I was pleased to locate 2 Upland Sandpipers while doing one of my Breeding Bird Survey routes in northwest Ogle county this morning. They were along Coffman Road, 1/2 and 1 1/2 miles west of IL 26, respectively, along the north side of the road. This area does not look like Uppie habitat–it is corn and soybeans, but there must be some hay fields just over the ridge to the north, because that is the place where they were flying and calling.

Just east of the corner of Lightsville and Rock City Road, in the SE corner of the intersection and stretching nearly 1/2 mile back to the east on the south side of Lightsville Rd, is a CRP set aside field. It had a nice mixture of Bobolinks, Dickcissels, and about 6 calling Henslow’s Sparrows. Red-headed Woodpeckers were calling from the trees north of the road, across another grass field, and there were a couple of Grasshopper Sparrows on that side..