Adult Male Snowy Owl in Livingston County

A coworker of mine found this bird near Salem Ranch (Flanagan) in Livingston County on Monday, March 30. I did not post because at the time, we thought the bird was sick or injured since it seemed immobile (5 yards from the road all day), and we were planning to capture the bird so that it could be helped. However, he seemed to have moved on by the next day. So hopefully, he is okay and on his way back to the Arctic to find a mate.

Here is a female Brown-headed Cowbird, I saw in the same area.



Written and published on April 5, 2015.

Eared Grebe at Evergreen Lake

Here are a few photos of the Eared Grebe that Dave Weth found today at Evergreen Lake. My friends Justin Watford and Andrew Easling, who were visiting today, went with me to see it. When I photographed it, it was swimming back and forth across the county line between McLean and Woodford Counties. Eared Grebes are fairly rare to Illinois. I had seen one in Woodford County several years ago in 2010, but this was the first one I had ever seen in McLean County and the first I had ever seen in breeding plumage anywhere.



Grebes' feet are obviously not designed for walking.



Other birds at Evergreen Lake today included Horned Grebe, Pied-billed Grebe, Common Loon, Red-breasted Merganser, Common Merganser, Bufflehead, Lesser Scaup, Double-crested Cormorant, and American Coot. There were also a couple of American White Pelicans and a raft of Redheads and Ruddy Ducks at Lake Bloomington.

Birds With Horns

This week I saw three different bird species that are named after their "horns." On Thursday, I photographed this Great Horned Owl sitting on its nest at Salem Ranch in Flanagan, IL.





Then on Friday morning , I photographed this Horned Grebe at Lake Bloomington.







There were a few other birds near the grebe--Turkey Vultures and Redheads.





Then I saw this Horned Lark near Salem Ranch in Flanagan, IL. Unfortunately, the light haze prevented me from getting a clear shot.



So why do some birds have "horns?" They are not actually "horns" in the sense of being part of their skeletal structure. Nor are they ears as they are called on some other related birds such as the Long-eared Owl, or the Eared Grebe. The true ears of an owl are actually located on the sides of the head rather than the top. The so called "horns" or "ears" are actually tufts of feathers, which the birds can move. Owls can make these feather tufts stand straight up or pull them back so that they are barely visible.

So if they are not actually horns or ears, what function do these tufts of feathers have? There are several theories as to their purpose for owls, including non-vocal communication, identification, camouflage, and intimidation. Grebes only have "horns" or "ears" during the breeding season, which may indicate that in grebes, they may play a role in attracting a mate. As for Horned Larks, I do not know the purpose of their horns. Perhaps it is merely to reflect the artistry and glory of their Creator.

I do not know of any North American birds with true horns, but American White Pelicans have a protrusion on the top of their bills only during the breeding season. They shed these "plates" when the breeding season ends. In this photo the protrusion is not as round in shape as it normally is on these birds. I photographed this pelican at Lake Bloomington on March 24.

Rusty Blackbirds and Eastern Phoebe in McLean County

This was Carrie's weekend to work, but a beautiful sunny weekend nonetheless. I spent some time birding on Saturday, beginning at Ewing Park. It was still pretty cool as I walked through the park in mid morning. There were few birds, but I did come across this Eastern Phoebe in the meadow. It was my first of the year.



When I first arrived, I saw a beautiful adult Cooper's Hawk fly across the park. Then as I was about to leave the park, I found a small mixed flock including Brown Creepers, a White-breasted Nuthatch, and a Downy Woodpecker.

A little later in the day, I drove to the Kenneth L. Schroeder Wildlife Sanctuary, where I found a nice mixed flock of sparrows foraging in the woods, including Song Sparrows, a couple of Fox Sparrows, and a White-throated Sparrow. Also, in the vicinity, there were Black-capped Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches, Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals, American Robins, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, and a singing Northern Flicker. Then to my surprise, I heard and then saw a group of about 7 Rusty Blackbirds. These birds were not particularly skittish, so I was able to take quite a few photos of them.

