Freezing morning at Thatcher Woods
Cook County, IL
Friday 8 May 2020
41 °F
After seeing a nice flare-up of migrants on the radar last night, I though today would be a nice (albeit COLD!) morning to get out and check for warblers and other neotropical species. So, I headed to Thatcher Woods where I was immediately confronted with a thrush flock including HERMIT:
A very shy WOOD:
And the most obliging GRAY-CHEEKED I have ever seen, also my FOY bird!
WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW:
SOLITARY SANDPIPER with a MALLARD in one of the small puddles in the vacant lot just north of Chicago Ave.
The staples of spring were around the Trailside Museum feeder area — BALTIMORE ORIOLE:
And a particularly-beautiful ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK: 
GREAT BLUE HERON at the lagoon:
Warblers were, once again, not particularly abundant or diverse today, with the leader of the warbler groups being NASHVILLE WARBLER today. Luckily, my friend Colin Dobson who lives in central Illinois is reporting 20+ species per day (23 yesterday!), so the crazy warbler diversity is just a flight away...
There was also an OVENBIRD:
And I will never tire of GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHERS:
Tomorrow is the Spring Bird Count! I will be covering a number of forest preserve groves on the west side of the Des Plaines at the crack of dawn (which is forecast to be freezing, brrr!) and then I will cover a number of smaller parks in Oak Park, eventually heading over to Columbus Park to cover that area with Laura Derks. Should be fun, and hopefully the birds aren’t deterred by the unseasonable cold...
Bird-of-the-day to the Gray-cheeked Thrush with runner-up to the Great Crested Flycatcher. Again, slim pickings...the next night with favorable winds is tomorrow night so hopefully sunday will bring some turnover, fingers crossed!
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1114 Species
