Time to Catch up

Hi all,

It has been forever since I have posted here. I apologize, and hope to get this blog back up and running. This spring has been very interesting. Last year, I missed so many Warblers and other spring migrants, and this year, I am only missing 5 of the 37 usual Warbler species expected in Illinois. Well, onto the great birds!

On May 1st, I attended the Illinois Young Birders walk to Waterfall Glen in DuPage County. We had an extraordinary day with fantastic birds, such as this very early Black-throated Blue Warbler,

Scarlet Tanager

Blackburnian Warbler

A nice singing Palm Warbler

We also ran across some Morel Mushrooms which happen to be edible, such as this one below

Also, we found a butterfly, a new on for me called a Comma

Overall, it was a great day, with a huge amount of migrants and overall fun with old friends.
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The next weekend, May 14th and 15th, I joined Craig Taylor and Tim Kuesel for some birding in Gallatin County for the Spring Bird Count, which is about 6 hours from Chicago in Southern Illinois. I was ready for an adventure, which is exactly what I got. We were prepared for vast flooding, but definitely not the amount there actually was. About 80% of the County was unbirdable. This made species few and far between, since we couldn't even get to them. We were at about 40-50 species at 10:00 in the morning, and we were preparing to go to another county and see some other birds that we would miss on the trip. One area we really needed to get to was the Shawnee National Forest. All of the roads we knew into there were closed, which was very saddening and was costing us a huge amount of birds. But then, we happened to find a road. It was a private road, but open to the public during that time due to the flooding. It ventured into the hills, which was prime habitat like the Shawnee. YES! We got out of the car at the base of the hill, and had some birds like this beautiful Male Summer Tanager

Then, on the drive up, during periodic stops, we ran into a ton of birds like this Louisiana Waterthrush

Kentucky Warbler

Worm-eating Warbler (showed greatly, but did not when I brought the camera out...)

and this Wood Thrush whose nest I found

We also ran into a pocket of migrants, which contained about 10-15 new species of Warblers. At the top of the hill, we ran into some farmland, containing a Vesper Sparrow, about 15-20 Dicksissels, and a beautiful Lark Sparrow

At the end of the day, we got 103 Species, and had one of the weirdest days of birding I have ever experienced.

The next day, we traveled West to Williamson County, and entered Crab Orchard NWR.

Here, we had some more great birds, and we ran into a Bobwhite, this time wanting to show itself, and not just call from a hidden location.

We also had some more Dicksissel's, one of which posed for about .5 seconds.

Then, on our last stop of the trip, we stopped in Coles County on our way home, and ventured to the Douglas-Hart Nature Preserve to try to find some migrants for Craig and Tim to add to their county list. We did find a few migrants like this Scarlet Tanager

American Redstart

Black-and-White Warbler

And another Scarlet Tanager, this time a female

Overall, Southern Illinois was very strange, but also amazing. We had some fantastic birds, and this was a trip I would never forget. Thank you Craig and Tim for letting me tag along and experience some great birding.

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Lastly, I went birding at Montrose and along the lakefront Sunday, May 15 with Geoff Williamson. We had a quirky day to say the least. The wind was 25-35 MPH strong, and was always blowing. At Montrose we had a Lesser Black-backed Gull and a flock of Terns which contained some Caspian Terns, about 200 Common Terns and 4 Forester's Terns. There was one Common Tern with a broken wing, which we called the Bird Collision Monitors and alerted them. They quickly came to pick it up, which you can see here

And here is a close up of the bird, which we all hoped would be okay, and be able to fly again

Later, we came to North Pond, and found a few birds, including this Lincoln's Sparrow

Magnolia Warbler

and this female Blackpoll Warbler

This was one of the most horrid days of birding to be on the lakefront, due to the powerful winds and rain mixed in. Thanks Geoff, for staying with it, and helping me find some more birds for my year list. My total stands at 193 species for Illinois at the moment, and should grow with time and effort.

Thanks for reading, I hope to post soon about my upcoming trip to Palos with the Chicago Ornithological Society.

'Till next time,

Nathan

Weekend Potpourri

This weekend has been one of the best I have had recently. I had a four-day break from school thanks to our lovely presidents. The following is a synopsis of the past three days.

Friday the 18th, I attended an art opening at Rotofugi for the great artist Frank Kozik. He was low-key during the opening and signed a few vinyl pieces for me. He has a large following and designs many pieces of art, some of which are manufactured by companies like Kidrobot. With others, he manufactures them himself and sells directly to the public via his website. I was able to interact with him and catch up with a few of my friends that I see mostly at the openings. Here is a photograph I took with Frank Kozik during the event:

Also, during the event, Rotofugi invited the Space Tamale Truck to come by and sell tamales to us. The workers are vey entertaining and to be different from others tamale sellers in restaurants, dress in Lucha Libre fighting costumes. They were awesome! Here is a photograph of the workers:

Overall, I had a great time. After arriving back home, I prepared for the days of birding to come, which were highly anticipated.


