The birding gods bless in mysterious ways!
Prairie Green Preserve, IL
Saturday 11 April 2020
63 °F
Today, my destination was the Prairie Green Preserve an hour west out in Geneva, IL in search of a rare Northern Goshawk that was seen here yesterday, as well as by others early this morning. My hopes were high as this is an extreeemely rare sighting for the Chicago area!
Upon arriving, my heart rate shot up every time I saw a raptor, even though a good number of them turned out to be TURKEY VULTURES:
Many, many sparrows were around — I had nine species in total today, including AMERICAN TREE:
DARK-EYED JUNCO:
SONG:
FIELD:
SWAMP:
One notable sparrow I did miss that others had today was Henslow’s, a rare, recently-arrived-for-the-year grassland species that can be quite hard to see at times.
NORTHERN FLICKER:
Hawks especially excited me, for a good reason, but they all seemed to carry false hope since there was at least a half of a dozen RED-TAILED HAWKS in the area this morning. There was even a nest, too!
An “Accipiter,” the bird-eating hawk genus in which the Goshawk is a part, was present, but in the form of its smaller cousin the COOPER’S HAWK:
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:
One nice surprise was a single SANDHILL CRANE that flew in at one point:
BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS & RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS swirled around the preserve in several large flocks.
I must have flushed up at least 45 WILSON’S SNIPE throughout the morning. Other notable (but unphotographed) marsh birds present were SORA & VIRGINIA RAIL.
Then, I spotted a small, lightish flycatcher and my heart immediately skipped three beats.
Did I have...is it really? A light phoebe with a salmon wash on the underside means just one thing—
$**t!!! SAY’S PHOEBE!
A VAGRANT FROM THE ROCKIES! AND I WAS THE FINDER! The dream of E V E R Y birder is to find a true vagrant rarity, and today, that day came for me. This was a first record for Kane County!! So cool!! I am so humbled, and to have this bird show up for me the day before Easter is truly a gift from God.
As I got the word out to the local birding community, I soon saw a literal parade of birders marching through the prairie toward me. Unreal! I personally got at least twenty birders on the bird (from safe social distances) and indirectly, many more got to see this rarity!
Although I lost the bird briefly, another birder fairly quickly refound it and we were afforded even better looks at this western flycatcher.
So many birders were already at the preserve today so even those (including me) who were unlucky enough to dip on the Northern Goshawk had an amazing consolation prize with the Say’s Phoebe.
VESPER SPARROW was my favorite sparrow species seen today:
MALLARDS were flying over all morning, but at one point I did pick up these three BLUE-WINGED TEAL:
Mallards with a diminutive PIED-BILLED GREBE:
AMERICAN COOT:
EASTERN MEADOWLARK. Beautiful!
SAVANNAH SPARROW:
And right before I got in the car, I spotted a group of 49 flyover AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS, another notable bird for northeast Illinois. Awesome!
What an AMAZING day trip! And one additional photo from the day was of a bird that I will always say is underappreciated: MOURNING DOVE. Tian, Pearl, and I enjoyed admiring its nice spot of sheen on the neck.
Bird-of-the-day, of course, goes to the Say’s Phoebe. Runner-up to the flyover American White Pelicans. An AMAZING day! Migration is definitely ramping up!
Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List 1111 Species
Congrats on your first find of a rare bird, what a treat it is and to meet so many nice birders in the process!
Happy Easter to you and the family, including Tian!????????
by Poo