North Central Illinois Ornithological Society

15 people showed up this morning to check some of the county waterfowl spots.  We started at Rock Cut State Park’s Olson annex with Killdeer and Ring-necked Ducks being the most noteworthy birds.  Next, we went to Windsor Lake where Phil Donchek found the best bird of the day; a Northern Shrike.  It was behind the office buildings in a weedy field on the NW side of the lake.  Nygren Wetlands was next with Harrier, Snipe, Sandhill Crane, Bald Eagle, Green-winged Teal and Shoveler as highlights.  Jim Meyers was lucky enough to watch three River Otters swim past the Nygren overlook shelter. We all watched a Turkey Vulture circle over the road on the way to Lake Summerset, where we found Horned Grebes, Ruddy Ducks, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye and a hen Canvasback.  At the final stop at Howard’s farm on Rte. 70 we didn’t turn up anything unusual except a single Snow Goose.
We tallied 49 species for the day, the weather was terrific and we had a lovely time.

We had better weather conditions for a hawkwatch this time and better results. Clear skies with NW winds at about 15 miles per hour brought out 3 Turkey Vultures, 8 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 6 Cooper’s Hawks and 10 Red-tailed Hawks. 13 observers joined us through the course of the morning.
That still isn’t very many hawks for a sunny, breezy day during hawk migration but every day is different and we’ll take what we get. We don’t have any geologic features that help to concentrate the birds at the Rock Cut site so we will never have the numbers of birds that are seen at Hawk Ridge in Duluth or at Illinois Beach State Park. However, the site overlooking Olson Lake at Rock Cut can produce some pretty good hawk days, and it is worth spending some time there if you get the chance and the weather is conducive to hawk flights.

At this morning’s hawkwatch six of us enjoyed the mild weather under cloudy skies. Counting a few birds seen while driving through the park to the hawk watch site above Olson Lake we tallied only 26 species. Unfortunately, only two of those were birds of prey. Fifteen Turkey Vultures put in an appearance when they finally came off their overnight roost and took to the air. In addition we saw one Red-tailed Hawk. Their is no reason to think that the Vultures or the Red-tail were actually migrants.
Highlights were a big flock of Cedar Waxwings, good views of perched adult and immature Turkey Vultures side-by-side, a casual count of 89 Blue Jays (we probably let 20 – 30 go by before we began counting) all headed south, and a couple of late lingering Chimney Swifts.
As a hawk watching morning it was a total bust.
By around 12:30 when I arrived at home the clouds parted, the sun shone and hawks began flying over my house. Not a huge number, but a lot more than we saw in three hours this morning. Cooper’s Hawks, Sharpshins and a couple of Broad-wings in addition to a couple of Red-tails that probably were migrants – way up high and moving in a decidedly southward direction. At one point a few circling Cooper’s and Broad-wings were joined by a Common Nighthawk – something I’ve never seen before.
Soon the clouds closed in again and the activity stopped.

Every other year, Barbara and I travel to northern Minnesota to participate in two CBCs, Baudette (BA) and Beltrami Island (BI). These are compiled by Martin Kehoe. 3 trips ago, we added Roseau (RO) to the list, all together doing 3 in a row. We really enjoy northern forest birding in winter, even though there aren’t a lot of species, but the ones that are there either don’t occur in IL, or don’t occur very often. You can judge for yourself.

This year, we departed on Dec. 31 and headed for Roseau, 678 miles from our house in Rockford. All 3 counts are close to the international border with Canada. The Roseau circle comes within a mile of the border with Manitoba on MN 310. We left Rockford around 0715 and arrived there by 1830, just ahead of a snow storm coming in from the Dakotas. The travel highlight birds of the day were 3 Hawk Owls in the Big Bog along MN 72 south of Baudette.

