North Central Illinois Ornithological Society

The rain stopped just as we started to walk at Franklin Creek. The birds were sparse, with only five species of warblers seen, but our group of eleven participants had a fine time. The wildflowers at Franklin Creek are impressive right now with masses of trilliums, anemones, wild geraniums and shooting stars.

The October 10th NCIOS field trip to the International Crane Foundation is fast approaching. Please see our calendar of events for full details. This is just a reminder that reservations and money must be received by Ken Frey by Wednesday, September 30th.

The cost is $7.00 for adults and $2.00 for children 18 and younger. We hope to see you out there!!

Call Ken at 815-877-5028 for payment and reservations.

The I.O.S. Gull frolic at Winthrop Harbor has been moved to the 21st of February. I’m sorry if this has caused any confusion. We will still be carpooling in there in the morning, and I have flyers with all the info that you can pick up at the next NCIOS meeting on Feb 12th. You can still call Jan Lockwood at 815-289-0751 or me, Barbara Williams, at 815-968-4732 for details on the carpool meeting time and place.

The NCIOS field trip to Starved Rock SP and the IL Waterway Visitor Center in Utica had 8 hardy participants who braved the windy day and showed up for the trip. The gull flock is just beginning to reassemble there after all of the flooding and open water since December 27. The very cold temperatures over the past week has frozen all of the water above the dam. There were approximately 150 Herring Gulls. In the flock was an adult Thayer’s Gull that gave everyone excellent looks as it flew right over the deck of the visitor center and out over the lock. It was a life bird for several people. The only other gull species was Ring-billed, but just 1 bird.

There were approximately 150 Common Mergansers, 1 Red-breasted Merganser, many Common Goldeneyes and a Redhead. There were 43 Bald Eagles around the lock and dam, and a couple of Rough-legged Hawks and a few kestrels along I-39 on the way back.

The feeders at the Starved Rock Visitor Center had White-throated, White-crowned and Fox Sparrows, plus 5 Pine Siskins and 3 species of blackbirds.

We’ll meet at the Alpine Village Shopping Center on the Northeast corner of the intersection of Harrison and Alpine Roads in Rockford. Meet in the parking lot between the Hallmark store and the Amcore Bank just before 8:00 a.m. for car pooling. We plan to leave at 8:00
It looks like we’ll have some ice on the river down by Starved Rock State Park. That will provide places for gulls to stand around, and, if the Lock and Dam are operating normally we may have a good day with a bunch of gulls and some Bald Eagles as well. In the event that the gull-watching doesn’t pan out we still have the back up plan to do some hiking in the State Park. In any event, bring GOOD boots and WARM clothes!!! Watching birds from inside the Lock and Dam observation building is limited, at best. Bring scopes if you have them. After gull-watching we plan to stop for a bite to eat at Duffy’s Tavern in Utica.

UPDATE: *** Cancelled ***
Regrettably, I have decided to cancel the field trip due to the poor weather forecast which includes flash flood warnings in Lake County (where IBSP is).

As your humble leader of the field trip this Saturday, September 13th, 2008 to Illinois Beach State Park, I have decided a meeting place and time.

Meeting Place: TARGET parking lot located on Highway 173 and Alpine Road
Time: 6:45 AM – we will try to leave sharply at this time as it is about a 2 hour drive to IBSP

If you plan on attending you can email me – birdfreak@birdfreak.com or call my cell phone: 815-323-0011 (there is a typo in the printed field trip list)

Birds we plan on seeing: migrants of all kinds, shorebirds, possible Gustavian Ike blown rarities, etc.

Scopes would be nice to bring (I’ll have mine but it isn’t the greatest).

Thanks, and I hope a lot of birders will make it!!

- Eddie Callaway

UPDATE: *** Cancelled ***
Regrettably, I have decided to cancel the field trip due to the poor weather forecast which includes flash flood warnings in Lake County (where IBSP is).

As your humble leader of the field trip this Saturday, September 13th, 2008 to Illinois Beach State Park, I have decided a meeting place and time.

Meeting Place: TARGET parking lot located on Highway 173 and Alpine Road
Time: 6:45 AM – we will try to leave sharply at this time as it is about a 2 hour drive to IBSP

If you plan on attending you can email me – birdfreak@birdfreak.com or call my cell phone: 815-323-0011 (there is a typo in the printed field trip list)

Birds we plan on seeing: migrants of all kinds, shorebirds, possible Gustavian Ike blown rarities, etc.

Scopes would be nice to bring (I’ll have mine but it isn’t the greatest).

Thanks, and I hope a lot of birders will make it!!

- Eddie Callaway