Yellow-throated Vireo, Vireo flavifrons

Yellow-throated VireoJeff and I were on a mission today: to find additional species for his State List. We were expecting Tufted Titmouse and got both it and Pileated Woodpecker, so overall not a bad day!

We got some great views of some of the birds, like this Yellow-throated Vireo, which conveniently posed for a photo before disappearing. I don't see a lot of Yellow-throated and had only photographed them once before so I was very pleased to get this opportunity today.

This bird and 56 others were seen at Rock Cut State Park out near Rockford in Winnebago County. I've visited Rock Cut before but was most impressed today with the bird activity, especially early.

We were particularly pleased to see almost all of the regular woodpecker species, including Red-bellied, Downy, Hairy, Pileated, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Northern Flicker! After getting all those we looked for Red-headed, but dipped out today. Ah well, six out of seven wasn't bad!

Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow, Ammodramus nelsoni

Nelson's Sharp-tailed SparrowAnother day at the Illinois Beach State Park Hawk Watch today and another rare bird! I was on the phone (again!) when I saw this bird at a distance. I first thought it was a Henslow's Sparrow based on color but when I got the binoculars on it I realized it was a Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow!! This was a 'lifer' for me, so again I was thrilled. This sparrow does turn up from time to time in the park and has recently been seen at Montrose.

The Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow is (and was) very secretive, reminiscent of the Henslow's Sparrow (another of the Ammodramus group). It would come part way up the grass stalks but never come out in the open. When it did fly, it flew low and dropped down low in the grass when it landed. This shot is far from a great shot of it but shows some of the ID points. Most obvious apart from the buffy color was the gray nape (not seen in the picture), making it a bird in adult plumage. This picture shows the buffy chest and white belly, small bill, dark crown, thin dark eye-line and grayish cheek.

Sparrows seemed the order of the day at the Hawk Watch, with Field, Chipping, Savannah, White-throated, Lincoln's and Song Sparrows all seen in the area around the hawk watch pavilion. Hawks today included an Osprey, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, an unidentified Eagle, a local Cooper's and Red-tailed Hawk and a Northern Harrier.

Say's Phoebe, Sayornis saya

Say's PhoebeThe weather was horrible at 8AM this morning when I arrived for my stint at the IBSP Hawk Watch so I drove around the area for a while, noting how many birds were still active despite the heavy rain and high winds.

Janice told me it would blow over in about an hour, so in about an hour I returned and while finishing up a phone call I saw a phoebe cross the path from the parking lot to the pavilion where the hawk watch is based. I looked at it through the binoculars and quickly realized it was not an Eastern Phoebe. So, I ended the phone call abrubtly(!), grabbed my camera and jumped out of the car.

I had not seen a Say's Phoebe before but I had seen pictures of it and had often wished I could see one to add it to my life list. As it turned out, today was the day! This attractive Says's Phoebe was struggling to stay on top of the mullein in the high winds and flew from mullein to mullein and eventually onto this milkweed where it posed long enough for me to get a few shots.

The bird headed south for a short time and I lost sight of it. However, my brief but satisfying look at this bird was more than enough for me...and to photograph it was awesome. If you ever needed a reason to go to the Illinois Beach State Park North Unit and help out with the Hawk Watch, perhaps this is it! Along with all of the regular raptor species, I have been lucky enough to see the Say's Phoebe and Lark Sparrow while watching for raptors! Other rare and uncommon species have been seen by other birders.

Say's Phoebe is rare enough not to be listed on the Chicago Ornithological Society checklist for Chicagoland Area Birds so I was thrilled to see it and be able to record it here. I understand it has been seen before in the area (but not by me!) from time to time.

Rusty Blackbird, Euphagus carolinus

Another trip to Rollins Savanna this afternoon yielded at least six Rusty Blackbirds feeding along the edge of the water and in snags in the marsh. I suspect some of the flocks of blackbirds flying around also contained Rusty's but against the sun it wasn't always easy to tell.

I watched four of them feeding on the ground in the snags on the marsh and realized one had come much closer to me than the others. Its one of those moments when you get one - maybe two - shots before the bird leaves. This is the one shot!

I have rarely seen Rusty Blackbirds in photographable situations before so I was very pleased to get this shot. I had been standing in one spot for some time, which is presumably why this bird was willing to approach me. This is a female bird showing the colors that give it its name. The Rusty Blackbird males are virtually always dark and the females are only rusty when non-breeding.

Along with the Rusty Blackbirds, there were many Yellow-rumped Warblers and one Swamp Sparrow, which also posed for me today! I have seen many Swamp Sparrows at Rollins before but rarely such a good view as they are usually very secretive. I had to wait a considerable time for this one to pop up.

