North Central Illinois Ornithological Society

I was amazed to see a male Cerulean Warbler in our yard this evening along with a few Yellow-rumped and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. A first for our yard, and one I didn’t expect to get. I know we are on the fly-way to Rock Cut NP, and that they are found there. Still a nice bird to see well. We have had a sprinkling of Kinglets and a group of 9 White-throated Sparrows hanging around.

At about 2:30 today there were 34 White Pelicans circling over West Riverside Blvd. and moving slowly west. Recently there have been pelicans at Nygren Wetlands and at Neiman’s Pond, west on Rte. 20 toward Freeport.
Barn Swallows, House Wrens and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers have shown up in our yard.

Barbara and I took a walk in our woods and into Anna Page Park this morning. We heard and saw our first Blue-gray Gnatcatchers (5), House Wrens (4) and Chimney Swifts (2) of the spring. 3 Pine Warblers were heard (1 seen), and a Cooper’s Hawk was in display flight over the woods. Sapsuckers (at least 4) were pretty noisy and active, and a Sandhill Crane was heard but not seen.

Large white Trillium are blooming in large clumps in several places, and the Skunk Cabbages along Kent Creek have really expanded and are thriving. Red Admirals are numerous, particularly in the openings where there are blooming dandelions, and we saw a Tiger Swallowtail.

This morning around 10:30 a.m. I located 2 Franklin’s Gulls in a very wet and partially flooded field on the north side of Ridott Road about 1/2 mile west of Farwell Bridge Road. The gulls were gone by 1:30 when Larry Balch arrived there.

This spot looks like it could be a good shorebird spot for the next week or so. A scope is necessary. The flooded spots are a long way from the road.

This species has been present the last few years in two places in Sinnissippi Park. One is the stand of white pines on the north side of the park road where Arlington Avenue ends. The second place is where I heard one singing this afternoon, which is farther up the road going east another 0.3 mile. More precisely, it was singing in the white pines across the road from the parking lot for the Golf Course Shelter 1 &2 and the Music Shell, about 75 yds northeast of Gilbey’s Place. In past years, I’ve also heard them in the pines another 120 yards up the road.

After Dan Williams post concerning the YT warbler at Rock Cut, we swung by Sugar River FP after banding and located a singing YT Warbler on the lower loop near the pull in. We looked for Pine Warbler here but did not hear or see any

The male Snowy Owl is still in McHenry Co. I observed it this afternoon with John Longhenry and Mary Kay Rubey for over an hour in the same location. Nice to see it this late even though it was pretty cold and windy

In the last 2 days, I have found 2 nesting pairs of Sandhill Cranes, both in the Pecatonica River drainage. I am not going to post the locations.

We knew that local cranes arrived early this year, so the mild, relatively dry March has the birds already on eggs. If this holds true for other locally established pairs, it might result in an undercount of cranes on April 14 during the census because the pairs may be relatively quiet, if they vocalize at all.

At 10:00 am today, Barbara and I were about to launch our canoe when we heard a Yellow-throated Warbler calling multiple times from the White Pines across the road from the outhouse at the south side boat launch at Rock Cut SP. This is a very early arrival by several weeks (my previous early date for Winnebago County was April 14 and average is 10 days beyond that) This species winters in southern US., so an early arrival, given the weather patterns, isn’t completely unexpected. I saw a Palm Warbler yesterday in the Pecatonica bottoms-another early arrival.

This is a good time to find Common Loons in Winnebago County. The Coopers found 2 at Rock Cut SP this morning, Phil Doncheck and I had 1 at Lake Victoria in South Beloit, and Rick Barton from Paddle and Trail just called to report 5 more on Windsor Lake behind his store.

The Coopers also saw an Osprey and, likely the birds of the day, 2 White-winged Crossbills in the pines just S of the IL 173 entrance, which they viewed with their telescope.

I counted 24 White Pelicans at Nygren Wetlands this morning, plus 31 DC Cormorants. Swamp Sparrows were calling from the marsh, there were about 50 Tree Swallows flying around, and a Winter Wren called from near the observation deck.

Phil and I also had 4 Horned Grebes on Lake Victoria, and later I saw 3 on Lake Summerset (viewed from the yellow gate on Best Road). There were many Tree Swallows over the lake, but I could not locate any Purple Martins there as yet. 1 Greater and 2 Lesser Yellowlegs were at Lake Victoria, but no Ross’ Goose was found.

Pecatonica Wetlands FP had over 250 Tree Swallows flying and perching over the dead trees along Blair Road.