Here are photos of pieces that Kozik signed (A lot of his work contains fake cigarettes. My mom originally didn't want me to get them, but it became a lost cause. DON'T SMOKE):

Burt from Mongers Filter Kings, signed in '11

  

A figure with no name from Mongers Menthols, signed in '11

          

Cyrus from Mongers Filter Kings, signed in '11

A custom Munny by Frank Kozik from '09

 

A custom Munny by Frank Kozik from '11

The Robot Dunny from Series 5, signed in '09

Lorenzo from Mongers Menthols, signed in '09

Clambake from Dunny Endangered!, signed in '09

Green Apple Dunny from Dunny 2010, signed in '11

Cook Dunny from Dunny 2009, signed in '11 

                       

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Saturday, the 19th of February, I attended the IOS-sponsored Gull Frolic at Winthrop Harbor Yacht Club, very near the Illinois/Wisconsin border. I had a fantastic time catching up with a bunch of friends and making new ones. I was also was able to hear a lecture from Alvaro Jaramillo who was a great speaker giving us an introduction to Gulls. At the Frolic, the people there tallied five of seven expected species of Gull, but we all wished we had seen eight. The reason was that we all wanted a kid named Ethan Gyllenhaal to cut his hair. It is extremely long, and we all want him to shave and get a trim. One of my mentors, Chris Williamson, wants him to get a Justin Bieber haircut. I second that motion. An ornithologist from the Field Museum brought in dead specimens for Ethan and all of the attendees to see. Unfortunately, Ethan would not count them as one of the eight Gull species. He never did specify that they had to be alive, so we were frustrated. Anyway, it was still a great day. Below are a few photographs from the day at Winthrop Harbor:

The sign leading into the Yacht Club

Geoff (He will be introduced later) and his bread for chumming the Gulls

Ruddy Duck

Gadwall

Hooded Merganser pair

Very strange white winged gull, possibly the nominate race of Iceland Gull vs. the Kumlien's Gull

At about 1:30 PM, Aaron Gyllenhaal, the brother of Ethan, and I, were getting bored at looking at Gulls. Since we had some time, and Aaron’s Dad was willing to drive us to go birding for a little while elsewhere, we went to Lake County in search of Saw-whet Owls in an undisclosed location (for the protection of the birds. There was a lot of about chest high thick brush where we were looking, and seedpods spilling up all over me. I checked every Cedar tree I could, which is their usual resting place, but I had no luck. I did happen to find this deer carcass, perhaps eaten by Coyotes. Turkey Vultures probably would have eaten it if it were in a more open area, and if they had migrated here by now. Here is a photo of the carcass:

That night, since I was carpooling with Geoff and Chris Williamson two of my three mentors, who in turn, were chauffeuring Alvaro around, we went out for Indian food on Devon Street. It was great to interact one on one with Alvaro and discuss a lot of other birds--not just gulls. I also made a bet with Geoff. We bet that if I saw more year birds then he does, I would get to go on a trip anywhere to try to see a rare bird, known as a twitch. If he wins, I will have to pay for his room and gas money for a trip to Duluth, Minnesota. It will be a interesting bet because of my school situation and his job. I am at 56 species so far this year for Illinois. During dinner, Jim Hulley ate with us, who is a birder moving here soon from Massachusetts, who is also a friend of Alvaro. He seemed like a great guy, and I hope to see him again either in the field or at another birding get-together. Here is a photo of all of the birders in attendance:

From left: Alvaro, Chris, Geoff, me, and Jim

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On Sunday, February 20th, I attended the COS sponsored Post-Frolic Chicago Lakefront Tour. The event was led by Chris and Geoff Williamson, and co-led by Alvaro Jaramillo. We had a great day hitting prime birding locations along the Lakefront. We started at Montrose Point [,] where we saw a Thayer's Gull, Glaucous Gull (which I missed), a Mallard-Black Duck hybrid, and an American Coot, year bird #55 for me.

We then moved to Northerly Island were we saw:

A male Long-tailed Duck, sitting:

A male Long-tailed Duck, flying:

Some Redheads:

And a Northern Shrike (The same bird I saw already this year, which I did not blog about):

The next place we visited was Hammond Marina in Indiana. In Illinois, on the drive out, Sam Burkhardt (my other mentor aside from Geoff and Chris) and I saw a Peregrine Falcon, year bird #56 for me. At Hammond Marina, we observed a very distant male White-winged Scoter:

And a Kumlien's Iceland Gull that has been observed on the same light post for over three years now:

The last location that we visited was Whiting Refinery Plant. Birding along the Lakefront in Indiana is depressing because most of it entails outflow from power plants and their epic stink. It is not very enjoyable, but the birds are nice. At Whiting, we saw some Buffleheads (known to birders as Buffalo-heads):

And a Great Black-backed Gull:

The three days were great while they lasted, and Monday was spent sleeping in (finally!), and going to appointments.

Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoyed it!

Nathan