We had a nice outing to Bemis Woods and Salt Creek, our first visit of the year. We saw a bunch of fun feathered friends.
Outings
We glimpsed some American White Pelicans cruising overhead, and spotted horned grebes for the first time.
On our way out to see some birds this afternoon, we looked up the word slough and learned that in the context of a pond or other water, it rhymes with “flew.” Either way, it must mean full of birds.
We saw oodles of coots, who took off in a hurry when a bald eagle flew by.
New Lifers:
- Horned Grebe
- Ruddy Duck
We went out with friends from the Will County Audubon Society to look out for those cute goofballs out strutting their stuff — woodcocks.
It was a dim evening, but we saw a bunch of fun birds nonetheless.
New Lifers:
- Fox Sparrow
- American Woodcock
This nicely dappled Fox Sparrow was spotted by the group leader, and we were lucky enough to see it for a few minutes. In the crummy light, this is the best pic we got.
Our goal was to spot American Woodcocks, hopefully out for their evening strut, but no luck there. That said, we spotted one in a tree, which startled and flew overhead. We got a good look as it flew overhead, silhouetted against the evening sky, but no luck with the camera. Shortly after, we arrived in a field where the Woodcock was doing a mating ritual in which it “meeps” a dozen or so times, then flies up in the air and makes a chirping sound with its wings, then dive-bombs back to where it started, and repeats. We did catch a bit of recording of the meep sounds.
Other Bird Friends:
First Meadowlark of the year! One of three we saw this evening.
Way across the lake, we spotted a Bald Eagle nest and a nesting couple. At the extreme edge of the lens, we got these goofy pictures of the nesting parents.
Fun to see the flycatchers starting to return. It’s the first of the Eastern Phoebes.
It wasn’t all feathered friends, though. We saw a muskrat and a deer.
It was a temperate but windy day when we took a quick walk around the Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center and said hello to our waterfowl friends on adjacent Longjohn Slough. Fun day!
We went out on this lovely, slightly chilly March morning to see what we could find. McGinnis Slough near Orland Park was quite fruitful, while Tampier Lake was fine, but was mostly birds we’d seen earlier that morning or yesterday in Chicago.
New Lifers:
- American Wigeon
- Trumpeter Swan
We got a new lifer, the American Wigeon, and it’s the first time we got really good looks at the Bufflehead (though the pic is meh) and the Northern Shoveler.
The highlight of the day was the Sandhill Cranes. When we were back on the trail, one of the cranes landed in the pond right near us, so we were able to see it pretty close (we stayed back, though). It got into a bit of a kerfuffle with some mallards who wanted to hang out nearby.
