Rough-legged Adventures in McLean County

On Christmas Eve, I birded at Moraine View State Park, while Carrie was working, hoping to find a Northern Shrike. Unfortunately, I did not see any shrikes, but I did find this beautiful juvenile light morph Rough-legged Hawk, hunting the field North of 900 N Rd. at the park entrance.









Then yesterday late in the morning and in the afternoon, I went driving around near Downs, IL to look for raptors, and I was not disappointed. Just along a few roads North and East of Downs, I had 12 Red-tailed Hawks, 4 Rough-legged Hawks, 2 Northern Harriers, and 4 American Kestrels. This area was recommended to me by Shanin Abreu last year, and in the last year it has also produced Red-shouldered Hawk, Barred Owl, Osprey, and a host of other birds including Northern Bobwhite, Northern Mockingbird, and a variety of waterfowl and songbirds. Many of the raptors I saw were along E 800 North Rd. just East of Downs. One field at the West end of this road produced two Rough-legged Hawks, two harriers, and two to three Red-tails.

I had started out birding at Moraine View State Park earlier in the morning. So when I left Moraine View, I drove West from the park on 800 N Rd. As I approached Downs, I saw a couple of kestrels on the power lines. Then I saw two Rough-legged Hawks flying in the field on the North side of the road just East of Downs. I identified the first bird through my binoculars as an adult light morph male before it flew into the tree line along the East edge of the field, and I was able to take this photo of it later in the day.



After observing the first bird, I turned my attention to the second, which had landed on top of a telephone pole on the South side of the road and was clearly an adult dark morph. This individual put on quite a show for me hunting in hovering mode close to the road in the afore mentioned field, hunting from a tree in front of the house on the West end of the field, and then returning to hovering mode, and then back to the tree again. Abreu said she had seen a dark morph hanging around at this same spot on several occasions last Winter. Perhaps the same bird has returned to the same spot.



















At one point, while it was sitting in the tree, it was mobbed by a Red-tailed Hawk. There were actually three or four Red-tails in the area, sitting in the tree lines North and East of the fields North of 800 N Rd. After observing the dark morph for a long while, I drove the roads North of Downs and found several more Red-tails, another kestrel, and this juvenile light morph Rough-legged in a field East of 2100 East Rd. The white patches on the upper wing is differentiates juvenile from adult female.





As I drove Northwest away from Downs on highway 150, I saw a fourth Rough-legged--an adult female light morph. This individual had no white patches on the upperwing, and appeared buffy underneath, differentiating adult female from juvenile.



I did not see the harriers until late in the afternoon when Shanin Abreu texted me that she had seen a couple of harriers and a Sharp-shinned Hawk in the area. When I went back to the area, the two Rough-leggeds I had seen earlier in the field along 800 N Rd. were still present and there were two harriers hunting in the same field at the same time. There was also a kestrel on the power line on the South side of the road. The female harrier mobbed the adult light morph male Rough-legged. Then I saw the male and female harriers hunting in formation together. The male was flying high above the female as she soared just above ground. The dark morph Rough-legged, which had been sitting in the field close to the road for a long time started hunting again and seemed to move further back into the field to get away from the harriers; though, I could not tell whether they were intentionally harassing the dark morph.

Brewer's Duck (Gadwall X Mallard Hybrid) at Schroeder Wildlife Sanctuary in McLean County

On Thursday morning, I went to Schroeder hoping to find something new in the prairie, but once I arrived, I was drawn by the loud calls of Mallards. I hiked the trail to the blind and found over 1,000 ducks in the largest pond. It was also nice to see that the ragged, worn blinds along the end of the trail, which had been placed to prevent waterfowl from seeing people approach the main blind, had been replaced with new blinds.

On my way to the blind, I heard and then saw a pair of Golden-crowned Kinglets. Once I made it to the blind and started scanning with my scope, I found that there were nine different species of waterfowl present, and a Gadwall x Mallard hybrid.

Here is the hybrid duck with Mallards and Gadwalls . . .







The following are the nine waterfowl species I observed there, including numbers . . .

Canada Goose 40
Gadwall 35
American Wigeon 1
American Black Duck 1
Mallard 1,000 (estimated)
Northern Shoveler 2
Northern Pintail 4
Green-winged Teal 2
Redhead 3

Here are several photos of the Gadwalls . . .















Here are a couple of the American Wigeon . . .





And here is my favorite of the day other than the hybrid, an American Black Duck drake . . .





I love ducks!

December Raptors and McLean County Christmas Bird Count

On December 5, Joe called me to let me know that a Snowy Owl had been seen at Moraine View State Park. I was just able to make it before dusk and we were able to relocate this rare visitor from the Arctic and a county year bird for both of us.



On December 14, Dale Birkenholz, Les Allen, Lenore Sobota, and I covered the area around Lake Bloomington for the Christmas Bird Count in McLean County. Lenore did not join us until after lunch because she was in a race at Evergreen Lake despite the seven inches of snow we had the night before. It was a beautiful day to be out. The sky was overcast, and the ground was covered with snow, but it was not unbearably cold or windy. Our best birding was on Lake Bloomington. We were watching a large group of Canada Geese and Mallards with a few Cackling Geese, a juvenile Trumpeter Swan, a female Common Merganser, a Greater White-fronted Goose, and an American Black Duck or two mixed in when more geese flew in. The calls were high pitched, and we could see a few white geese in the mix. We thought they were mostly Canada Geese with a few Snow Geese mixed in. However, when they landed, we discovered the flock was actually made up of about 60 Cackling Geese and four Ross's Geese. It was nice to see these two species side by side. They were both pretty much the same size and shared similar bill structure. We stopped at the same place a couple of times later that day and found a pair of American Wigeons, a pair of Northern Pintails, five more American Black Ducks, and four Trumpeter Swans--three adults and a what appeared to be a different juvenile. Here are three of the Trumpeters.



