Palos Preserves
Cook County, IL
Thursday 6 June 2019
80 °F
Today, I visited Swallow Cliff Woods with Kim Habel in order to try and re-find the Pine & Kentucky Warblers, as well as other species, which I recently found on my Cook County Big Day.
In the parking lot, we were immediately greeted by vociferous bird song, led by the wheezing sounds of CEDAR WAXWINGS like this one:
NORTHERN FLICKER:
HOUSE WREN — a largely under-appreciated bird in my opinion. They have amazing vocal ability!
WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH:
RED-EYED VIREO:
Male EASTERN TOWHEE:
My find of the morning was the ACADIAN FLYCATCHER — a very scarce breeder in Cook County; an inhabitant of moist deciduous woodland:
Alas, despite thorough searching we failed to find either Pine or Kentucky Warblers, but heard-only highlights were VEERY & BROWN CREEPER. So, we continued onto Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center where there was a pair of GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHERS — here is one:
Male RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD:
Female YELLOW WARBLER:
Eastern Painted Turtle:
GREAT BLUE HERON:
Bird-of-the-day to the Acadian Flycatcher, with runner-up to the heard-only Veery. Thanks SO MUCH to Kim for driving and birding with me!
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 971 Species
