Red Crossbills at Sand Ridge State Forest

Carrie made a nice egg casserole for us this morning. After a relaxing breakfast, we drove to Sand Ridge State Forest where Red Crossbills had been reported by several birders over the last couple of weeks. When we got into the forest, we saw Jim Mountjoy and stopped to chat with him for a moment before continuing to the location. We saw Mike Ingram walking down the road near the location where the crossbills had been spotted. So we got out and followed him. I walked ahead of Mike and Carrie a little and I heard crossbills nearby. Then I was able to get on one with my binoculars in the Virginia Pines.



I motioned for Carrie and Mike to join me. Then several others popped up. There were at least two males and three females. Tony Ward and Colin Dobson drove up after the crossbills flew back further back into the woods and told us that they had seen more of them there today. Red Crossbill was a lifer for Carrie, and it was only the second time that I had seen them.





We followed Tony, Colin, and Mike to a location where a Pine Grosbeak had been reported by Kevin Richmond, but none of us saw it there. Carrie and I continued to Spring Lake bottoms to look for the Northern Shrike, which had been reported there, but the shrike was nowhere to be seen. However, we enjoyed the Belted Kingfisher, the Northern Harrier, the Great Blue Herons, and the Mute Swans.

We decided to go back to crossbill site again to see if the crossbills had returned. They had not, but on our way there we saw this adult male light morph Rough-legged Hawk.



And we saw a nice Red-tailed Hawk on our way out of the forest. We did pretty well with raptors today. In addition to the Northern Harrier at Spring Lake bottoms, the Rough-legged Hawk near Sand Ridge, and the Red-tailed Hawk in the Sand Ridge forest, we also saw several American Kestrels, and a Bald Eagle on the drive over bringing our raptor species tally for the day to five.

Hybrid Ducks at the Kenneth L. Schroeder Wildlife Sanctuary in McLean County, IL

On January 17, I went to the Scroeder Wildlife Sanctuary to check out the ducks from the blind. I had some pheasants near the entrance and a few nice raptors during my walks back and forth to the blind--Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, and Bald Eagle.

I was pleased to find a four hybrid ducks amongst the Mallards and Gadwalls. I found this Brewer's Duck (Gadwall X Mallard Hybrid), which may be the same bird that was there last Winter.



I also found my first Mallard X Northern Pintail.





There were also what I originally thought to be a pair of American Black Ducks, but notice the male on the left in the first photo and on the right in the second photo has green on its head and a some red coloration on its chest. It is an American Black Duck X Mallard Hybrid.





Then there was this oddball, which I hoped to be a Mottled Duck but is more likely a female American Black Duck X Mallard Hybrid.







Written and published on January 31, 2015

Thayer's, Lesser Black-backed, and Glaucous Gulls at Peoria Lake

Having driven all the way to Quincy, IL to see the Ivory Gull a day too late, it was nice to hear the next day that Jim Mountjoy had found a Slaty-backed Gull less than an hour away in East Peoria. After I got home from church, I noticed a text on my phone from Travis Mahan about this find. So I called Joe Phipps to let him know, ate a quick lunch, and I was on my way again, but this time to Peoria Lake. When I arrived, there was already a crowd of 10-15 birders, including Joe, Matthew Winks, Shanin Abreu, Angelo Caparella, Ted Hartzler, Jim Mountjoy, and Andy Sigler. A Lesser Black-backed Gull had been found when we arrived, but the Slaty-backed had flown away shortly after Jim found it, and had not been seen by anyone else.

I wasn't there long before Winks had identified three Thayer's Gulls, and Thayer's was a lifer for me. It wasn't an Ivory Gull or a Slaty-backed, but a lifer is a lifer, and perhaps this one meant more to me in some ways than an Ivory Gull. Up until a week ago, finding an Ivory Gull had been nowhere on my radar, but I had been searching for a Thayer's Gull for at least three years, and there they were--not one, but three of them. The first I saw was a typical dark-eyed adult on the left in the photo below beside a Herring Gull.



Winks also discovered this 3rd Cycle Thayer's with pale eyes.





And he was excited to find this 2nd Cycle Thayer's.







Here is a 2nd cycle Herring that was there for comparison.



And here are an adult type Herring Gull, and a Ring-billed Gull that I photographed.





Eventually Amar Ayyash showed up, and Joe and I followed Matthew, Shanin, Angelo, and Amar to the other side of the river, where there was a fourth Thayer's Gull--an adult type Thayer's with pale eyes.





The second cycle bird also showed up, having followed the bread to the other side of the lake as did the Lesser Black-backed Gull.





Then the adult Thayer's with the dark eye showed up, and it was nice to be able to see it close up and compare it with the the Herring Gulls.





Just when it seemed that things could not get any more exciting a 1st Cycle Glaucous Gull flew in!













Here is a shot with both the adult Thayer's and the Glaucous Gull in the same frame.



Eventually, the Lesser Black-backed Gull also came in closer.





We finished the afternoon with five gull species, as I saw every white-headed gull species I had ever seen at the same location in the same moment.



These events took place on January 11, 2015, but this post was written and published on January 19, 2015

An Ivory Gull Run

On January 10, Carrie and I, accompanied by Joe Phipps, made our run to Quincy, IL to see the rare Ivory Gull, which had been seen in the area for eight days. We had all the makings of a great day together, except the Ivory Gull was not found, despite the 200+ birders that showed up to look for it. We searched all morning for the gull and then had a warm lunch at the Quincy Pizza Hut. It was cold inside the restaurant as were our hearts with disappointment. By this time we realized we would not likely see the bird, but we rallied and decided to keep searching in the afternoon to and see what else we could find in the area.

There were several species of sparrows at the Detwiler Marina where the Ivory Gull had been seen the previous day, including Eurasian Tree Sparrows, Song Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, and Fox Sparrows. Here are a couple of the Fox Sparrows we saw.



After a little more searching for the Ivory Gull, we spent a little bit of time on the Missouri side of the river looking for a Northern Shrike that was reported in the area. Although we did not locate the shrike, we did find 30 Trumpeter Swans.



We returned to the Lock & Dam in Quincy, where we watched a male Belted Kingfisher beat to death a fish he had caught and then swallow it whole.









Then we ran into Brendon Lake and Mary, his mother, who had found a pair of American White Pelicans.





As we were leaving the Lock & Dam area, a couple of Bald Eagles landed in a tree right beside our car for a photo shoot. What a great way to finish our day followed by a long ride home listening to classic rock.





Written and published on January 19, 2015