Sabine's Gulls in Mason County, IL

On Friday, September 23, 2016, Greg Neise posted on the Illinois Rare Bird Alerts page on Facebook that Kevin Richmond was watching three Sabine's Gulls from the Roundtree Trail at Chataqua NWR. Two Sabine's had been at Chataqua all week long and had been, and there had been reported sightings of them from the beer can spot. After work, I picked up Joe Phipps at his apartment, and we drove to Chataqua to see the Sabine's Gulls. We started at the beer can spot, where Joe found one, but the light was terrible so we drove to the Roundtree Trail where we could see the gulls feeding in flight on the other side of the lake. We were both able to see at least two separate Sabine's Gulls feeding in flight through our scopes. Sabine's Gull was a lifer for both of us, and Illinois #325 for me.

Brant in Hammond, IN

On Saturday, September 17, Carrie and I drove up to St. Anne's, IL for a little boy's third birthday party. It was the birthday party of Preston Watford, son of Justin and Allison Watford. We left the party during lunch so that we could stick to our diet, and we ate at a nearby Subway.

Then we drove a little over an hour to Hammond, IN to look for a Brant, which had been reported by Marion Miller on Facebook. The Brant was found by an Indiana birder, but Marion had chased it and reported her sighting on her own page.

When we arrived at the parking area that was plotted on the map on ebird, we were on the wrong side of the golf course from where Marion had seen the bird. She had seen it on the West side of the golf course, but we were parked on the East side. However, there was a paved nature trail from the parking area that took you West between the fenced in golf course and Lake George. We decided to walk to the other side of the golf course on the path instead of driving back around. As we walked the path, we saw two lone scopes sitting on the path, which indicated that the birders had walked off the path to observe something on the lake. I looked at the lake through the vegetation and immediately saw the Brant swimming with four Canada Geese.

Carrie and I were able to get great looks at the bird while talking with the other birders. It was an easy lifer for both of us, and it's a good thing we did not get back in the car and try to drive to the other side, or we might have had a hard time finding the bird.











I did not realize that this goose species was so small until I actually saw this one with the Canada Geese. It was also interesting to compare the gray feathers on this bird to the browner feathers on the wings of the Canada Geese.

Broad-winged Hawk in Gridley, IL

On Friday, September 16, while I was on my way home from work, driving past the cemetery in Gridley, I noticed a raptor in a tree in the cemetery. I drove back and discovered that the raptor was a juvenile Broad-winged Hawk, and I took several photos of the bird.

Common Ringed-Plover in Illinois

On Wednesday, September 14, while I was at work, I received a text from my friend Joe Phipps about a rare vagrant to the continental United States. A Common Ringed-Plover had been found the previous day by Gary Soper. Joe told me the bird was found in a flooded corn field not far from where I work. I looked up the coordinates on the map, and the bird was just a little over an hour away, but I had a session with a family scheduled that evening so I could not go after work. I asked my director if I could leave for a few hours since I would be working late, and he gave me the go ahead, and I headed out to the site after lunch.

The identification of the bird was not quite nailed down yet because of its similarities to Semipalmated Plover. Common Ringed-Plover has a thicker ring around the neck than semipalmated. It has a black eye ring instead of a yellow one like the eye ring on a Semipalmated. Also, the space between the inner toes and the middle toes of the Common Ringed-Plover is not webbed, while the space between the inner and middle toes of the Semipalmated Plover is webbed. Finally, the two birds have different songs. The bird in question had a black eye ring, and a thick black band around the neck, but no one had been able to get a good photo of the space between the inner and middle toes.

While I was on my way, Matt Fraker had managed to get a recording of the bird's song, which made the identification pretty certain, and by the next day, Gary Soper had posted a killer shot of the bird's toes, showing that there was no webbing between the inner and middle toes of the bird.

When I arrived at the location of the bird, there were probably about 20 birders present. Paul Greenberg was there, and I heard someone say that it was his 400th bird in Illinois. I was able to quickly get on the bird and the Red-necked Phalarope that was also present, and I was able to take several photos of the bird.













This was the first sighting of Common Ringed-Plover in Illinois and only the seventh in the continental U.S.