Greenwood Cemetery and Shabonna Lake State Park

Inspired by John Longhenry's reports and photos of White-winged Crossbills and a Merlin on Illinois Birder's Forum, Les Allen and I left at 6:00 a.m. to drive to Greenwood Cemetery in Rockford, IL on February 18. We arrived before 9:00 to the loud call of Pine Siskins, but we did not see any crossbills.



Within minutes of our arrival, at least three Red-breasted Nuthatches were calling, "yank, yank," and feeding on the trees. Below are some shots of both a female and a male Red-breasted Nuthatch that were at the cemetery.





Not long after we had arrived, John Longhenry himself showed up. As we were talking, he spotted a crossbill at the top of a tree. Then three of them landed in a tree in front of us, but some clouds had rolled in and the light was poor. These birds did not stay in the tree for long. After they flew away, John mentioned that the numbers had been thinning, and we thought this might have been all that was left of the flock.





About an hour later, we had our light back when a small raptor flew over our heads and landed in a tree nearby. We followed, and I photographed what we all thought was the Merlin at the time. When I was later examining my photos at home, I realized I had photographed a Sharp-shinned Hawk rather than a Merlin.







We never did see the Merlin, but at the time we enjoyed thinking we had. Of course, after I realized our error, I was still happy to have taken photos of a raptor I had never before photographed. Before John left, he showed us the grave markers that the crossbills had been drinking from after feeding. The water in the markers was almost gone so I added some water I had brought with me to both of them.

Not long after John had left, Les and I heard crossbills chattering, and Les saw White-winged Crossbills feeding on the cones on the ground underneath one of the hemlocks. There were at least eleven crossbills, and a few of the Pine Siskins were feeding on the ground with them. This continued for about 30 minutes, while we watched.







After the crossbills had fed for over 20 minutes, they flew over to the grave markers, which were now holding fresh water, and drank by turning their heads sideways and lowering them to the water.







After drinking, they returned to feeding on the cones.



Some of them had one last drink before flying away.



Les and I celebrated our awesome looks at White-winged Crossbills and what we thought to have been a Merlin by eating lunch at Beefaroo's. Then we headed South on I-39 for Shabonna Lake State Park, hoping to find a Common Redpoll and some waterfowl. We missed the exit on the interstate, which probably set us back 30 to 40 minutes. I told Les that this probably happened so that we could see a bird that we would not have seen if we had arrived at Shabonna Lake earlier. Once we did arrive, we noticed a nice variety of waterfowl on the lake including eight Tundra Swans.





Notice the characteristic yellow lores on this adult.





The juvenile Tundra Swans have darker heads and napes.



While Les was watching the swans and I was taking pictures, we met Daniel Leifheit, who was also photographing them. Daniel told Les about a Northern Shrike he had seen on the Tomahawk Trail just a few hundred yards from where we were watching the swans. As we had both tried and failed to locate the Northern Shrike that Matthew Winks and Ted Hartzler had seen in Woodford County, we decided to try to get a look at this bird. We walked down the trail past the area where Daniel had seen the shrike, but we did not see it. On the way back, however, we did see the bird on top of a tree beside the trail. At first it was backlit, but then it flew to the tree behind us, and we were able to look at the bird in great light. Les pointed out the fine streaking and the blood stain on the bird's belly, most likely from its recent prey.





If we had not missed the exit on the interstate, we would not have run into Daniel and would not have found out about the Northern Shrike. Although we thought we had made a mistake, it worked out to our benefit. I thank God for demonstrating his purpose and kindness even through this little bird. Les and I had an enjoyable trip, and I added two lifers to my list--White-winged Crossbill and Northern Shrike. Below is a complete list of the birds we saw at Shabonna Lake State Park.

Greater White-fronted Goose 6
Cackling Goose 100
Canada Goose 300
Tundra Swan 8
American Wigeon 3
Mallard 35
Canvasback 8
Redhead 5
Lesser Scaup 15
Common Goldeneye 7
Common Merganser 6
Ruddy Duck 3
American Coot X
Northern Shrike 1
Red-winged Blackbird 8

Written and published on March 7, 2012