Outing with Isoo & OP Bird Walk

Cook County, IL

Tuesday 6 October 2020 60 °F

Last thursday I went out with Isoo to try to find a Yellow Rail at Bartel Grassland (their most “reliable” place in Cook County, if you want to even use the term reliable for that species given they just have a handful of county records). This species certainly passes through every year but is plain uncommon and, when compounded with its extremely retiring habits, proves almost impossible to detect. But we were gonna give it a shot for his Cook County big year!

Unfortunately we didn’t flush a single Rail of any species at Bartel, and apart from a few distant migrating raptors and geese, it was quiet there. So after a bite to eat, we headed to nearby Helmick Marsh for waterfowl and shorebirds. NORTHERN SHOVELER among plenty others seen there, though at a distant:

We then headed to Orland Grassland where we again didn’t flush any rail of any species, so we continued northward to McGinnis Slough, again for shorebirds and waterfowl. Isoo said he almost definitely had a Snow Goose fly over at one point, which would have been new for his year, but we lost it to due to the birds’ distance. Dang! We did have a fair amount of shorebirds and more common waterfowl, including STILT SANDPIPER (left) and LESSER YELLOWLEGS (right):

SPOTTED SANDPIPER:

AMERICAN WIGEON:

PECTORAL SANDPIPER:

WOOD DUCKS:

NORTHERN PINTAIL:

TRUMPETER SWAN were giving sweet, close views which was great.

Soon, Isoo and I partied ways as I headed to a nearby preserve to do some herping and he planned to go all the way to Montrose Point on the lakefront, until he got a call that there was a rare bird in his hometown of Evanston: Harris’ Sparrow! I was happy he got this much-needed tick for his Big Year, inching him that much closer to the record for Cook County. I did not regret not joining him, however, as the homeowner for this bird’s temporary “residence” was only letting in certain birders see and the addition of Evanston would have made the day into an even larger driving day than it already was. I enjoyed the herps that Palos has to offer, including a BLUE-SPOTTED SALAMANDER & EASTERN NEWT on one of my first flips!

A huge UNISEXUAL MOLE SALAMANDER:

And this gorgeous SPOTTED SALAMANDER. Good stuff! As usual, all herps were handled with care and placed back next to their logs and rocks afterwards. What cool creatures.

Bird-of-the-day thursday to the beautiful Trumpeter Swans with runner-up to the Stilt Sandpiper which I don’t get to see all that often.

A bird walk from my house saturday yielded just a little in the way of songbirds, including this YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:

But the real star of the show was this MERLIN which was devouring some recent prey at the top of a dead snag. Awesome! I think my second record for Oak Park, ever. My bird-of-the-day for saturday!