We also ran into a couple of domestic friends that day, while driving around. Too bad we could not count either of these guys. They were starting to move toward Dale's vehicle just before we drove away. I think we could have collected them if we had wanted to.



Given Harper had found a Peregrine Falcon at ISU a couple of days before the count, but I was counting in the wrong area to go looking for it on the count day. Given had seen it on Watterson Towers, and Wes Kolb saw it on count day a couple of blocks North on top of Hewitt. There were a couple of other birds seen by others on count day that I still needed for the year in the county--Snow Bunting and Short-eared Owl. Also, Matthew Winks had seen a Northern Shrike a few days prior to the count, and I still needed this bird for the county period!

Before church the next morning, I drove to Watterson Towers and Hewitt, but did not see the Peregrine on either building. But alas, I saw it on Manchester, a smaller dorm adjacent to Hewitt. It seemed to be roosting to stay warm. I nearly got frostbite trying to take pictures of it and had to soak my fingers in lukewarm water when I returned home; however, it was such a beautiful bird!





Later in the day, Wes Kolb and I went to look for the shrike, Snow Bunting, and Short-eared Owl. We could not find the shrike, nor any owls, but we did relocate the Snow Bunting he had seen the previous day during the count. It was on a small grain bin near the corner of Ropp Rd. and Raab Rd.



We also had a Common Grackle (late) at Evergreen Lake, two Fox Sparrows near Lexington, and a Rough-legged Hawk North of Lexington. Evergreen Lake held at least 12 Common Goldeneyes, and there were 11 Common Mergansers at Lake Bloomington.

Our best find of the day; however, was this Bald Eagle eating a Canada Goose at Evergreen Lake near the West boat launch.





Good birding!

This post was written and published on December 21, 2013. It was originally published as part of the post "Winter Raptors, Songbirds, and Waterfowl." Then it was separated from that post and republished on February 1, 2015

Winter Raptors, Songbirds, and Waterfowl

Winter brings different birds, and when the leaves fall off the deciduous trees, it becomes easier to see many of the birds that remain year round such as owls. This November and December, I have seen some wonderful birds, adding several species to my county year list and adding three new species to my life list.

On November 9, Joseph Phipps and I went to look for a Black Scoter that Ted Hartzler had found at El Paso Sewage Treatment Center. We found the female Black Scoter, which was a lifer for both of us, and there was a female White-winged Scoter with it.



Ring-necked Ducks, Lesser Scaups, Ruddy Ducks, and a pair of Redheads were also present in the sewage ponds. We also went to Evergreen Lake that day where we found a Franklin's Gull and several Dunlin.

On November 12, as I drove around one of the sewage ponds in Gridley, I saw this Lapland Longspur feeding on the Southwest corner of the gravel drive which surrounds the pond. I was able to get close looks at this bird from my car. It was my first Lapland in the county for the year. These birds nest in the Arctic tundra and Winter in our corn fields.





On November 22, Joseph Phipps and I returned to El Paso Sewage Treatment Center where we found a pair of Snow Buntings, another Arctic nester and a lifer for Joe.



Earlier that day, we had seen this odd looking Red-tailed Hawk somewhere in McLean County.



The next day as we drove through the fields in Northwest McLean County searching for a Snow Bunting in McLean County, we found this Lapland Longspur, another lifer for Joe.



The week of Thanksgiving, Joe and I decided to drive North to try to see something different. On Tuesday, November 26, we went searching for two target birds--Monk Parakeet and Townsend's Solitaire. There was a Townsend's Solitaire, which had been discovered at Jon J. Duerr Forest Preserve in Kane County and had been seen continuing there for about a week. And the Comed Substation in DuPage County hosts a Monk Parakeet colony year round. So we decided to drive up I-39 to see the solitaire and then try for the parakeets before returning to Normal.

As we would be passing Evergreen Lake in McLean County on I-39, we decided to stop there to check the lake for waterfowl before continuing to Kane County. It was a cloudy, overcast morning, and on the corner of the road that turns in toward Comlara Park, we saw this Barred Owl perched out in the open.



When we drove along the East side of the lake toward the Deer Island trail, we found 13 Trumpeter Swans. We tried to hike the trail to get closer, but by the time we got to the clearing where we could view them, they were gone.



As we drove away from Comlara, we found what appeared to be a second Barred Owl in a much more vibrant setting.



We returned to I-39 and continued North. As we were passing the exit to Shabonna Lake State Park, Joe pointed out a hawk soaring to our left--it was a Rough-legged. We turned around and pulled off at the exit, where the Rough-legged Hawk was perched in a tree.



Again, we continued North and eventually made our way to Jon J. Duerr Forest Preserve. We followed the railroad tracks to the location, which had been described on the Illinois Birder's Forum. After about 15-20 minutes, we saw the Townsend's Solitaire perched in a tree beside the tracks. This bird was a lifer for both of us.



This bird did not stay in the same place for long, but we had several great looks before we left. We also saw a few Golden-crowned Kinglets and a Yellow-rumped Warbler. One of the kinglets is shown below.







By the time we made it to the Comed Substation, it was very cold and beginning to sleet, but we quickly heard and saw a small flock of Monk Parakeets flying overhead. They returned to the structures inside the fence, where we were able to watch them through my spotting scope before heading back to Normal. This was another lifer for us both.





This post was written and published on December 21, 2013.