Guided Tour & Palos Herping

Cook County, IL

Wednesday 8 July 2020 90 °F

This morning I led a private 7am guided tour for two lovely participants, M & B. We covered a good section of Columbus Park to search for the breeding birds there.

And breeding birds, there were! We immediately stumbled upon this recently-fledged AMERICAN ROBIN with a hairdo:

Female YELLOW WARBLER was nice:

BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER:

EASTERN KINGBIRD:

The typical waterbirds were present including WOOD DUCKS:

American Bullfrog!

We accidentally flushed this BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON from the eastern shore of the lagoon — probably the “rarest” species seen today.

NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS also had some recently-fledged individuals hanging with the adults.

A couple flyovers — GREAT BLUE HERON:

And CASPIAN TERN:

After a successful hour-long tour of the park, I was in the mood for some herps so I drove down to the Palos area in search of salamanders. Blue-spotted is the most common, followed my Unisexual Mole, and three other species can be found there but are very, very uncommon: Spotted (which I had last time), Eastern Tiger, and Eastern Newt. I knew it was a hot July day, so not the best chances for finding cool, moist-climate-loving creatures, but I gave it a shot anyway! Blue-spotted were present in numbers — I found five in total.

And I found two really nice Unisexual Mole Salamanders at a different spot. I also checked the Spotted Salamander spot from last time but no luck there.

A great day — nice to lead a tour, and to get some herps! Bird-of-the-day to the Black-crowned Night-Heron with runner-up to the Yellow Warbler. Slim pickings, but you’ve gotta settle for what’s around come mid-July.

STAY TUNED: tomorrow my mom and I will head down to St. Louis: her for work and me for birding (and a bit of herping!). My target bird down there is my would-be life bird Swainson’s Warbler and I have luckily enlisted my friend Theo to help me find one — fingers crossed!

Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1120 Species

Posted by skwclar 17:36 Archived in USA