American Woodcock

Twice a year around 5 million birds, representing around 200 different species fly through Chicago.  Some are here only briefly as they head further North, some here for the Summer.  With this first four days of Spring in the early 30's and 15 mph winds I'm surprised so many birds are already back...  Great Blue Herons, thousands of Sandhill Cranes, turkey vultures, lots of duck species.  

One early migrant I've been dying to see for years is the American Woodcock.  They're super goofy looking, and I've heard they have a really sweet late-dusk male mating display preceded by a duck-like peeent sound to get the ladies' attention.  

Looked up bird-sightings on IBET yesterday and saw that the Evanston birding group was taking an evening field trip to try and see the dance.  We arrived at Kent Fuller Air Station Prairie around 7 and finally, after standing in the cold for a half an hour, ready to give up, we heard the peeent....  and waited.  We saw the male silhouette emerge from a small swampy area and take a wide spiral up into the air 200-300 feet while making high-pitched wing twittering sounds.  It then took zig-zagged plunges down toward the female, landing near her then pausing and peenting before heading up again.  So weird!  Fist bump to that, whew.  Hate to drive so far and have hopes high only to get stiffed.

Now I just need to see them up close, jamming their awkwardly long and flexible probing beak into the mud on the search for earth worms.  That might be even more exciting.  Check out Cornell's fact sheet on these birds.

Update:  Yesss!  The picture above was taken at Montrose Bird Sanctuary one week after this post, Easter morning.  I was strolling around, seeing a whole lot of nothing when another birdwatcher told me where he'd seen one scurrying around in the leaves.  After some slow, steady searching I spotted him, he spotted me,  and I proceeded to snap bad photos of him.  I followed while he ran awkwardly from me pausing periodically to see if I'd given up.  I'm now feeling bad for him/her... I wonder if they are frequently spooked by nerders like me.  I guess they're also fair game for hunters too, so they have cause for caution.  Check out the muddy end of its beak!  I wish I could feel it to see how much it flexes.

North Park Nature Center in Feb.

No birds, just these guys.

October @ Montrose

Northern Waterthrush, Nice to See You..

Where have you been all my birding years?  I guess I shouldn't act like I knew I was missing you.  You're one of a handful of warblers I had yet to happen upon but probably the last on my list of priorities.  Still, I've been out with enough serious birders that I'm surprised you're my first.  No offense, but you're rather plain looking, more like a thrush.  I would always flip right past you and stop at the Prothonotary warbler for an awkwardly long time.  Probably because of their super-velvety, yellow, vulnerable-looking head and chest against plain gray wings.  Still, you were interesting to watch as I peered over another more professional-looking photographer.  And you're just making a brief appearance as you're passing through, perhaps down to Eleuthera or Panama.

Now, for some reason I've always been really fond of the Ovenbird even though you guys look very similar...  Maybe I'm more attracted to their white eye ring with contrasting dark head feathers - gives them a more humble, alert, and studious look.   They also don't have your eye stripe - I think that makes you look more stern.  And then of course you're not walking around singing "teacher-teacher-teacher"...  and you don't have a Robert Frost poem named after you.

You

Ovenbird @ Willowbrook Wildlife Center

Anyway, it was super-cold when I arrived so I'm glad you guys warmed up enough to move about.  Nice seeing you.

Others I met (just migrating through):

Lincoln sparrow, Magnolia warbler, Bay-breasted warbler, Blackpoll warbler

Year-round Residents:

Northern Flicker, Cardinal, Ruby-crowned kinglet, Cooper's Hawk, Black-capped chickadee, Robin

Back for the Winter:

Golden-crowned kinglet, Red-breasted nuthatch

Still here from Summer:

Gray catbird

Lincoln's Sparrow

Northern Flicker

Swan Lake

Thanks to Dan for this link!

Viroqua, Wisconsin

School's out for summer and we were off to the woods and streams in western Wisconsin. Sidie Hollow campground - the same one we took the ecology club to last year.  Beautiful spot...  oh, so buggy though this year.  A week later, I'm still consoling people that I don't have chicken pox...  I had a headnet on most of the time, but pulled it up to shoot pictures and spy birds.  They weren't black flies, but some kind of biting gnat.  We found out a little too late that vanilla extract wards them off.  

There is a dam with a small boomerang-shaped reservoir behind it. Campsites line a trout stream that leads into it.  Wayne runs the place with his wife and they have a bunch of bird-feeders near their motor home.  They always encourage me to get right up in their back yard and have a good look.  I'm glad because it feels weird peering through binocs with their trailer kitchen in the background and his wife staring out the window.  Brown Trout were caught although it's hard to sneak up on them when the water is this clear.  We haven't had much rain so far.  Maybe that's why no skeets.

I kept seeing this one-legged female red-winged blackbird.  She seemed to be getting along alright.

Cedar Waxwing

House Wren

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Eastern Towhee

Brown Trout

Wooded Island?

I'm not sure why this place has remained off my birdar.  But it was certainly nice to tag along with the Chicago Audubon Society for the annual Illinois Spring Bird Count on Saturday morning. So nice I went back for more the next day.  

Warblers:
Yellow-rumped, Palm, Yellow, Black-and-white, Redstart, Common Yellowthroat, Wilson's, Magnolia, female Black-throated Blue, male Black-throated Green(first ever!)

Others:
Eastern kingbird, Baltimore oriole, Ruby-crowned kinglet, Warbling vireo, Amer. goldfinch, Song sparrow, White-throated sparrow, White-crowned sparrow, Red-bellied woodpecker, Brown-headed cowbird, Caspian tern, Coots, Green heron, Kingfisher, and then the usuals.