Sage Thrasher, Harlequin Duck, and Glaucous Gull for Christmas

At the end of 2014, I had some vacation days that I had to use or lose, so I decided to take the whole week of Christmas off. One of the things I hoped to accomplish was to pick up a few new birds for my Illinois state list. At 295, I was getting close to the benchmark of 300 species in Illinois. It had not been long since Matthew Winks and Shanin Abreu had seen Thayer's and Iceland Gulls, which I needed for my life and state lists, at Peoria Lake, and a Harlequin Duck had been hanging around the Kimball Street Bridge in Elgin. This bird would also be a lifer and a state bird if I could see it. I also hoped perhaps something else would show up over the holidays.

Then on December 18, Douglas Stotz found a Sage Thrasher at Condits Ranch RV Park in Putnam County, while conducting a Christmas Bird Count. Now I had a plan. I would go to Peoria Lake to look for gulls one day, and on another day I would drive up to Putnam County and find the Sage Thrasher and then continue North to Elgin to see the Harlequin Duck, but I had a small problem. The forecast looked bad Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday. It would not be horrible, but it would be rainy and cloudy. The only sunny day before Christmas would be Tuesday, and I was afraid that if I waited that long it would be too late to see the thrasher.

Saturday was the day for a Christmas celebration with Carrie's extended family, but we did not have to leave until 1:00 p.m., so I drove to Peoria Lake in the morning to look for gulls. It turned out that Joe Phipps and Mike Ingram were conducting a Tazewell County Christmas Bird Count that day, and they found a Glaucous Gull before I arrived. However, it took off, and I was unable to find it from the Tazewell side. None of us saw Thayer's or Iceland, but I did eventually relocate and photograph the Glaucous Gull from the Riverplex on the Peoria side of the lake. It was not a state bird, but it was a great Illinois year bird.



After seeing the Glaucous Gull, I spent some time looking at East Port Marina before I left. I made it home just in time, and Carrie and I headed to Lincoln for the Lock family Christmas celebration with her brother Ben riding along. Just before we arrived, we saw this mangy Coyote catch and eat a rodent.



I decided to go ahead and try to see the Sage Thrasher as soon as possible in case it did not stick around. So on Monday, December 22, I started toward Putnam County on I-39 North. I was surprised to encounter a Snowy Owl atop the exit sign at Exit 22.





I saw this bird again later on a utility pole as I was about to get back on the highway. It was my first Snowy of the Winter.



When I arrived at Condits Ranch RV Park at about 9:00 a.m., two other birders were already there looking for the bird. I heard and then saw a Pileated Woodpecker fly across the road, but I did not see the Sage Thrasher. A light rain started, and I picked up Red-headed Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, and a few other birds, but still no Sage Thrasher. I searched every Juniper Tree along the RV park drive and the field across the road from RV park. After about an hour, Danny Akers shouted that he had the bird. He found it in a small Juniper by the main road in front of the RV park. I was able to take a few decent photos in spite of the rain and the bad light.



More birders arrived, including my friend Mike Ingram, whom I was surprised to see. By 11:00 a.m. I was off on my way to Elgin to see the Harlequin Duck. When I finally arrived at the Kimball Street Bridge, it was raining again. I parked and walked around on the island by the bridge and then further down along the river. When I came back to the island, after walking past it, I finally saw the bird from the island between the island and the bridge.





When the duck saw me, it swam out further from the island toward the bridge and started diving and feeding close to the bridge. I had seen Sage Thrasher earlier in the year at the Grand Tetons National Park and Yellowstone National Park, but the Harlequin Duck was a lifer. I enjoyed watching it dive. When it came up, it was only up for a few seconds and then it was back under the water.

Joe Phipps wanted to go and see the Sage Thrasher. So I decided to meet him at the Condits Ranch RV Park on Tuesday, December 23 to see if I could see and photograph the bird in better weather conditions. On the way up I had a glimpse of a male Northern Harrier. When I arrived, Joe was already there and already on the bird with a photographer. The Sage Thrasher was in the same tree in which I had seen it the previous day, but at first, it was on the wrong side of the tree for good lighting.





But then the bird moved to the other side of the tree, and the lighting was great! We watched it feed on berries in the sunshine. Then to our surprise it flew down to the road to get a drink of rainwater from the previous day from a puddle on the road.









Then the thrasher returned to the tree and after a rest, began eating berries again.







After another lengthy meal, it returned again to the ground for a drink.











After watching the thrasher eat yet a few more berries we decided to leave. Several other birders and photographers had arrived to enjoy the show, but after a lengthy photo session, Joe and I were ready to find some different birds



We drove to the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge at Hennepin and Hopper Lakes where we saw 43 Tundra Swans. Most of these we saw from the tower.



We also found five Trumpeter Swans near the boat launch. It was awesome to see Trumpeters and Tundras together and observe the differences in size and bill structure between the two species.



In this photo, there are Trumpeter Swans on the left and Tundra Swans on the right.



Some of the other birds we saw at the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge included Canada Geese, Common Goldeneyes, Common Mergansers, 200 Greater White-fronted Geese, a Cackling Goose, a Ross's Goose, 6 Canvasbacks, 5 Lesser Scaups, and two American Wigeons.

This Bald Eagle flew over us when we were in the parking area by the boat launch.



The day after Christmas, I decided to see if I could find the Northern Saw-whet Owl that Matt Fraker found at Clinton Lake and to see what else was there. I did find the saw-whet owl. It sat still with it's eyes closed most of the time I was there, but I did see it yawn, preen, and cast a pellet or two.















