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!