Illinois Young Birders Trip 3/3/12

On Saturday, March 3rd, the Illinois Young Birders took a trip into DuPage County, Illinois to try and find some owls. We started near Naperville, Illinois, but went all over the county on our quest. There was one special bird that our trip leader, Jeff Smith, was going to share with us. It blew my mind when I found out what it was.

He had found a Barn Owl on private property, the first known in DuPage County in over 30 years. This is a remarkable find and perhaps shows that they are expanding their range northwards. For the safety of this bird, I can only say that it was on private property at an undisclosed location. We watched this individual for over 30 minutes and I was able to get a picture of its feet and half of its face. Over half of the bird was concealed, but this was probably because it was 30º outside, and very windy. Below are my two best photos:

At this location, we also had my FOY White-crowned Sparrows:

Jeff then took us out to see a Great-horned Owl sitting on a nest, which according to him, was created by a Red-tailed Hawk.

After this, we went to try and find some Long-eared Owls, but they were at their usual location. From here, the group split up, and the remaining 8 of us traveled to the Morton Arboretum to go look for a Barred Owl, Pileated Woodpecker, and White-winged Crossbills. These birds are known to be in the Arboretum, but did take some time to find.

We arrived at the Barred Owl location in the Arboretum and played a few snippets of tape to see if we could usher a response. After about five minutes, we heard a Pileated Woodpecker respond. We gave up after another five minutes, and walked back to the cars to play a louder tape from Jeff's car. From here, we got a response from the resident Barred Owl. Unfortunately, these birds were heard only, so no pictures were possible.

From this location in the Arboretum, we traveled over to Hemlock Hill to try and find the Crossbills. I had read that they had been feeding on some cones that had fallen to the ground, supposedly offering great looks. We were not disappointed and as soon as we got to the right location, we found 14 feeding on the ground, about 10-15 feet away from us. Standing behind a tree, I was able to get some amazing pictures of them, and some came within 3-5 feet of me. Here are some of the pictures I was able to capture:

How many birds do you count in this photo?

At one point, while observing the crossbills, my mom called to the group that she had found an American Mink. I was unable to hear her and after it dove back into the water, she came and got me. I rushed over to see if I could re-find it. Sure enough, it did resurface and climbed back onto a little island, but as soon as it came out of the water, it ran to the other side, only to dive back in. Here are two shots I got of it running away from us:

Overall, this was a great trip, and I really enjoyed myself. Jeff is an amazing trip leader, and I hope to go birding with him more often. I would like to thank the Illinois Young Birders for setting this trip up, and to Brian Herriott for originally creating the group.

Thanks for reading, and good birding!

Nathan