A little over a week ago on Thursday, September 1, I visited Ewing Park early in the morning and had eight Warbler species plus the Yellow-billed Cuckoo shown above. There were not many Warblers but there was a nice diversity of them. I was thrilled to get the best looks I have ever had of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Strangely, I have seen more of the less common Black-billed Cuckoos in the county including three at Ewing Park--one last Fall and two this Spring. This was my first Yellow-billed Cuckoo at Ewing. No one reported seeing one in McLean County this Spring on ebird, but amazingly my mother-in-law, Laura Freburg, saw one in her yard this Spring, and I did see one this summer at the Parklands Mohr Tract with Matthew Winks.
One of the first photographs I took last Thursday at Ewing was of this enormous Giant Swallowtail.
I also saw this Skipper. Does anyone know what species it is? I'm having trouble identifying it.
I did not get any pictures of the Warblers I saw, but I was content to be able to photograph this Yellow-billed Cuckoo. I saw something big fly across the path and slowly approached to see what it was. This bird like all the Cuckoos I have seen was very secretive and did not want to be seen. The best I could do at first was to get a few shots of his head. The rest of him was hidden by the thick Ewing vegetation. He did not remain still for long though he was much slower in movement than a Warbler. Just a few glimpses, and he was gone. I knew what tree he was in, but he was so high up and well hidden that I could no longer spot him.
Soon after, I came across a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher that seemed to almost have an entirely yellow underside. Unfortunately, he turned his other side toward me before I could photograph him.
Getting close to this Ruby-throated Hummingbird was an added treat as was photographing a Monarch on the Goldenrods.
I later saw a couple more Flycatchers, which at the time, I thought to be Yellow-bellied, but now I am not so sure. The yellow seems to be limited to their bellies and I found out that other Empidonax Flycathers can have yellow on their bellies, while Yellow-bellied Flycatchers also have yellow on their throats.
I saw the Yellow-bellied Cuckoo again. This time he was pretty high up when I photographed him. I only managed a couple of good shots before he started playing the "if I can't see you, you can't see me game." And although, I could still see him, what I could see of him was not enough to take any more good pictures. I was a little disappointed that a branch in this picture covered up the beautiful spots on this birds tail, but I was very excited to be able to get so much of the bird in the shot.
I did see another interesting butterfly, which I was unable to identify.
Below is the complete list of birds I saw that morning.
Ewing Park (Bloomington), McLean, US-IL
Sep 1, 2011 7:20 AM - 10:30 AM
Protocol: Area
4.0 ac
19 species
Cooper's Hawk 1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 5
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 2
American Crow 6
Black-capped Chickadee X
House Wren 4
American Robin 3
Gray Catbird 4
Black-and-white Warbler 2
Tennessee Warbler 1
Nashville Warbler 1
American Redstart 7
Magnolia Warbler 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 1
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Wilson's Warbler 1
Northern Cardinal X
American Goldfinch 5
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://ebird.org)
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