More Fall Fun!
Illinois & Indiana
Friday 18 September 2020
75 °F
So, it has been yet another week of productive fall migration birding. A nice afternoon walk on tuesday yielded not only birds but butterflies such as this Eastern Black Swallowtail:
American Painted Lady:
And a GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH was a nice bird for the neighborhood:
On a wonderful Oak Park Bird Walk the following morning on wednesday, we saw many of the Gray-cheeked’s look-alike, the SWAINSON’S. Notice how much fuller this bird’s eyering is.
RED-EYED VIREOS were passing through in numbers:
Several warblers showed themselves as well, including a male BLACK-THROATED BLUE at the end of the walk.
On thursday, the NNE winds were conducive to lake watching so Tian and I headed to Park 566 at Lake Shore Dr and 80th St, approximately. This is an undeveloped park that juts out into Lake Michigan and therefore has great birding and lake watching potential. View from the park:
Many DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS winged their way past:
CASPIAN TERN:
The only slightly notable species out over the lake was a total of 8 BONAPARTE’S GULLS of which I only managed barely-identifiable photos.
On this chilly morning today, I was off to Cowles Bog in the Indiana Dunes where I guided Kim H for three hours. There was a great amount of bird activity around! On the path there was an EASTERN TOWHEE:
NORTHERN FLICKER:
LEAST FLYCATCHER:
RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH:
BAY-BREASTED WARBLER:
LINCOLN’S SPARROW:
This warbler gabe me a scare as it looked Black-throated Green-like, but I noticed the pretty dark auricular patch seen in the first photo. Then later I noticed in a photo I got of it flying away, it only appears to have white on the outer three tail feathers. Then again, all the extensive black on the throat...Within the range for BTNW, or is there a possible hybrid situation here? A recent presumed hybrid TOWA X BTNW appeared in the Chicago area, looking very much like this bird. TBD! An exciting find when you can’t immediately ID.
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, my first of the season:
BLACKPOLL WARBLER:
RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD poofing up due to the cool temps!
EASTERN BLUEBIRD:
CEDAR WAXWING:
Another nice surprise was this early GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET, wasn’t expecting this for a couple more weeks!
RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS were active today, calling and flying through:
A migrating NORTHERN HARRIER flew over, too:
SANDHILL CRANE:
Back in the trees over the parking lane was an absolute stunner of a bird: PHILADELPHIA VIREO, definitely one of my favorite migrants!
GREAT BLUE HERON:
Ended the tour this morning with 63 species, a super enjoyable walk. Bird-of-the-day to the early Golden-crowned Kinglet & Philadelphia Vireo with runner-up to the TBD warbler, always fun when that happens! Stay tuned: I am leading two more bird walks this weekend, during what should be the peak of warbler migration here!
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1119 Species
Wonderful stuff as usual. I’ve done very little this year. 😢
by Poo