Shorebirds are beginning to show up in northern IL. There have been scattered reports on IBET regarding various puddles where shorebirds are appearing, albeit for short periods of time. Nevertheless, it is useful to regularly visit those puddles while there is water in them because the birds do come and go, usually not lingering very long.

A small puddle that looks like it has been around for a long time on O’Brien road, just N of Melms Road, in NW Kane County, has attracted some Short-billed Dowitchers, one (two?) Wilson’s Phalaropes, both species of yellowlegs, Least, Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers. Willets came and went from Afton FP in DeKalb Co, as well as LaSalle Lake down by Marseilles.

There are some shorebirds at the Rockford airport quarry, but that is closed, so you have to scope from Belt Line Road, making peeps virtually impossible to identify. But, you can see yellowlegs, Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers, and Ring-billed Gulls right now. Larger shorebirds should be readily identifiable. A little further east on Belt Line, east of the radar starion, there is a storm water retention basin that has shallow water and is attracting shorebirds–I saw Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers there this evening, plus a few Lesser Yellowlegs.