North Central Illinois Ornithological Society

The young kite seen in the nest last Friday was found on the ground yesterday morning by Chicago birders. It may have fallen out as long ago as Saturday. It cannot fly yet. In fact, it has a hard time perching on thinner branches, and occasionally tips over and ends hanging upside down, wings akimbo.

Late yesterday afternoon, it somehow crossed a lawn, a street, and another lawn, and climbed into a tall dense bush. Today it has worked its way up to the top of the bush, and from there to a small tree. It appears to be healthy and strong, and having survived this long on or near the ground, we trust it will soon be flying and hunting on its own.

This morning between 6:20 and 6:45, I counted 5 kites perched in the Bloom School neighborhood. The subadult perched for 2½ hours in the big tree near Buckingham and Pleasant View. Other raptors seen nearby in the last 4 days are Cooper’s Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk, Turkey Vulture, and today around noon, a Sharp-shinned Hawk soaring with three Mississippi Kites.

The Carolina Wren is singing regularly around the intersections of Buckingham with Roncevalles and Scottswood.

Click on the pictures below to see them full size.

Fledgling kite today

Struggling to stay upright

Being fed by adult male

Donna and I decided to cruise around the NW part of the county this afternoon. We didn’t get far before the skies blackened and the rain came down in buckets. But white birds are easier to see in the dark, and there were 32 Great Egrets on Harrison Road south of Shirland. Other birds of interest: 3 cranes and an immature eagle on Oliver Road, and a Northern Harrier on Moody Road. I wanted to check Nygren, since on Monday there were more egrets there (7) than anywhere else (0). But I didn’t really feel like braving the torrents to get to the overlook. Worth checking tomorrow.

Now two young Mississippi Kites have been seen. A flying juvenile was seen at Bloom School yesterday at 9 AM by Fran Morel of Evanston. We believe this to be the product of a nesting pair from the southern “hot spot” area marked on my map at the link given in the previous post. A second juvenile from the northern “hot spot” was found this morning.

There is a Carolina Wren at the red house across the street from 3306 Buckingham.

Mississippi Kites continue to be sighted in Rockford, but no young have yet been seen. For a graphic view of their activity to date, see the map at http://tinyurl.com/Rockford-MIKIs. Zoom in and out for a more complete picture.

There is a flooded area at the intersection of Baxter and South Bend Roads that has started to attract shorebirds. Today at noon, there were L. Yellowlegs, Pectoral, Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers along with the expected Killdeer. All birds present (~20) were adults.

This puddle has been there since spring. Despite the recent rains, it seems to have enough exposed mud to attract migrating shorebirds. Since most other flooded places in the county developed only with the recent deluge, they are heavily bordered with vegetation. Not the case here. I looked in that puddle most of the spring but failed to find many shorebirds, so I was pleased to see some migrants there today. Given its proximity to the confluence of the Rock and Kishwaukee Rivers, I hope that it will attract migrants looking for a place to rest and feed among the corn and soybeans.

I know, this isn’t much, either in species or numbers, but it is the best locale I have found so far during this migration season in Winnebago Co. More places may “surface” as the flood water recedes along the Pec and Sugar Rivers. Until then, check this place out now and then. It might even attract post-breeding herons/egrets. Once it a while, we found Snowy Egrets and Little Blue Herons at the quarry pond, not far away, but the recent quarry activity seems to have extracted a lot of sand and gravel from what used to be the shallow gravel flats at the SE corner of the quarry.

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.

I found approximately 150 American White Pelicans in a very large flooded area on Rock City Road immediately north of Ridott (Stephenson). Two flocks were in the air, and I counted 37 in the flooded field on both sides of the road. Also present were several dozen Great Blue Herons, 4 Great Egrets, an immature Bald Eagle, some Wood Ducks, plus hundreds of swallows of 4 species. These pelicans are likely many of the same reported by Anne Straight earlier from Nieman Pond near Freeport and probably the same group of non-breeding birds that has been roaming the Pecatonica River valley all summer.

I also found a family group of 4 mink, one of which (a young one) had just been hit by a car. The adult was still standing next to it when I pulled up. I collected the victim so that the adult wouldn’t be tempted to go back out on to the road.

The Pecatonica River is really flooding. Thousands of adjoining acres are underwater all along its course. What was Nieman Pond, at the north end of Springfield Road east of Freeport, is no longer identifiable because it has been subsumed into the flooded river bottom, covering at least 1000 acres. The exit into Freeport via US Business 20 from US 20 is closed in both directions on US 20. I suspect that a part of the road is either under water or a bridge has been compromised by the flooding.

Some gravel roads in eastern Stephenson County have been badly eroded and deep gulleys have formed, making driving them either difficult or treacherous. In some spots, flooded fields are washing across the roads. Other roads are closed. Local farmers who have end loaders are out levelling the roads where possible.

There are extemsive areas of flooding along the Pec River north of Pecatonica on Blair Road and on both sides of Pecatonica Road. The extension of Blair Road into Stephenson County (Maize Road) is closed due to flooding.

All of this might turn into good shorebird habitat by the time the flood waters receded.

This morning, for several hours, I watched several kites in the Bloom School neighborhood. (And at 2:45 this afternoon, there were 3 perched there, one over the school parking lot’s bike stand.) Before today, the kite count has been 3 adult males and one adult female, all being seen together a couple of times. Today, I saw a year-old female bird perched, which brings the count to 5 separate individuals. Later I saw another female flying, which differed from the two females I saw perched together. That would be a sixth individual.

Near that neighborhood, a Carolina Wren was singing this morning at 1907 Kings Highway.

But maybe my best sighting was early this afternoon when I was at my home in Shaw Woods. I looked out the window and next to my birdbath I saw a mink carrying a chipmunk it had caught. As it ran off with it, a Cooper’s Hawk swooped at it.

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

Yesterday, Larry Balch and I drove down to Lowell Park in Dixon.  For those of you not familiar with Lowell Park, it is located on the west bank of the Rock River north of Dixon,  just downstream from Grand Detour.  It is a beautiful woodland which has been designated an Illinois Nature Preserve.  There is a nature center at the entrance off of Lowell Park Road.  Recent storms have damaged quite a few trees. 

A Yellow-throated Warbler and a Pine Warbler were calling from the stand of White Pines across the driveway from the nature center.  We drove down to the parking lot for boat trailers along the river and walked the loop road clockwise from the south side of the preserve back to the nature center.  There is an overlook with a wonderful vista of the river valley near the top of the bluffs. 

Along the walk, we counted 10 Acadian Flycatchers, including a pair feeding a chick at a nest.  When we returned about an hour later, a bird was sitting on the nest, so we suspect that it was still incubating other eggs.   We heard at least 5 Wood Thrushes (my count may be low), but no Veeries.  I heard a Cerulean Warbler that called twice from the nature preserve about half-way between the nature center and the overlook shelter house, but Larry was unable to hear it and it didn’t call again. 

Else, we had the expected species, including Yellow-throated and Red-eyed Vireos, lots of pewees, Great-crested Flycatchers, and a few E. Phoebe’s which were certainly nesting in the eaves of a shed near the concession stand and bathrooms near the boat lauch.  Quite a few Bank Swallows were feeding and plunge-bathing over the Rock River.  A Barred Owl called from south of the park along the river.