North Central Illinois Ornithological Society

Larry Balch and I birded Winnebago County this morning beginning in the area of the Rockford airport. There were 2 Rough-legged Hawks hunting over the fields south of the airport, a single White-fronted Goose was mixed in wiht a flock of Canada and Cackling Geese (around 50 Cackling), and 2 flocks of Snow Buntings were seen flying around the gravel piles in the quarry on the south side of Belt Line Road and over the fields to the SE of the airport. The second flock appeared to include a few Lapland Longspurs. No gulls worth mentioning. ~300 Mourning Doves were on the wires and feeding in the field on the east side of Cessna Drive north of Belt Line Road. No Collared-doves were with them.

Pierce Lake at Rock Cut SP held 3 Common Loons, 8 Horned Grebes and 7 Pied-billed Grebes, but the lack of waterfowl there was surprising. Again, no gulls worth mentioning. A theme is developing here. Just north of the intersection where the east end of Hart Road is gated off of the main park loop road, we had a nice assortment of birds feeding on berries–lots of Cedar Waxwings and over 20 E. Bluebirds, a Sapsucker, 5-6 Purple Finches feeding on Ash keys, etc.

En route to Rockton, we had an adult Bald Eagle soaring over the Rock River bridge on Bridge Street in Roscoe. Nygren Wetland, west of Rockton, was pretty slow with only 4 Sandhill Cranes, some GW Teal and 2 N. Shovelers, but little else except soaring Red-tails. The immature Golden Eagle reported yesterday by Martin Kehoe from 1 mile SW of the observation deck was not seen by us today. Several small groups of Sandhill Cranes were in various ag fields along our route. Another Bald Eagle, this one immature (3rd year) was seen along Yale Bridge Road near the Pecatonica River bridge crossing.

Lake Summerset was devoid of waterbirds except for a pair of Mallards and 1 Herring Gull. Yeeks. The high wind made viewing tough, but an empty lake was quite surprising.

Our last stop was Howard’s farm. The wind was fierce,but by hiding our scopes behind the car, we found at least 3 Snow Geese (1 was a blue morph). There could have been more, but the geese were sleeping and many were behind an embankment from our viewing spot.

Yesterday afternoon I observed an immature Golden Eagle in Northern Winnebago County one mile SW of the observation deck at Nygren’s. I did not see it from the deck, it is just a reference point. I was in a deer stand and saw the eagle overhead two times. The sightings were about one hour apart so it was not just passing through. If you are out near Nygrens’s looking for white cranes amongst the Sandhills be sure to carefully check out the distant eagles.

Here is an early reminder to please check you calendars for upcoming Rockford area CBCs. Please plan to participate in as many of the CBCs as you can. Every one of them needs the help. They are listed by date of occurrence.

Friday, December 16, 2011 Green Island/Lost Mound (IA/IL) Includes the Lost Mound unit of the Upper Mississippi NWR on the IL side.

Saturday, December 17, 2011 Rockford CBC.

Sunday, December 18, 2011 White Pines CBC (maybe the name is now changed to Nachusa CBC). Eastern Ogle Co. including White Pines, Lowden,
Nachusa Grasslands, Lowden-Miller SF.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011 Rock Cut CBC (and into Boone Co. along the Kishwaukee River)

Saturday, December 31, 2011 Kiswhaukee CBC (includes northern Ogle Co. along the Rock River and part of the Kishwaukee River valley)

If you are more adventurous, and have time to travel, the northern MN CBCs compiled by Martin Kehoe always need help, and the birds are really cool! Contact Martin if you are willing to drive 200 miles NW of Duluth and count in remote forest as well as around town. You might see Great Gray and Hawk Owls!

I stopped by the Rock Cut lakes this morning to find not a lot happening. There were 6 Ring-necked Ducks at Olson Lake, and at Pierce Lake, after noting there were no Cackling Geese among the many Canadas, I counted 1 Ring-billed Gull, 6 Bonaparte’s Gulls, 4 Great Blue Herons, 100+ coots, a couple of dozen Mallards, 8 Shovelers, 2 Ruddy Ducks, 7 Horned Grebes, and 5 Pied-billed Grebes. There might have been more Pied-billeds except that Dan Williams reported seeing one gobbled by a very large Muskie a couple of days ago.

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.

Today, I received a call from Jeff Donaldson. He told me that Greg Keilback saw 4 plegadis ibis (species?) at Nygren on Saturday, October 8. According to Greg, they
stayed all day. It’s too bad Greg didn’t alert the birding community to the presence of these birds right away. Barbara, Larry Balch and I were there on Sunday morning for 3 hours and did not see any ibis.

The second NCIOS hawk watch field trip will be held this Saturday, October 15, 2011 at the Olson Lake parking lot at Rock Cut SP from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Bring a comfortable chair and dress for the weather. No pre-registration is necessary. Just show up! Hope that we see you there.

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.

Join us for some hawkwatching on Saturday Sept. 24 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon in the parking area at Olson Lake in Rock Cut State Park. There was a large movement of Broad-winged Hawks through Hawk Ridge in Duluth this past weekend, so if we are lucky we might see a lot of activity. Bring your scopes, binoculars and maybe a comfortable chair.

At the September 8th club meeting we met two young women who are working with Rock Cut State Park to establish dedicated birding trails in the park. They hope to designate four trails (one targeting each season), restricted to foot travel, that will allow individual and group bird walks to access prime birding locations.
They are seeking recommendations for trails for each season and an idea of what birds can reasonably be found on those trails. They are planning to erect signs along the trails indicating what birds should be listened for and watched for in the various spots and habitats.
You can contact them directly with your ideas. The more input, the better!

Robin Atwater – robinatwater4530@aol.com and Genevieve Clemens – freckleface2@yahoo.com