NCIOS - North Central Illinois Ornithological Society

The 2 adult Mississippi Kites were still present at Bloom School at 1:30-2:00 p.m. this afternoon. Also flying over in the vicinity was an adult Broad-winged Hawk and a distant Red-tailed Hawk. Yesterday, an immature Broad-winged Hawk was haunting the nearby trees along Westchester Drive, and a kestrel flew through. The kites are still very vocal, particularly when another raptor, like a Cooper’s Hawk or a Broad-winged, fly too close.

Caught this one on my way back from fishing 8-21-08
Augie

This was the 1st Green Heron of the year for me (8-18-08)
Augie

Drove early in the morning to Bloom School and before I could park the car, I spotted the kite in “the perch tree”. Lighting stunk the whole time I was there but this is one of the shots I got.

Note: School is starting very soon so teachers were showing up ~0700. There were also some people “walking” dogs (i.e. letting them run loose). Kite could care less.

Anyone going here has a HIGH chance of seeing the bird (I only saw one this morning) and there is quite a bit of parking.

As noted by Larry, this is a fun place to watch other raptors as well. While I didn’t see any Kestrels, a juv. Cooper’s Hawk was busy dive-bombing the abundant supply of squirrels. It seemed more of a game than an actual hunting attempt.

A few birders (and quite a few curious others) gathered near Bloom School by a playground to observe two Mississippi Kites flying around the area. We were lucky enough to get a great look at this bird and to snap a couple of photos.

Dakota also got some good shots of the bird. The Mississipi Kite was a life bird for Dakota, my two nieces Sammie and Allison, and also for me.

Yesterday (8-15-08) While fishing on the Rock River just west of the airport where the Kishwaukee River joins with the Rock River
A Bald Eagle flew over me.Just above the trre tops,not enough time to get the camera out and take a picture.
Also saw about 17 Great Blue Heron the reason for about is some of these fly off and I may have seen them again in a different part
of the river,also 3 Belted Kingfishers,2 Semipalmated Plower,Tree and Rough-winged Swallows,no Ducks of any kind.
Fishing was good.
Augie

An American Golden-plover flew over and landed at the storm water retention basin along Belt Line Road, just east of the airport quarry, around 4:30 p.m. today. It was approximately 50% molted into basic plumage.

The basin is drying up pretty quickly, but there was still a nice assortment of shorebird species there, albeit in small numbers. The list included Least, Semipalmated and Baird’s Sandpipers, a couple of Pectorals, Lesser Yellowlegs, Spotted, a couple of Solitary Sandpipers, the Golden-plover, and, of course, Killdeer.

I located one Buff-breasted Sandpiper among 400+ Killdeer at Cooling Sod Farm later this morning. It was fairly close to the road (150 meters) on the west side of Wheeler Road. There were quite a few other birds in the distance, but the heat haze made scoping them difficult. By shape and size, the large majority were more Killdeer.

Early morning is going to have the best light to look at the west side of the road. Be careful because the traffic is very fast and there are only a few gravel pads that are entries to the sod fields on which you can park to be completely off of the road. Do not enter the sod farms. It is private property and posted.

This morning, Larry Balch, Eric Walters, Barbara and I found 3 adult Yellow-crowned Night-herons in the swamp inside the loop road at Sugar River FP. Prior to today, only one had been reported off and on since mid-May. A Yellow-throated Warbler was still singing, and the mosquitoes were forming in battalion strength.

A stop at the east end of Moody Road revealed a lot of shorebirds, but they were all back lit in the morning sun. 7:00 p.m. might be the best time to check there because the sun will be behind you and the heat haze should have dissipated. There was also a Common Tern there, plus 13 Great Egrets, some Hooded Mergansers, and Ring-billed Gulls.

A stop on Porter Road to check the Anna Page Park dry dam resulted in 3 Henslow’s Sparrows, several Sedge Wrens, but no Bell’s Vireo was heard at its usual spot.

I saw the Yellow-crowned Night-heron today at Sugar River FP around 3:25 p.m. It was in the same area as before, about 3/4 of the way around the loop with the swamp in the middle, on the left hand side of the road, near the road.

3 Caspian Terns were on the flooded field at the east end of Moody Road. Don’t drive past the mailbox. Stop in the cul-de-sac. A scope is absolutely necessary. There were several hundred shorebirds there, but the heat haze around 4:00 p.m. was terrible. Looked like both species of yellowlegs, probably some Stilt Sandpipers, a bunch of Pectorals and peeps, plus what appeared to be some kind of phalarope, but that was only based on behavior. Who knows what else. We’re going back tomorrow (Saturday morning, early) to see what might be in better focus before the heat haze takes over.