A Vacation at Home
After going for so long with so little actual birding done, I was eager to make the most of my brief (June 17-July 2) stay in Chicago. A Black-tailed Gull, of all things, showed up in the first few days of June, but didn’t stay for long. A Snowy Plover was found a few days later within a mile of where the gull was found, but it too fled for different shores. So with nothing much to chase, I arrived in one of the dullest times of the year; when the breeders have slowed their singing and the shorebirds have not yet begun to flow back from their Arctic breeding grounds.
I still felt the immediate urge to go “into the field”, however, so the day after I landed in Chicago I headed down to Montrose. The pair of Piping Plovers, Imani and Sea Rocket, have chosen the protected beach as their breeding grounds, gifting the Chicago birding community with hopes of a successful nest. I was able to see Imani feeding very close to the pier next to a trio of 3 Semipalmated Sandpipers - very late migrants considering the time of year. Gulls and terns filled the beach, but I couldn’t find the Bonaparte’s Gull that was being seen on and off, and so after making a stop by the Bank Swallow colony I headed home.
Several days later, I took my 12 year old sister with me to Linne Woods. The Barred Owls that nest there are hard to find this time of year, with the trees’ leaves blocking views of most branches, but we got there early anyways and I was able to relearn the local songs much quicker than I thought I would. We had great views of a Great Blue Heron fishing by the river, and surprisingly a Yellow-billed Cuckoo sang several times! They’re quite common in the summer provided one is in the right habitat, but they prefer creeping around the treetops rather than singing, let alone going into the open.
After a storm several days later, the sky turned clear and the wind began to blow from the west. If I was to see any good shorebirds over these few weeks, this is when I knew I would be able to see them, so I told my sister to get ready to go to Montrose. Checking my phone, it seemed that other birders had the same thoughts; several were already there and had found a flock of Willets. The real spectacle, though, lay in the seiches that flooded into the usually calm inlet with surprising violence, and then spilled out into the lake with currents constantly moving every way. A swimmer’s nightmare, but we were safe up on the pier and saw this uncommon event play out for fifteen minutes before the water finally rushed out for the last time. We left the beach a few minutes later, but with the beach now above water due to the lack of flooding, the Willets flew back and we were able to run back and enjoy the storm-blown wanderers. We were also able to see both plovers and a Cliff Swallow, which is uncommon in the summer outside of known nesting sites.
I was quite busy during this time with shopping, packing, and of course spending time with my family, but I was able to make one nostalgia-fueled run to Lighthouse Beach. The protected beach there had Ring-billed and Herring Gulls and a few Caspian Terns, but nothing else of note. A couple of Cliff Swallows flew over, and 2 Song Sparrows were singing in the dunes.
For my last day, several other birders and I headed to Goose Lake Natural Area up in McHenry County to look for breeding specialties. The long walk to the marsh through a strip of forest habitat brought Cedar Waxwings, Yellow Warblers, and Indigo Buntings, and my hesitation in identifying them reminded me of just how long I’ve been away from familiar ground. Upon reaching the marsh, we had great views of up to a dozen Yellow-headed Blackbirds, a lifer Black Tern gliding above the water, Cliff Swallows, and a Virginia Rail called a couple of times which I unfortunately was not able to hear. While talking with Paul Quintas on the way back to the car, who had organized this trip, (see my first-ever post), he suddenly pointed to a large rabbit sized animal on the path, we lifted up our binoculars, and it was a beautiful male Ring-necked Pheasant! True to its shy character, it skittered off the path several seconds later, and we weren’t able to refind it for the others who were far behind us.
Checking my phone, I saw that four Black-necked Stilts had been reported at a fluddle within 10 minutes of where we were, with word of a breeding plumage American Golden-Plover at a separate fluddle also nearby! We decided to prioritize the stilts and pulled up to the side of the road to the largest fluddle I’ve ever seen, maybe several hundred feet across. (A fluddle is a term used by inland birders to describe a puddle large enough to draw in shorebirds, and often forms after heavy rain by beaches or fields.) After a bit of scanning, we successfully found one of the stilt pairs, and also a lone Cliff Swallow (what is it with me and Cliff Swallows?). Looking at previous reports, I saw that a late female Bufflehead had been reported here - and a look through a scope turned a distant duck I had dismissed as a Mallard into a bird that should be far, far north this time of year.
With limited time, we decided to skip the plover (which didn’t end up being reported again after the initial sighting) and head home, temporarily capping off my 2024 Illinois list at 63 species, which is a decent number for a relatively low-effort two weeks at the end of June.
Headed to camp now for a month, this time in the mountains of NE Pennsylvania…
Comentarios
Agregar un comentario