Again birding the North Pond from 5:40am(quite gloomy, and not enough bird activity either), and after eating a hearty breakfast and checking out, joined COS bird walk at the Zoo led by Matt Igleski.
Not sure I spotted a Kirtland's warbler while birding North Pond(less than an hour). All birds were huddled more or less at eye level, and this warbler, also saw at that level. Instantly thought Kirtland's, but who knows. Thought the head was all-dark, also some whites on head or face, rather fine streaks on yellow breast. So initially ruled out Magnolia, Myrtle and Canada, but not sure. It vanished when I fished out my camera to take pics.
The most numerous warbler was American Redstart, and half of them were breeding male. A Tree swallow was resting on the partially submerged tree branch at the pond surface beside Northern Rough-wingeds. No Thrushes during this visit, probably just missed.
At the Zoo, thanks to Matt found out that the purported 'Common' Goldeneye was in fact Barrow's! What luck, and no wonder I confused it with Common; the day before I only saw a female one which is practically identical to Barrow's lol, whereas that day, 2 males proudly showed up for our inspection!
Inspected nook and cranny, and even though we missed an American Wigeon which was present recently, did spot some warblers including Blackpoll, also some Empidonax species. Found a Gray-cheeked Thrush at the Mourning warbler spot, as well.
I noticed I haven't seen any raptors during my stay, but maybe because it was breeding season; thanks to Matt, found a Cooper's Hawk in its nest! Never seen a hawk nest before, so that was nice(could barely see its head over the nest though!). Black-crowned Night-Heron rookery was also right at the SW edge of the Zoo, actually not far from the COHA nest.
So probably again lol, saw about 35 species, but the good ones were spotted/heard before and after out visit, such as Baltimore Oriole, Chipping Sparrow, Red-headed Woodpecker and Rose-breasted Grosbeak(yes I saw them all elsewhere, but wanted to record on my Illinois list!).
Had to leave early at 10am to catch the flight(11:44), and former COS president Jill Niland kindly 'escorted' me to the nearest Blue Train station to O'Hare as possible via her car! Can't thank her enough, thanks to her I had to endure less time agonizing over the urge to pee(Traffic on the opposite direction, but of course had no problem on the Train)!
Was of course also super hungry, so by the time I was waiting for an HOUR for the Flyaway bus to arrive at LAX, was dreaming of Soontofu again!
(the lesson here is that you
gotta escape LAX by
any means possible, as
early as possible lol. Should've taken a shuttle to the nearby Green Metro rail. Rush hour traffic certainly didn't help!).
O'Hare
The flight stopped briefly at Denver, so I was of course delighted, in the hope of catching a glimpse of birds there lol. Couldn't go outside of course, so was desperately peering through the window for any glimpse of birds! Snow all around(33 degrees???!!), gloomy as well, and swallows were flying around. So, eh, probably recorded 4 species for Colorado!
So, found about 80 species in Illinois, not bad, could've been better if I birded Montrose Point, but it's ok.
Now I want to bird the Prairies. To see those sparrows, especially Henslow's!
Probably wouldn't go anytime soon, but the
zugunruhe hasn't been sated enough...!
was one in this same location three years ago.