Sandhill Cranes and American Woodcock in McLean County

This morning, Carrie and I took both of our cars to Sam's Club to get the tires rotated. One of the employees said we were lucky to get them in this morning because usually they are slammed on Saturday. After our cars were ready, we went to Ewing Park to look for an American Woodcock. Carrie had never seen one. We flushed one at Sugar Grove Nature Center when we went looking for them last year, but Carrie did not get a good enough look to identify the bird. It was warm at Ewing, but a little windy There were very few birds there, but we had some nice ones. The Eastern Screech-owl box by the little bridge that crosses the stream in Hedge Apple Woods was occupied.



As we continued along the trail past the screech-owl box, an American Woodcock that was ahead of us on the trail flushed, but landed where we could see it. Carrie had a hard time seeing it when it landed because it blended in so well, but then she saw the big dark eye, and I took the photograph shown at the top of this post. Then we saw the woodcock doing it's funny walk before it flew into one of the yards behind the trail. We did not find anymore woodcocks today so we were thankful to see the one we saw at Ewing, which was a lifer for Carrie. We also found a very loud Tufted Titmouse singing next to a nest and a pair of Brown Creepers at Ewing.



After lunch, we went to Sugar Grove Nature Center in Funks Grove. The sun was out, the clouds were gone, and it was turning into a beautiful day. We saw the American Tree Sparrow and Eurasian Tree Sparrows shown below at the feeders.







Just before we left Sugar Grove, I heard a Carolina Wren singing by the feeders. As we were leaving, I asked Carrie if she wanted to check out the waterfowl at Evergreen Lake, but she suggested we check the Kenneth L. Schroeder Wildlife Sanctuary instead. Schroeder sounded like a good idea to me so that was where we went. While we were hiking the path to the wetlands, we noticed a small kettle of raptors above, including two Red-tails getting mobbed by crows and three Turkey Vultures.

As we passed the wetlands on our right, I noticed that there did not seem to be any ducks. Then I looked toward the new wetland and saw a Sandhill Crane through the trees. I could not believe my eyes. We could tell there were several Sandhill Cranes on the new wetland, but we could not get a good count because the trees were blocking the view. I was able to manage a few photos at a great distance.









Then the birds must have seen us through the trees as well, though we were still on the trail and pretty far back from the trees, because they suddenly took off and flew Southeast. There is no blind to keep the birds on the new wetland from seeing you coming, and the trees were still bare of leaves. When the cranes took off, we finally could see that there were five of them.

There was a pair of Green-winged Teals and a pair of Killdeer still on the wetland when we reached the end of the trail, and a Pied-billed Grebe in wetland (lake) with the blind. After Schroeder it was time to return home to do our taxes. We did not have a huge variety of birds today, but we sure had some great ones, and it was beautiful day to be outside!

Redheads and Canvasbacks and Scaups at Lake Bloomington in McLean County

After work on March 10, I stopped by Lake Bloomington to see what waterfowl or gulls were in the open water by Davis Lodge.
The light was perfect for photography, and the trees provided cover for me so that I could get fairly close without spooking the ducks. I drove around to the edge of the lake on the little road that runs into a boat launch. The first birds I noticed when I arrived were Redheads and Lesser Scaup. I focused first on the Redheads.







One of the Redheads was chasing one of the Lesser Scaups, which had a fish. Notice also the female Ring-necked Duck in the left corner of the next photo and the female Lesser Scaup following the Redhead in the second photo. The male Lesser Scaup seemed to be having a hard time swallowing the fish.







The Redhead managed to steal the fish from him, and then it was the Lesser Scaup chasing the Redhead.







Meanwhile, a female scaup tailed another male scaup with a fish.







Suddenly, I noticed this beautiful male Canvasback swimming close to the shore.







And I noticed this female Canvasback and saw her catch a fish.







This female Redhead also caught a fish.



Here are a few more shots of Redheads and Lesser Scaups.









There were about 10 Greater White-fronted Geese standing on the edge of the ice behind all of these ducks that were swimming around. I photographed a few of them.



I drove back toward a larger area of open water to the South, adjoining the section of the lake I was viewing. There were many more ducks in this area though they were further away from the shore; however, I still managed to photograph a male Greater Scaup and a pair of Hooded Mergansers.





I came back a few nights later after work on March 13, but the light was bad. I did, however, get a decent photo of a pair of Ring-necked Ducks.