A week of Chicago birding
Cook County, IL
Sunday 29 August 2021
97 °F
This has been a crazy yet memorable week of birding and preparing for the school year as I am briefly back in Chicago before flying out to NYC this coming wednesday. I have been leading bird walks every other day while here, starting with a monday walk at Thatcher Woods where we began the day right with this roosting TURKEY VULTURE:
CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER:
Immature EASTERN BLUEBIRD:
Female/imm. male AMERICAN REDSTART:
Tuesday, despite scorching temps in the upper 90’s, I made it to Montrose point while Tian met with a friend she made over the summer. There were goals loafing on the beach including two massive HERRING among the many RING-BILLED GULLS:
A tiny little SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER was also running between the gull flock:
A group of four GREAT EGRETS flew over at one point, noteworthy for Montrose:
I also spotted a COOPER’S HAWK on the prowl:
WILSON’S WARBLER back in the hedge:
Wednesday I led a walk at Columbus Park where I started the day off by teaching the group about eclipse-plumage ducks, such as these MALLARDS where for this brief time of year they look much less sexually-dimorphic than usual:
And this WOOD DUCK:
On thursday, I guided Kim H to McCormick Bird Sanctuary downtown in search of a Barn Owl. Right after stepping out of the car we saw a DICKCISSEL which was noteworthy for the location:
And soon we found the expected gaggle of birders who were on the roosting BARN OWL. After about ninety seconds of directions, I finally located the bird tucked very far back in a hackberry tree — Illinois lifer! This owl species is very uncommon this far north in Illinois and seldom seen because it is also extremely hard to find roosting. Kudos to whoever originally found this bird. I soon got Kim on the bird too and she enjoyed this species as a full lifer! Super epic!
An EASTERN WOOD-PEWEE was also in the area:
And a RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD:
More Barn Owl shots.
We then continued on to Jackson Park to find more migrant birds. Here is a DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT at the lagoon, panting due to the already hot, humid morning temps:
The absolute surprise of the day was when Kim pointed out a canary-yellow bird in the bush in front of us and it turned out to be a female-type KENTUCKY WARBLER! This bird is almost as rare as a Barn Owl this time of year, as a quick search on eBird showed only 7 prior records of this species in Cook County from August - December of all recorded years. A super awesome find and identifiable because of its classic gray helmet (it would be black in an adult male bird):
RED-TAILED HAWK:
YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER:
BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER:
So, it has been a great week of birding! Bird-of-the-week to the Barn Owl with runner-up to the Kentucky Warbler, both superb finds for the location and time of year. Stay tuned: more bird walks are planned before I leave for college on wednesday.
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1125 Species
