Highlights were a White-eyed vireo calling from the thicket at the start of the equestrian trail that runs South from Hart Road, south of the equestrian campground. This trail goes back to the old hay field that has had Henslow’s Sparrows for a number of years now. In the field, I counted at least 3 Henslow’s, but it is likely that there are at least 4. A pair of Cooper’s Hawks were in display flight over the woods south of the field.

A pair of Broad-wings was circling and calling over the hardwood forest on the south side of the creek below the dam on Pierce Lake. The woods below the dam were full of Yellow-rumped Warblers, gnatcatchers, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. A lot of Eastern Towhees and Field Sparrows were heard from the scrub growth on the north side of the paved trail and along the entrance road coming in from the north.

3 Yellow-throated Warblers were heard, two of which were in the White Pines east of the Red Oak day use area driveway entrance.

A pair of Osprey, one with a fish in its talons, were flying over the east end of Pierce Lake. There was a flock of Ruddy Ducks (15) on Pierce Lake, and a smattering of puddle ducks plus some Lesser Scaup on Olson Lake. Other than Killdeer, the only shorebird was a solitary Solitary Sandpiper along the muddy edge at the Pierce Lake dam parking lot.

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.

Barbara Williams

Barbara

At Nygren, 122 Northern Shovelers and at least an equal number of American Coots were visible from the observation deck. A small number (10) of Green-winged Teal were also there, plus some Gadwall and 3 N. Pintail fly-overs.

At noon today, there were hundreds of ducks, including ~100 Redheads, ~100 scaup (80% Lesser, 20% Greater), 75+/- Ring-necked Ducks, 22 Buffleheads, 26 Canvasbacks, 9 Common, 2 Hooded and 2 Red-breasted Mergansers, 5 Gadwall & 3 N. Pintails. Only 2 species of gulls, and they have changed over. Now the gull flock is dominated by Ringed-bills (I counted 85) with Herring (17) a distant second. A single Bald Eagle (3rd year) was making the ducks nervous.

Grebes ought to be showing up with the ducks, but I didn’t see any today.

I took some photos which I attach here. I sent them to Amar Ayyash, who has a lot of expertise in gulls. He replied that he believes that this bird is a hybrid Great Black-backed Gull X Herring Gull. Notice the pink legs, the larger bill, paler mantle, and the white window in only the P10 primary, with small apical spots on the tips of other flight feathers. The subject compares reasonably well with photos of this type of hybrid that appear on page 293 of the Howell and Dunn Gull book, with the exception that their photo shows white windows on both P10 and P9.

Larry Balch also has commented (see his comment below) and believes that this bird is a 3rd winter Lesser Black-backed Gull. Larry meant that the mirror was in P10, not P9 as is in his comment. The subject has a mirror only in P10 (as I noted). Lesser Black-backs can have pink legs in immature individuals. I beleive that it is more likely to find a LBB Gull here than a hybrid which is unusual in the Canadian Maritime provinces and New England only in the winter (as stated by Howell and Dunn).

Dan Kassebaum believes that this bird is a subadult Lesser Black-backed too. He reports that he has observed a similar bird at Lake Carlyle. It had pinkish legs but with an undertone of yellow, indicating a subadult. Dan would like a better view of the flight feathers.

At the west end at the dam is another area of open water. At 1:20 p.m. there were 3 Ruddy Ducks, 6 Common Goldeneye, and a male Lesser Scaup in the open water.