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
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