North Central Illinois Ornithological Society

This morning, a flock of 16 White-winged Crossbills flew over while I was out along Safford Road getting the newspaper. They came from the direction of Page Park School. There is a stand of hemlocks on the west side of the school driveway, and I suspect that they had been in the hemlocks. I advise that you avoid the school property on weekdays during school hours. School security seems to be on higher alert there.

Barbara and I walked over at 10:45 a.m and found WW Crossbills feeding in the hemlocks. Shortly after we arrived, a staff member came out of the building to ask what we were looking at. We explained about the crossbills (generally) told her that there may be other birders around trying to see them. By the time we got back into our driveway, the flock flew up and circled around several times before heading off toward Page Park. We counted 19 birds.

In the past half hour we have had two flocks of Sandhill Cranes over our house. Each flock had about 60 birds. The second flock contained two Whooping Cranes. We are next to Anna Page Park on the west side of Rockford. The birds were all headed straight south and were quite low.

Barbara and Daniel Williams

A Red-breasted Nuthatch was calling and feeding in our back yard this morning. Not sure how to characterize the species and date-early migrant or breeding bird from May. We had a pair of RB Nuts coming to the feeder throughout May, but haven’t seen or heard one since then until today.

Barbara and I went for a walk in the woods this morning. Although the birds were subdued and not calling a lot, we had an excellent view of male Connecticut and Canada Warblers. There was a flock (5) of Red-eyed Vireos. The most numerous warbler species was Chestnut-sided. A bonus was a Red-breasted Nuthatch calling and then coming to the sunflower feeder.

Today I’ve seen a Turkey Vulture, two small flocks of Sandhill Cranes, three Red-winged Blackbirds and a Purple Finch. Also, I’ve heard Bluebirds and Juncos singing.

Yesterday, Barbara and I shovelled the snow, filled the feeders and bird bath, than hunkered down in the house with a nice fire in the wood stove. As expected, the birds were all at the feeder. I counted 22 species, including a fly-over flock of Rock Pigeons. Oddly, no Cooper’s or Sharp-shinned Hawks came by. Later in the evening, as Barbara was walking the dog, a Great-horned Owl started calling from the pines behind Page Park School, making it #23 for the day. Among the 23 were: 1 N. Flicker, 1 Fox Sparrow, 2 White-throated Sparrows, 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch, and 1 Purple Finch. No siskins-the pair that visited from time to time hasn’t been here in about a week.

This afternoon, I relocated a Northern Shrike at the dry dam in Anna Page Park in northwest Rockford. This is almost certainly the same shrike that Barbara and Beth Goeppinger found there on the Dec. 18th Rockford CBC.

I parked on Porter Road, just E of the bridge over the creek, and then walked S on the snowmobile trail. As the trail turned toward the east, and the north end of the dry dam, the shrike was visible as it perched at the top of a tree to the south.

I have not seen or heard many reports of N. Shrike in northwest IL this winter other than one found near the Wiegert/Telegraph Road intersection by Steve and Dottie Cooper on 12/10 and the bird reported by Anne Straight at Ayer’s Prairie in Carroll Co., so please reply to this post with date and directions if you have other shrike sightings. Thank you.

Barbara and I took a short walk on an abbreviated loop along the south side of Kent Creek in Anna Page this morning.  By the time we left the house, it was too warm to go out into the open areas around the dam, so we stayed on the equestrian trail in the woods with a brief look out on to the dry dam from the west end of the loop trail where the gate is smashed down. 

Only migrant was a Bay-breasted Warbler, but the highlight was a calling White-eyed Vireo out by the dry dam.  It was in the hedgerow along the base of the east side of the dam and south of the creek. 

We also saw that ATVs have been using the equestrian trail and tearing it up pretty badly in the areas where the ground is sandy.  We’re going to contact the Park District to see if they can put the gate back up, and maybe rebuild the fence in that area with a gate for pedestrians to get through and up on to the dam.

Barbara and I found 2 Acadian Flycatchers at Sugar River FP yesterday afternoon. 

There were 4 Willow Flycatchers along the dry dam at Anna Page Park in Rockford yesterday morning.

This morning, I heard a Hooded Warbler and a Canada Warbler calling from the woods in back of our house.

This morning, Barbara and I decided to keep the car in the garage and hike Anna Page Park for migrant birds and wildflowers.  We had a terrific morning!  Highlight was a female Summer Tanager in the woods along the south side of Kent Creek on the equestrian trail.  Also there were several nice groups of warblers, including Blue-winged, N. Parula, Palm, Black & White, Nashville, Tennessee, Pine, the ubiquitous Yellow-rumped, Ovenbird, and Northern Waterthrush.  Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and House Wrens were everywhere.  There were quite a few Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. A Red-breasted Nuthatch is still present and calling from the pines south of the parking lot with the wood chip piles on the west end of the park.  I suspect nesting, but can’t confirm it yet.  A Great-crested Flycatcher is calling from the woods behind our house.

The wildflowers were still in very nice bloom-the phlox are really out now, the Bluebells are still going strong, Swamp Buttercups are still quite fresh, and the large, white trilliums are showing up in a number of places. Wild Geraniums are really in full bloom, and Blue-eyed Marys are in their usual spot near the Camp Conestoga building.  Marsh Marigolds are still in flower, but the Dutchman’s Britches are finished for the season, as is the Cutleaf Toothwart.

An Orchard Oriole was singing from the trees east of, and below, the dry dam.  Quite a few Baltimore Orioles have arrived and are calling.  Only a few Indigo Buntings here so far, plus several Gray Catbirds.  A pair of Red-tailed Hawks were in flight-1 was carrying a snake.  A mink made a brief appearance along Kent Creek.