A Say's Phoebe in Illinois?

Early on Saturday morning, October 5, Carrie and I went to the prairie across the street from the horse barn at Moraine View State Park on 900 N Rd. to look for Ammodramus sparrows. We were particularly hoping to see a Nelson's or a Le Conte's Sparrow. I thought I heard Nelson's Sparrows calling and even singing a couple of times, but nothing would really sit up for us.

We were on our way back to the car in the middle of the prairie on the North side of the road at 9:02 a.m., when I saw a bird sitting on a bent yellow restricted area sign (hunting). There were actually two signs together and both were bent. Carrie was right with me and also saw the bird. I was puzzled at first, not having this bird anywhere on my radar, but quickly realized it was a Say's Phoebe and managed to snap a couple of shots before it flew into a bush toward the road.



We stood in the same spot, while I texted a bunch of other birders for a couple of minutes. Mysteriously, out of the blue, the bird took off and flew all the way back to the Northeast corner of the prairie behind a tree line that juts out into the middle of the prairie.

While we were waiting for people to come, Carrie found a Henslow's Sparrow in a bush, and we both got good looks.



Matt Fraker, Matthew Winks, Shanin Abreu, Todd Bugg, Dale Birkenholz, and Les Allen all arrived on the scene, but none of us were able to relocate the Say's Phoebe.

I was hoping the bird would return to the sign or to the fences behind the house or horse barn. There were lots of Eastern Phoebes in this area on the South side of the road. The sign was in the middle of the prairie on the North side of the road on the West edge of a mowed path through the prairie, perpendicular to the road and directly across the road from the brown house.

Also a man drove up in a truck and told Todd Bugg that we should not be in the prairie (not sure if just the South side or both) because of deer season. There were no hunters anywhere around and all the signs said deer hunting was on Monday and Tuesday only so I'm not really certain what was going on there.

Say's Phoebe is a rare vagrant to Illinois, but another one was found in Illinois this year on September 23 in DuPage County.

http://www.ilbirds.com/index.php?topic=53867.0