May 8-11
Friday 21 May 2021
63 °F
Well, I have certainly got out a fair amount this spring migration so this post will cover all of my birds from May 8 — May 11, in the week before what I would consider to be the “peak” of bird migration. I led a number of Oak Park Bird Walks in this time frame and we saw a decent amount of migrants. I’ll start out with the World Big Day/spring bird count at Bartel Grassland and other southern Cook County locations on May 8. It was slow given multiple nights of northerly winds the nights before but I did manage to eek out a few birds. SONG SPARROW:
The grassland birds were around as usual. Male BOBOLINK:
FIELD SPARROW:
PINE WARBLER in the peripheral forest:
GREATER YELLOWLEGS (back) with LESSER YELLOWLEGS (front). This is a perfect comparison shot — the best distinguishing factor in this tricky ID is bill length.
BLUE-HEADED VIREO:
CAPE MAY WARBLER, my first of the year:
NASHVILLE WARBLER:
At one point I unwittingly stepped under a BALD EAGLE nest so of course a pair of them took off from the nest, calling incessentalty. Beautiful! I quickly snapped a photo and then hurried away so as not to disturb.
EASTERN KINGBIRD:
Female/immature male PURPLE FINCH:
RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH:
I pulled this aggressive Plains Gartersnake out of the grass at one point:
I also hit Helmick Nature Preserve even further south. CASPIAN TERNS:
GREAT EGRET:
CHIMNEY SWIFT:
YELLOW WARBLER:
NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH:
SORA:
A bit closer to home, a YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:
RED-SHOULDERED HAWK on a nest rather nearby:
I led a few birders on a private tour at LaBagh Woods and it was fairly slow, though we did manage to re-find the mega-rare BROAD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRD again which was super cool:
GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER:
MAGNOLIA WARBLER:
A couple NASHVILLE WARBLERS:
We headed down to Columbus Park where unfortunately it was equally slow, though we did have a SAVANNAH SPARROW in the parking lot:
WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS:
A neighborhood bird walk the next day was much more productive, with a few PINE SISKINS starting off the day:
As well as some GREAT looks at warblers. Here is a CHESTNUT-SIDED:
NASHVILLE:
BLUE-WINGED:
BLACK-THROATED GREEN:
BLACK-AND-WHITE:
RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET:
So overall, despite northerly winds for much of the first half of May, I was able to get some great birding in. More to come: stay tuned for a post about my recent weekend trip to Indiana Dunes State Park!
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1126 Species
