North Central Illinois Ornithological Society

Start at the location in Sinnissippi Park given in Dan Williams’s 18 June post, and continue along the loop road 0.4 miles to a point where there is a boxed sand pile on the left and a One Way sign on the right. The bird was singing today in the white pines to the right. (Dan’s birds in the park and at Winthrop and Highcrest were also singing today.)

I heard another Yellow-throated Warbler this morning, this time at Sinnissippi Park. It was calling from the White Pines at the corner of Arlington Avenue and the park loop road. There is a small parking lot on the right, and a children’s playground across the road.

The American Birding Association has just announced that NCIOS member Dakota Outcalt has won (in a tie with a young woman named Megan O’Brien) the “Writing Age 10-13″ category of the Young Birder of the Year competition. Other categories were photography, field notebook, illustration, and there is an “overall” category. Age groups are 10-13 and 14-18 in each category. The best work submitted will be featured in a future issue of BIRDING magazine. Many of the young birders who submit work to this contest are extremely talented, thoroughly engaged in birding, and work hard on their skills. The competition can be very stiff.
Good work, Dakota!

Barbara Williams

Sunday morning I drove through Sugar River briefly and a Yellow-crowned Night-heron flew up to a perch. He willingly waited for me to set up my digiscoping rig and fire off a series of shots. He was in the swamp in the middle of the loop road.

No Ceruleans or other birds of note in my ~20 minutes there.

Barbara and I walked the loop road around Sugar River Forest Preserve this morning and found 2 Acadian Flycatchers, the first we have heard/seen in Winnebago County this year. A Red-shouldered Hawk was calling, and we heard a Prothonotary Warbler in the swamp within the loop road. We did not see or hear any Yellow-throated or Cerulean Warblers. Has anyone detected Ceruleans at Sugar River in the last 2 years? Yellow-throated Warblers were found there last weekend during the spring count.

A single Black Tern was flying over Lake Summerset this morning. No other terns were detected during the 10 minutes we were there. You can park by the yellow gate along Best Road, just south of the main entrance, to scan the lake. Morning is best. The sign says no parking, so don’t leave the immediate vicinity of your car and don’t stay too long.

Oliver Road had a single SemiSandpiper mixed in with a small grouip of Leasts, about 6 Dunlin, and 8 SemiPlovers.

Yesterday Joyce Brown and I saw 6 Forster’s Terns flying over the pond at the Boat Launch on the south side of Sportscore One, Elmwood Road. We watched them from 4:00-4:30 p.m. during which time they also flew north along the river, but repeatedly returned to the pond.

I still have a few Pine Siskins in my yard.  One is singing. This is the latest I have ever had them.

This morning I saw a Stilt Sandpiper in mostly alternate plumage in a fluddle on the north side of Oliver Road about 1/2 mile east of Harrison Road. The only other shorebirds in the fluddle were 2 Lesser Yellowlegs. The fluddle also had 2 N. Shovelers and a pair of Blue-winged Teal. Across the road to the south was a Solitary Sandpiper, also in alternate plumage.

Very few shorebirds in the fluddles this morning anywhere in the county. 6 Least Sandpipers were in a fluddle at the northeast corner of IL 75 and Meridian Rd.

4 Henslow’s Sparrows are calling in the cool season grasses on the north side of the dry dam at Anna Page Park, but I did not hear any Sedge Wrens or Bell’s Vireos from that area this morning. Both species were there last summer and are likely to return any day soon.

On crane count day, the 18th, I counted 55 White Pelicans at Nygren Wetland Preserve. When I stopped there this afternoon, there were over 110, of which 80+ were in the air, later to land in the waters out of sight of the platform. A flock of 100+ Pectoral Sandpipers was flying around, just as one was on April 18th, but there was really little to interest to look at other than the pelicans. A couple of Caspian Terns were at the end of Moody Road. The swans are still present at Pierce Lake.

The two adult Mute Swans that have been at Rock Cut SP since April 8 have been joined by a 3rd adult. I saw the 3 together at the east end of Pierce Lake during the lunch hour today.