking rocks into the mud:
Life bird HUDSONIAN GODWIT:
BLACK-NECKED STILT:
AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS:
Cool grasshopper:
Life bird LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS:
Pretty insect:
A nice BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER to end the day:
It was an AMAZINGGGG day of shorebirding! Bird-of-the-day to the Hudsonian Godwit and Long-billed Dowitchers, with runner-up to the White-rumped Sandpiper!
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 933 Species
life birds: Hudsonian Godwit, Long-billed Dowitcher, White-rumped Sandpiper
This green bug looks like some kind of stinkbug to me. I love the red-headed woodpecker photo! Best, Liz C
by Liz Cifani