I had checked the other trees thoroughly and was on my way back to the road when I noticed another Northern Saw-whet Owl. It was really impossible to see without walking under it, which unfortunately was how I found it. I squatted down when I saw it because I did not want to startle it; nevertheless, it seemed very nervous because it could not see me well through all of the branches so I quickly moved on. I think these birds feel more comfortable when they can see you than when there is something blocking their view.



A couple of days later I took a quick drive to Evergreen Lake and found this Barred Owl just before dusk.



Written and published on January 28, 2015

Pomarine Jaeger at Weldon Springs State Park, DeWitt

It is not unusual for me to get behind on this blog. Here is a post I made on the Illinois Birder's Forum back in November, but never posted here until February 1, 2015. This bird, which Carrie and I found together is quite possibly the best bird find either of us have had. We found a Say's Phoebe together in 2013 in McLean County, IL, but unfortunately we were the only ones to see it. The thing which made this sighting so special was that this bird, which is usually seen on the move was so cooperative, and it was so wonderful to be able to share this bird with birders from all over the state that came to see it.

On Saturday, November 22, Carrie woke up early and wanted to eat breakfast out. When I mentioned going to Clinton Lake to look for redpolls, Carrie seemed interested. So we went to Denny's for breakfast, came back home for a few minutes, and headed South for Clinton Lake. We did not find any redpolls. In fact there were very few birds, particularly on the lake. We managed to see two American Tree Sparrows at Parnell, the Barred Owl at the Weldon Access Area, a very pale Red-tailed Hawk, scattered Hooded Mergansers and Pied-billed Grebes, a couple of Common Mergansers at the Marina, and an astonishing 2 Redheads and 12 Greater Scaup from the overlook. After finding nothing at the West Access, we decided to call it a day and get some lunch at the Chinese buffet in Clinton.

After lunch, Carrie asked me if I wanted to go to Weldon Springs.

"Sure, that's fine," I said.

So we got to the lake there at around 1:30 p.m., and were viewing from the South end next to the spillway. We were looking at a couple of ducks that were diving next to some Canada Geese from the car. I cannot even remember what they were because after what came next, I forgot about the ducks. We were about to leave, but I saw what from the car looked like a big Mourning Dove taking a bath out in the middle of the lake. I said something about it looking like a Mourning Dove.

Carrie said, "Yeah, what is that?"

Then I knew it was a jaeger, but it took me a few seconds to remember the word "jaeger." So I said, "It's one of those, what-do-you-call-its . . . it's a jaeger!"

We got the scope out, and were able to walk right up to the deck along the trail, and I started taking pictures and trying to contact other birders. I knew the identification would be difficult so I walked down the trail to the East a little to get some closer shots. The bird was somewhat skiddish and it was difficult to stay on the trail without getting a little too close. The bird took off a few times as I attempted to get back to my scope without disturbing it, but it eventually ended up back about where we first saw it. We noticed the bird had a lot of white on the bottom of the tail and underwing, which ruled out Parasitic.









The bird was very brown in color, and the more we studied it, the more I leaned toward intermediate juvenile Pomarine Jaeger.





Matt Fraker was the first to show up, and he eventually concluded after looking at my photos of the upperwing and underwing and examining the bird himself, that the bird was a Pomarine as well, which just meant as far as I was concerned that I was a really lucky guesser. Next Matthew Winks arrived and then Travis Mahan with his family, Tony Ward, Colin Dobson, Colin's grandmother Sharon, and Tyler Funk.

The bird took several short flights, and Tony got some awesome shots of the bird in flight. Carrie and I stayed until about 4:45 p.m. waiting for more birders to come. The jaeger bathed again, and just as it was getting almost too dark to see, a noisy flock of Canada Geese flew in and landed near it in the water. After a minute or two, the jaeger seemed agitated by the geese and took off. I lost it in the dark, and it was too dark to relocate. If it followed it's pattern for the evening, it probably circled around and landed a little further to the East in the lake along the trail. I hope it will still be around tomorrow.

Here is a link to the thread on Illinois Birder's Forum where the identification of this bird was discussed

http://www.ilbirds.com/index.php?topic=55539

White-tailed Deer Near Merwin Nature Preserve

This morning I saw these two deer on my way to work near Merwin Nature Preserve on Highway 29 in McLean County.

Three Falcon Species in a Day

It was Carrie's weekend to work, and at 293, I only needed 7 more species to get to 300 on my state list. So I decided to search for one of the Prairie Falcons in Coles County that Tyler Funk discovered a couple of years ago. I Facebook messaged Tyler, and he was very much willing to help in advising me where to look. At first I thought this bird might be a Prairie Falcon. The I realized it was an American Kestrel.



So I drove to Coles County and started at the Magic Stump, but the falcon was not there so I continued to drive around the area looking along some roads that Tyler told me to try. Eventually, I ran into Nicolas Sly and another birder. They were on the dirt road closest to the stump and thought they saw the Prairie Falcon flying a long way away past the stump. I drove over to the next road, and they eventually joined me, but I suspected we had not gone far enough so I drove another mile over and saw the Prairie Falcon fly up from the ditch and land in the field--State bird #294! I observed the Prairie Falcon for a few minutes sitting on a clump of dirt, but by the time Nicolas and the other birder drove up, the falcon had flown away.



Fortunately, they were able to get on the bird, which had flown closer to the stump, a little later. Before I decided to go to Clinton Lake, I found this Rough-legged Hawk in the area.







At Clinton Lake, the birds were sparse, but I did find a nice flock of Rusty Blackbirds near the West Side Access.



There were also some Turkey Vultures hanging out at the marina.





When I got back in town, I found this Peregrine on top of Watterson Towers in Normal, which made my third falcon in a day. Too bad I did not see a Merlin though I checked one of their hangouts in town!