North Central Illinois Ornithological Society

The calendar of events is now live and can be viewed here.

You can also download a PDF of the events.

We hope to see a lot of birders at all these wonderful field trips and meetings!!

-Eddie Callaway (web admin)

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.

I am in the process of upgrading the website/blog for NCIOS so things will look rather funny/different for a day or two (hopefully not longer and most likely shorter). There’s a high probability that your user password (for those who post) was reset and hopefully emailed to you automatically. You will have to update the password or if that doesn’t work I can manually issue a password and then you can change it.

Otherwise, you are free to post away as normal and I will be working on getting everything looking the way it should again (all the posts “should” be there but with export/import some could have been lost).

The main site of NCIOS (the non-blog portion) should be 100% good at this time.

Thanks,

Eddie Callaway, NCIOS web administrator.

The cranes were still present as of late afternoon today.

Dan and I recorded the bands on the 5 Whooping Cranes and reported them to the International Crane Foundation. Here is the info they sent back:

Thank you so much for contacting us about the 5 whooping cranes you observed and for recording all of the color bands on their legs.  Crane #1 is 29-08, Crane #2 is 12-07, Crane #3 is 8-05, Crane #4 is 1-04, and Crane #5 is 14-05.  This is an unusual grouping because these birds were not associating with each other prior to starting migration on Sunday. 

#’s 1-04 & 8-05 are a breeding pair, 1-04 is a 5 year old male, and 8-05 is a 4 year old female.  They spend the winter in TN and nested unsuccessfully for the second time this spring.  They started migration from the Necedah NWR on Sunday AM but not with the other birds. 

#’s 12-07 & 14-05 are a 2 and 4 year old male who only recently joined up when they both moved south from where they’d spent the spring and summer.  We didn’t know they were migrating on Sunday – just that they were no longer at their last known location but I’m guessing they actually did fly Sunday AM, otherwise I’m not sure how all these birds met up and ended up at the same place – even so it still seems pretty unlikely and yet pretty cool that these 5 all ended up together.  I think 12-07 & 14-05 both spent last winter at separate locations in FL – they’ll probably go back to FL but they’re not as locked in on a winter location as the pair mentioned above.

#29-08 is a 1 year old male – he learned how to migrate south last fall behind ultralight aircraft so this is his first fall migration on his own.  I would normally expect him to return to FL and to the area he spent last winter in the release pen but he may be influenced by these other birds that he’s traveling with so we’ll have to wait and see.  He started migration from near Necedah Sunday AM but wasn’t with the pair so somewhere along the way all 5 of these birds – probably originally in 3 separate groups met up in the air and all ended up at the same place.

It’s unclear to me from other reports we’ve gotten whether these birds are still there or if they’ve moved on.  If you visit this area again or hear of any reports of these or any whooping cranes please let me know.  Also please let me know if you have any questions about these birds, I’m happy to answer them or at least try.

Thanks again,
Sara
 
Sara Zimorski
Aviculturist/WCEP Tracking and Winter Management Team Co-chair

International Crane Foundation
E11376 Shady Lane Road/P.O. Box 447
Baraboo, WI 53913-0447 USA
608-356-9462 x154 / Fax: 608-356-9465
Visit our website!  www.savingcranes.org

A quick update! The calendar of events for the new birding season is live. You can view all the upcoming meetings, field trips and bird counts here.

URGENT NOTICE – Car Pooling for NCIOS February 21, 2009 Field Trip Canceled

Due to the Winter Storm Warning for Northern Illinois, effective 11 p.m. February 20 through 6 p.m. February 21, and the hazardous driving conditions that are anticipated, NCIOS CANNOT OFFER CAR POOLING TO THE ANNUAL GULL FROLIC at Winthrop Harbor. Therefore, we will NOT meet at 8 a.m. at Menards on Route 173.

However, THE GULL FROLIC IS STILL BEING HELD, for those who wish to attend individually.

Today I got a message from Brian Leaf of Severson Dells which explained an unfortunate accident that occurred to Mary Kay Rubey, an excellent wildlife photographer from right here in Rockford.

Her message:

“I’m selling my spotting scope to pay some unexpected medical bills. It’s a Swarovski AT 80 HD with 20x-60x zoom angled eye-piece. If you know anyone who is interested, please let me know.”

Not wanting to post her phone number, you can call Brian Leaf at Severson Dells if you are interested and he can relay the information. His number: (815) 335-2915.

The scope with eyepiece retails new for around $2,830. Swarovski is a top-of-the-line optic company and it is terrible for Mary Kay Rubey to have been injured.

- Eddie

Wednesday at about two o’clock the kitelet was still present in the top of a tree in the schoolyard. It was fed a cicada and a praying mantis by one of the adults while I watched. I stopped in the school and talked to the front office staff. I offered to prepare a display panel on the kites with some photos, a range map and a couple of paragraphs about MKs in general and these MKs in particular. The staff thought that was a great idea. I’m going to put it together and it will go in the library which all students visit once a week. Never let a “teachable moment” slip by!

This upcoming birding season looks to be jam-packed with superb field trips and informative meetings. Check out the newly updated calendar of events now! I have also sent the updates to IOS to list on their website.

Don’t miss a single one event!!

- Eddie Callaway, NCIOS webmaster

If your photos are on your computer and not hosted on another website

Step One: Make sure your photos are resized to a width of 500px (or less). This keeps the space size (MB) down and also fits well on most computers’ browsers. To do this use any photo-editing software and resize the image. [Height can be whatever size, keeping the correct aspect ratio.]

Step Two: Inside where you write a post there is an upload section. Click the “choose file” button and a window opens that lets you browse your computer’s files to find your photo. Select that file.

Step Three: Give the photo a title and description (if desired) and then pick “upload”. It should upload as long as the file is not overly huge (which is why we resize it first)

Step Four: A new set of options appear where you can place the photo into your post. Select the radio buttons for “full size”, link to “none” and pick send to editor button.

Step Five: Your photo should appear:

Note: To move the placement of the photo in the post, select all the text within the “<" and ">” including the little brackets. It will say img src=the file name and then an end bracket. This is code that tells the web browser to display the photo.

I will be upgrading the blog soon to make this process even easier and more straightforward and will repost instructions then.

Any questions, just ask!!