It has been a while since I have posted, but the long Winter is almost over, and Spring has brought me back to sharing my sightings. As 2013 came to a close, I finished a county big year with 234 countable birds in McLean County + Whooping Crane and Barnacle Goose, which cannot be counted in Illinois. I also had two sightings of Sharp-shinned Hawk, but later started second guessing myself because at the time of the sightings I could not point to specific field marks other than flight pattern and size and general impression and had no photographic evidence. So I decided not to count this bird as number 235 when I submitted my numbers to the Illinois Ornithological Society though I now feel strongly that I did see a Sharp-shinned Hawk on at least one of those occasions because I remember the enormity of the bird's eyes.
Barnacle Goose is not countable in Illinois because it would rarely occur here naturally and is therefore suspect of being an escaped bird from someone's private collection. These geese are commonly kept by individuals and organizations. I remember seeing a pair of them at Duke Gardens at Duke University along with shelducks and a Mandarin Duck years ago. Whooping Crane is not countable because the pair I saw were most likely part of the ultralight reintroduction program and are not self-sustaining.
Two birds which were sorely missed in 2013, were Loggerhead Shrike and Northern Shrike. These two birds are rare in McLean County, and I wanted to add both of them to my county life list as well as my 2013 year list. Andrew Aldrich located a Loggerhead Shrike in May, but I arrived about 15 minutes too late to see it where he had found it. Several Northern Shrikes had been seen in early 2013 and in December, and I diligently searched for them hoping to make Northern Shrike #235 on my 2013 McLean County list, but to no avail.
In February 2014, I saw a few nice birds in Central Illinois, but my travels also brought some firsts from abroad. I traveled to Lafayette, Indiana for a Biblical counseling conference that my employer Salem4Youth sent me to. Then upon my return, Carrie and I headed away on an adventure to Minnesota for the Sax-Zim Bog birding festival, where we would both score many new life birds.
I was very appreciative when Matthew Winks gave me a call on the afternoon of February 2, the day of the Superbowl, to tell me he had found a Northern Shrike off of W. College St. in Bloomington. I hurried over to look for it. I saw it in a tree in a field behind a business on Merle Ln., but it flew away before I could get a clear look or a photo. As I was leaving the area, Winks honked his horn. I turned my car around and saw that he had relocated the bird. The light was not great for photos, but I was happy just to add this one to my county list and to make it home in time to see the Superbowl.
Three days later on my way to work in Flanagan, I saw this flying over the fields of Livingston County just off of N 300 East Rd.
It was the first time during the day that I had seen a Short-eared Owl in flight so I was not 100% positive of what I had seen, but then I saw the bird land in a tree in the back of someone's yard. I could not see it so I thought it landed in the back of the tree, but I took this shot anyway.
When I got home, I cropped the photo, and was stunned to see the owl's face staring back at me.
This was only the second Short-eared Owl I had ever seen and my first in Livingston County.
As I continued toward work, I found several Snow Buntings with a flock of Horned Larks, feeding on the seeds in the tall grass along the side of the road.
Written on March 30, 2014
Published on February 1, 2015