From December 31 to January 5, the birds we saw included: Ruffed and Sharp-tailed Grouse (multiples on several days), Sharp-shinned Hawk (!) (RO new count species), Rough-legged Hawk (RO), Snowy Owl (1-BA count week on 1/4), Great Gray Owl (1-BA), N. Hawk Owl (10-including the 3 on 12/31 and on both BA and BI counts), Am. 3-toed Woodpecker (2-BI on 1/3), Black-backed Woodpecker (2 BI on 1/3, 1-BA on 1/2), N. Shrike (2-BA, 1-BI, and 2 en route), Black-billed Magpie (daily), Gray Jay (4-BA, 10-BI), Boreal Chickadee (7-BI), American Robin (1-RO–we have to document this bird!), Bohemian Waxwing (205-RO), Snow Bunting (daily, with a high of 229-RO), Lapland Longspur (1-RO with Snow Buntings), White-winged Crossbills (several days), Common Redpoll (daily), Hoary Redpoll (1-BI, probably 3 more, but we didn’t see enough detail on those to document them adequately), Pine Grosbeak (daily) and Evening Grosbeak (56-BA). A complete list of birds for each count can be found on the National Audubon CBC website.

We did not see Goshawk, Spruce Grouse or Red Crossbill, but probably would have been able to find them but for the fact that we were out counting and not just birding. Some Spruce Grouse were appearing daily at our friend’s cabin until 2 days before the Baudette count, when a snow storm hit and they disappeared.

Not all years are this rewarding in terms of species seen, of course. But, even the less-productive years can produce exciting species, like the time we found 2 Gyrfalcons (1 gray, 1 brown) within an hour of each other (outside of the count circle) after a morning during which we struggled to find 33 individual birds (not species) on the Beltrami Island count in temps that had a high of -20 or so with winds gusting to 25 mph. Odd way to have fun, isn’t it? This year’s weather was relatively normal by comparison. Only 1 night with temperatures below -20 F, and several days with temps ranging between -7 F and +7 F.

We find that we see and find more birds by walking rather than driving the roads in the state forest (Beltrami Island State Forest, SW of Baudette in Lake of the Woods County). Another good road in Lake of the Woods Co. is the Pitt Grade, which runs N-S through spruce-tamarack bog and forest beginning SW of Baudette. Navigating these roads can be a challenge if they aren’t plowed, as the Pitt Grade was not on 1/2. We had snow up to the undercarriage of the Subaru. By mushing through the snow, we found the GGO, but I don’t recommend this drive unless the road has been plowed. There isn’t a place to turn around except at intersections, and those are 4-8 miles apart! Then, if plowed, there can be tight squeezes with logging trucks (the road usually gets plowed to allow them access to various wood lots for logging contracts).

Baudette is 200 miles NW of Duluth, and is situated on the north side of an enormous spruce-tamarack bog (The Big Bog) that spreads through Beltrami, Lake of the Woods and Koochiching Counties. Often there are species here that may not be around Duluth and the area is very underbirded. If you are interested in birding northern MN for winter specialties, I suggest that you avoid the CBCs and go in January. Check the NW MN hotline, entered on the MN listserve weekly.

This morning, Barbara and I co-lead a bird walk at Klehm Arboretum in Rockford for Klehm members and others who wished to sign up. Had a nice birdy morning. Still a lot of fruits on the crab apple trees, so we saw a lot of Cedar Waxwings and Am. Robins. A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and 3 Flickers were the most interesting woodpeckers. Other species of interest were a Red-breasted Nuthatch (coming to the feeders at the visitor center), Purple Finch, at least 3 Yellow-rumped Warblers (feeding on juniper berries among other things (the parking lot bayberries seem to be stripped of fruit now), a lot of White-throated Sparrows, and a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

9 Bald Eagles (3 A, 6 i) were haunting the Rock River below the Fordham dam and were flying between the dam and Blackhawk Park, which is across the river (East bank) from Klehm. Quite a few Herring Gulls were flying over the whitewater below the dam.

We had twelve participants for this morning’s trip. We started with several locations at Rock Cut State Park, then visited Windsor Lake, Nygren Wetlands and the Howard Farm on Rte. 70.  We finished at about 12:30 with a total of 47 species.

The highlights were six Ross’s Geese at Howard’s Farm. They were in the company of about six Snow Geese, an adult Blue Goose and an immature Blue Goose. Several  flocks of Canada Geese had Cackling Geese mixed in, but also other subspecies of Canada. A flock of about 20 Snow Buntings was seen briefly near the observation deck at Nygren Wetlands.  About 100 Sandhill cranes were seen at Nygren and another fifty or so flew over Howard’s Farm.

