Migration birding + herping continue!
Cook County, IL
Monday 7 September 2020
81 °F
Last week I visited Montrose with Isoo & Nathan G and we birded for a solid couple hours in hopes of racking up shorebirds, passerines, and anything weird that might happen to show up. As usual we started on the beach where we had SEMIPALMATED PLOVER:
SANDERLING with a Semipalm:
The star shorebird of the day was a nice AMERICAN AVOCET that decided to park itself on the protected beach. A good bird for Cook County!
Since the beach wasn’t particularly birdy, we headed to the Magic Hedge to look for passerines and found a Traill’s (either Willow or Alder) Flycatcher:
Warblers (in their drab fall plumages) showed in pretty good numbers including BLACK-AND-WHITE:
MAGNOLIA:
TENNESSEE:
CHESTNUT-SIDED with a grub for breakfast:
GOLDEN-WINGED, cool!!!
A Monarch showed off his beautiful bright colors.
BAY-BREASTED WARBLER:
BLACKPOLL, separated from the look-alike Bay-breasted because of its faint chest striping:
NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH:
GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH, my first of the season! Separated from the Swainson’s by its incomplete eye ring and more grayish face.
My first PURPLE FINCH of the whole year, a brown female:
Bird-of-the-day that day to the American Avocet with runner-up to the Golden-winged Warbler & Purple Finch, not too shabby.
Another Oak Park Bird Walk a few days later was quiet with only a few birds such as these SWAINSON’S THRUSH:
And a flyover BROAD-WINGED HAWK was quite nice, my bird-of-the-day for saturday!
Yesterday I went to the Palos area for more herping for Simon, Peter, & Andrea Tolzmann. We were hoping for a Tiger Salamander (they had seen one at that same location last week), but would really take whatever we would get. Unisexual Mole Salamander (the top, darker herp) with two Blue-spotted Salamanders:
We had a number of flips, particularly in the dried-up streambeds, with multiple species of salamanders underneath such as this one with 3 Blue-spotteds and an Eastern Newt.
Soon, we were racking up the # of salamanders with over 30!!!!! This flip yielded one giant Unisexual Mole, 2 Spotted Salamanders, & 2 Eastern Newts. Ridiculous! Take into account that this is probably the ONLY location in Cook County where it is physically possible to get these three species together given the rarity of Spotteds and Newts — incredible!
Yeah, several Spotteds certainly put on a beautiful show for us.
In yesterday’s sun, salamanders weren’t the only herps we found — here is an Eastern Garter Snake of the Chicago subspecies! It struck multiple times — good thing I was wearing gloves, even though it was tiny.
A lifer herp for all of us was this Spring Peeper frog! Amazing! It was like a tiny bright little creature hopping quickly through a vernal pool upon which we happened to stumble. Luckily Peter caught it for photos.
Another beautiful eft-phase Eastern Newt.
This was the star of the day. We thought it to be my lifer Tiger Salamander until today when we realized it was something even rarer: a hybrid Blue-spotted X Tiger Salamander! This was a COOL herp to find — it goes to show that the diversity of salamanders at our location yesterday is just insane. I hope the many illegal herp poachers out there never find this location, because we counted 87 SALAMANDERS IN ONE AFTERNOON!!! (that is why I will never post precise herp locations online)
Anyway, it’s been yet another great week of birding and herping. I have many more things lined up for this month including continuing bird walks, a daytrip to Carlyle Reservoir in southern Illinois for pelagics, and a big sit competition with my friends at Montrose. Stay tuned!
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1119 Species
