Making the most out of a day with few migrants

Today, I covered a large range of places in Cook County, hoping to find some good birds (and at one place, maybe some salamanders too).

Since there were southwesterly winds last night, I decided to start the day at Jackson Park in hopes of migrants. Unfortunately, it was very quiet. Still, I took some photos — here is a NASHVILLE WARBLER:

WOOD DUCK & BLUE-WINGED TEAL:

VEERY:

WOOD THRUSH:

SWAINSON’S THRUSH:

WHITE-THROATED SPARROW:

Female ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK:

GREEN HERON:

It was so quiet that I called it quits after an hour, but then an idea struck me: with lower bird activity, it would be the perfect morning to head down to Plum Creek Forest Preserve to find my lifer salamanders! So, I headed down to the southeastern corner of Cook County to this gem of a preserve and started in the grassland since, as the morning progresses, grassland birds tend to shut up. Male INDIGO BUNTING:

One funny side note — at one point, I tried to park alongside the road and the car kind of slid into the ditch! I freaked out and called my parents and my mom coached me on the “rocking method” of gradually reversing and then accelerating back and forth until I could get the car back onto the road. Thankfully, despite a great deal of panic on my part (will the car flip over???) I got it successfully back onto the road with only a little bit of dirt on the wheels. Whew!

And the sparrows in the grassland did NOT disappoint! I had really nice looks at this SAVANNAH:

And a great count of twelve HENSLOW’S, an endangered species in IL:

LINCOLN’S:

FIELD:

And GRASSHOPPER, a great bird!

WHITE-CROWNED:

And I had my first of the year Traill’s Flycatcher (either Willow or Alder because of lack of vocalization):

Then, it was time to head to the forest to look for the salamanders. I must have flipped over nearly fifty logs — surprisingly exhausting! I had three noteworthy yet unphotographed birds in the forest: singing CAPE MAY WARBLER, singing TUFTED TITMOUSE, and a flushed BARRED OWL — cool!

And I found yet another sparrow, a beautiful male EASTERN TOWHEE proclaiming his wooded territory:

Then, I struck gold when I flipped over a certain log beside a fallen tree. Blue-spotted-type Salamanders! You really can’t believe how tiny they are until you see them in person. The ID (as I discussed with my friend Simon who is both a salamander & bird expert) of these is very enigmatic because many different species & types interbreed around here — these belong to the Unisexual Mole Salamander family and are probably mainly Blue-spotted in lineage (given their blue-spotted appearance), but may have DNA of other species/races, as well. Super cool!! I saw three in total (the first of which is definitely a pure Blue-spotted due to spots all over the body & the otherwise jet black appearance).

When flipping logs for salamanders, one must remember ALWAYS to leave no trace: 1) only handle salamanders for under a minute so as not to hurt them because of their absorbent skin and 2) always return the salamanders & the log to their original positions. Love your ecosystems.

And one final bird at Plum Creek was this male CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER! Awesome!

Next, I was off to check the nearby Volbrecht Road fluddle to see if any shorebirds were around.

And for the first time ever at this location (for me), there were! Photos are very blurry due to the distance. I counted 14 PECTORAL SANDPIPERS.

CASPIAN TERNS:

SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS were really nice to see, four in total!

LESSER YELLOWLEGS:

Of course, the ubiquitous KILLDEER:

And the surprise of the day came when I found my Cook County lifer AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER all by myself! Shorebird identification has always been my Achilles’ heal of birding so I was super stoked to get this hard-to-find bird for Cook County. Its strange appearance is due to its transitional plumage: lots of white remaining on the flanks from the winter while the “gold” on its back has already come in! So awesome!!!!

So then, after a long drive back to the Oak Park area, I wanted to check Columbus Park because a White-winged Dove had been (unreliably) reported from the park this morning. I found a very cute WOOD DUCK family!

And a getting-late BROWN CREEPER, cool:

As I expected, no White-winged Dove. Well, still an AMAZING day!

Bird-of-the-day today will not go to a bird for maybe the first time ever, but to my lifer Blue-spotted type Salamanders! Too cool! Runner-up to the American Golden-Plover, a tough bird to beat most days.

Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1115 Species