The lakes at Rock Cut State Park had three Common Loons, a Pied-billed Grebe, a Horned Grebe, 3 Bonaparte’s Gulls, Bufflehead, Hooded Mergansers, Common Goldeneye and Bald Eagle. But, overall, the waterfowl species diversity was low.

Here’s the morning’s list:

Snow Goose

Ross’s Goose

Cackling Goose

Canada Goose

Mallard

N. Shoveler

Green-winged Teal

Bufflehead

Common Goldeneye

Hooded Merganser

Common Loon

Horned Grebe

Pied-billed Grebe

Great Blue Heron

Bald Eagle

N. Harrier

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Cooper’s Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Am. Kestrel

Sandhill Crane

Am. Coot

Killdeer

Wilson’s Snipe

Bonaparte’s Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Herring Gull

Rock Pigeon

Mourning Dove

Belted Kingfisher

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

N. Flicker

Horned Lark

Blue Jay

Am. Crow

Black-capped Chickadee

White-breasted Nuthatch

E. Bluebird

Cedar Waxwing

European Starling

N. Cardinal

Am. Tree Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Snow Bunting

Am. Goldfinch

European House Sparrow

We had 11 participants for the September 19th field trip to the Jane Addams trail. Bird activity was low and didn’t really pick up until we moved on to the section of trail by Scioto Mills (where the Golden-crowned Sparrow was discovered).

The highlights: small flock of Sandhill Cranes, 2 Bald Eagles, 2 Philadelphia Vireos, 1 female American Redstart, Swainson’s Thrushes, a nice-sized group of Wood Ducks, and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

Total species: 26

Here are the preliminary totals and comments about yesterday’s Rockford CBC. I am still missing 1 field team report and most feeder reports.

68 species are confirmed so far. We found a number of interesting and not-often-seen species, together with some large numbers of the annual birds. For instance, we have already set new count highs for Cardinal (655), American goldfinch (586), and Cedar Waxwing (264). Tied for high counts were Barred Owl (16), Carolina Wren (3). Then there are new highs for the rare/unusual birds: Snowy Owl (1) (previously recorded on the Rockford CBC only in 1965), Northern Shrike (7) (previous high 4), Brewer’s Blackbird (2), and Savannah Sparrow (5).

Including the Snowy Owl, 6 species of owls were seen. A Sandhill Crane persists (and was seen again today), a couple of Green-winged Teal and 4 Wilson’s Snipe are hanging out in some spring-fed open water areas, 9 E. bluebirds, 3 Fox Sparrows, 8 Common Redpolls, 4 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 1 Common Grackle, 13 Red-winged Blackbirds, 1 Winter Wren all were nice finds.

Misses so far include Snow Bunting, Lapland Longspur, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, Pine Siskin, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

The freezing rain and crusty snow over the previous 10 days, combined with snow all day long on count day, and frozen still water, certainly impacted the results. Virtually no geese or other waterfowl were at the Howard farm on IL 70, no diving ducks were in the Rock River, only 4 individual gulls were seen, 2 each of Herring and Ring-billed. The snow over the roads covered the road edges, so there weren’t any spots for Horned Larks, longspurs and Snow Buntings to eat seeds and find grit. We only have 12 Horned Larks recorded so far. No Gray Partridges were seen. If anyone sees a Gray Partridge, please call the NCIOS hotline to report the day, time and location, plus please post on this blog. This species is getting rarer and rarer in IL.

This is a big year for Northern Shrikes across northern Illinois. Keep your eye on IBET or Illinois Bird Forum for a discussion of this species as the winter season progresses. They seem to be reported from most every county, and are even turning up in central Illinois, with one record in southern IL.

Thank you to everyone who came out in the snow and helped with the CBC. I had a lot of fun birding in the snow, but the crusty and sometimes icy conditions made walking and driving difficult. Don’t forget the Kishwaukee CBC on December 29. Please call (815-968-4732) or email Barbara (twotringas@inwave.com) if you can help out.

Dan