North Central Illinois Ornithological Society

John Longhenry posted to IBET that Lee and Lynda Johnson found an adult YCNH feeding on crayfish on the north side of the swamp loop pond at Sugar River FP in northwestern Winnebago Co. this morning. Lynda may have seen an immature bird fly off from the trees.

Jack Armstrong, Russ Cline and I met at Sugar River FP this morning to look for the Yellow-crowned Night-heron (didn’t see it) and migrants at the forest preserve. We had mixed results.

There were very few warbler species or individuals. Not even the Prothonotary pair or one of the Yellow-throated Warblers was vocalizing. There were quite a few flycatchers, including a pair of Acadians. I heard a distant Yellow-bellied, and there were a lot of Great Crested and pewees calling and seen. A Pileated Woodpecker was making a lot of noise with drumming and vocalizing just downstream, a Broad-winged Hawk adult flew in a perched in good view while calling repeatedly for about 5 minutes. A Red-shouldered Hawk called from across the river to the west.

From there, we headed to Oliver Road, where the shorebirds were almost non-existent. A single Least Sandpiper was the only non-Killdeer/Spotted.

The only place we had shorebirds was a flooded field along Telegraph Road just East of Pecatonica. We had about 20 peeps, including 5 Semipalmated Sandpipers with the remainder being Least. There were also 2 Semipalmated Plovers there, and a pair of copulating Spotted Sandpipers.

We ended the day at the flooded fields north of Ridott, where, you guessed it, there were almost no shorebirds. We did find a single Lesser Yellowlegs.

After Jack headed home, Russ and I finished at Nieman Pond, where there was an adult Bald Eagle and a pair of Ring-billed Gulls. Between all of us, we managed to find around 90 species for the morning.

This evening at 7:00 I observed a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. It was located at the pond on the south loop road in Sugar River Forest Preserve in Winnebago County, IL.

Larry Balch, Barbara and I took a drive up to Sugar River FP this morning. We found 1 adult and 1 juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-heron in the swamp in the center of the loop road. As far as we know, this is the first sighting of a juvenile YCNH this year. The other reports have been an adult.

On the way to Sugar River, we stopped at the puddle on Meridian Road where I saw the shorebirds yesterday. There were a fair number of birds, but of much different species composition–mostly Lesser Yellowlegs and Solitary Sandpipers, with some Pectoral Sandpipers and a few peeps, including 1 Semipalmated Sandpiper. The others looked like Least, but we didnt’ get a scope on them. There were also 2 Snipe.

Moody/Blodgett intersection puddle had a lot of Great Egrets, Great Blue and Green Herons, plus an uncounted number of Wood Ducks, which just seemed to keep flying out of the corn in small groups. 2 Osprey were at Nygren, viewed from the observation deck.

I took a drive up to Sugar River FP this evening to see if the loop road was still open during the flooding. It wasn’t. Sugar River FP is closed until further notice due to flooding.
A little further downstream, Winters’ wetland restoration is really flooded! I bet Dave is glad that he doesn’t have crops in that field anymore. The road between Shirland and the bridge at the junction of the Pec and Sugar Rivers is under water and closed from Shirland and IL 75 ends.
Along Meridian Road between IL 75 and the bridge over the Pec River, the fields on both sides appear to be completely flooded (can’t see the slightly higher ground to the east because of the corn). The water is up to the top of the fence posts on the east side of the road.
Didn’t try to go to Pecatonica. The water in the river is so much higher along Meridian Road that I sincerely doubt that Blair Road is open along much of its length, as is all of Pec Wetlands FP. This flooding demonstrates the value of having this property in wetland restoration instead of corn and soybeans–no crop losses and less topsoil washed away downstream.

one adult YCNH was seen today at Sugar River F. P. by Martin Kehoe. It was moving around the floody ponds near the road.

I joined Al Stokie and Bob Erickson on a morning circuit of Winnebago County this morning.  We started at Rock Cut SP at 0700 in the parking area about 100 yards up the road from the spillway parking lot.  Could not find Cerulean Warblers there (we did have a singing Chestnut-sided Warbler), but we did find 2 Ceruleans in the picnic ground on the south side of the dam in the Bur Oak opening there.  We then walked west on the Rock Cut trail and found an Acadian Flycatcher.  On the way out of the park on the main road going toward IL 173, a White-eyed Vireo was singing about half way between the nature preserve hardwood forest and the intersection for the campground. 

We could not locate the Bell’s Vireo that I found 10 days ago along the equestrian trail on the N side of Hart Road.

From Rock Cut, we drove to Sugar River FP and met Lee and Lynda Johnson.  We located a singing Yellow-throated Warbler, and heard another Acadian Flycatcher, but could not find a Yellow-crowned Night-heron. 

Several Grasshopper Sparrows were singing along Haas Road opposing the parking area for the Sugar River Alder FP, but no Lark Sparrows were heard or seen.

Finally, we ended up at Bloom School in Rockford around 10:15 a.m.  In one hour, we saw 2 adult Broad-winged Hawks, an adult Cooper’s Hawk, a pair of Red-tailed Hawks, a TV, and an immature Red-shouldered Hawk (!).  Finally, after an hour, a male Mississippi Kite flew over.

John Longhenry reported that he found a Yellow-crowned Night-heron in the swamp at the south end of the loop road at Sugar River Forest Preserve on Saturday morning around 6:15 a.m. or so. 

This is the same location where this species has been seen over the past 4-5 years.  Good to know that one is in the area this spring.  If seen by other observers, please post your sighting.  Thank you.

Barbara and I found 2 Acadian Flycatchers at Sugar River FP yesterday afternoon. 

There were 4 Willow Flycatchers along the dry dam at Anna Page Park in Rockford yesterday morning.

This morning, I heard a Hooded Warbler and a Canada Warbler calling from the woods in back of our house.

After counting cranes (24 including 4 sets of unison callers) and listening to several Soras we [me and my dad] went to Sugar River where we found our first-of-year Yellow-throated Warbler. Other birds of note:

Pileated Woodpecker
Red-shouldered Hawk (carrying a stick)
Brown Thrasher (FOY)