Thatcher & Columbus Park Bird Walks
Cook County, IL
Tuesday 22 September 2020
75 °F
This past weekend I led two successful bird walks: a Thatcher Woods bird walk for Oak Park Bird Walks, and a Columbus Park walk for the Chicago Ornithological Society.
At the Thatcher Woods walk we headed straight to the field north of Chicago Ave because the sunlit western edge of the field can be great for passerines in this early mornings. And that it was — SCARLET TANAGER in its nonbreeding outfit:
EASTERN WOOD-PEWEE:
A NASHVILLE WARBLER gave nice low looks — the passerines were rather low due to cooler temps, as the bugs tend to be lower down then.
The weirdest SAVANAH SPARROW I’ve ever seen — this one had an affinity for perching in the tippy-tops of trees:
HOUSE WREN:
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:
It was a great walk! On sunday, I led a walk with Aerin Tedesco for the Chicago Ornithological Society at Columbus Park! It was nice to bird with a group of folks with whom I haven’t birded before (apart from Aerin). There were a number of passerines flitting around in the shrubs bordering the lagoon including this SWAMP SPARROW:
And NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH:
BLACKPOLL WARBLER:
We got great looks at this RED-SHOULDERED HAWK which presumably is one of the residents at this park.
It even caught a squirrel and ate it!
Another raptor present was this immature COOPER’S HAWK:
My bird-of-the-day for sunday was this beautiful YELLOW-THROATED VIREO that gave the group some of the best looks I have ever seen. Cool!
Stay tuned — I have another walk friday morning, and friday afternoon-saturday I’m headed to southern Illinois with Tian to do some herping at Snake Road, possibly look for some rare Rails and a Whooping Crane if it stays, and I will go on Colin Dobson’s pelagic at Lake Carlyle which always has the chance for Jaegers, Phalaropes, and Sabine’s Gulls. Fingers crossed!
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1119 Species