You can probably tell what the late afternoon light was like...the sky was clear blue and lacked the typical hazy horizon - perfect! As always, click on the photos for larger versions.

Rollins Savanna 9/16/06

Interesting afternoon at Rollins Savanna...six Black Terns were skimming around the lake. They seemed to be doing circuits of the lake, going from the large, open area, north to the dead-tree area and back, feeding the whole time. Occasionally they would sit on the stumps.

Next were this Pied-billed Grebe and Lincoln's Sparrow. I've seen the Lincoln's Sparrow here before but was pleasantly surprised to see it again. I was lucky to get so close to the grebe!

Finally, and just before sunset, I caught these Yellow-rumped Warblers coming down to drink and presumably roost for the evening. They too were here last week. These are both first-year birds.

Illinois Beach State Park Hawk Watch

Red-tailed HawkI've been enjoying the company of the hawk watchers at this year's Illinois Beach State Park (IBSP) Hawk Watch. The IBSP Hawk Watch is run locally and reports sightings (with extensive details) to the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA - http://www.hmana.org/). Hawks, like many other birds, migrate south at this time of year. Different species migrate at different times, both in terms of time of day and time of year. The data collected here will help us better understand hawk migration, what affects migration and how/when/where hawks migrate.

One of the challenges of Hawk Watch sites is raptor identification. There are many species being counted: Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura), Osprey (Pandion haliaeetus), Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus), Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus), Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperi), Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus), Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus), Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus), Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), American Kestrel (Falco sparverius), Merlin (Falco columbarius), Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)....
and they all look a little different! Some are easy to tell apart - you don't confuse a Sharp-shinned Hawk with a Turkey Vulture very often, but you can easily confuse it with the slightly larger Cooper's Hawk. Once you've worked out what it is, ideally it will be aged and where possible sexed. All this, while determining that the bird is in fact migrating rather than simply being a local bird!

To try to give you a sense of what hawk watching is like, I have created a montage below with many of the hawks seen. The one on the left is of hawks, generally in good light and angles that show many of the defining features. The one on the right shows how they may often be seen - distant and little more than silhouettes! These birds are also not to scale. Why? Because they don't often fly together!
There are are seven species of hawk and eagle here, along with some 'fakes'. See if you can find the seven (Red-tailed, Broad-winged, Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks, American Kestrel, Northern Harrier and Bald Eagle). There's no prize (apart from perhaps pride) for picking all of them.

Hawk watching is very enjoyable, if not for the watching, then for spending time with other birders, sharing stories and trying to find and ID everything that appears. Unfortunately there are birds that never get ID'd and remain as unknown accipiter (UA), unknown Buteo (UB), etc. and even some that remain simply unknown raptor UR. Sightings, along with weather data are collected every day throughout the migration period, which peaks next month. I for one, will be there as often as I can!

1: Broad-winged Hawk 2:Northern Harrier 3:American Crow 4:American Kestrel 5:Cooper's Hawk 6: Sharp-shinned Hawk 7:Herring Gull 8:Red-tailed Hawk 9:Bald Eagle. The other small birds in the background are Herring Gulls

Click on images for larger views.

Rollins Savanna 9/10/06

Sedge WrenAbsolutely pathetic weather for being out today but as it turns out it was great for birding. With the temperature a little below 60°F, 90% humidity and constant rain and drizzle, Jeff Skrentny and I headed out to Rollins Savanna to see what could be found. We started off slowly but things warmed up later, with six species of sparrow including the rare Clay-colored Sparrow and Vesper Sparrow as well as two Lincoln's Sparrows. Also present were Cape May, Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers and three species of Wren: House, Sedge and Marsh Wrens.

We also had up-close and personal views of many Green Heron, particularly several juveniles that seemed determined to keep feeding despite us being within about a dozen yards of them. Two Northern Harriers, two Red-tailed Hawks and a Cooper's Hawk kept the birds busy this morning - the Northern Harriers in particular spending quite a bit of time harassing Green Herons.

Green Heron (juvenile)Speaking of Green Herons, we watched one that had impaled a large frog on its bill try to eat said frog...without success, eventually falling off its log into the water and coming up with nothing but weed (we felt bad for it after watching it try to eat the frog for several minutes). Note on the picture of the Green Heron the downy feathers still remaining on its head - this is obviously a very young bird!

Other interesting birds of the day included several Common Moorhen, Virginia Rail and Sora, a Downy Woodpecker that let us approach to within six feet or so (was along the path we were on). Three Cedar Waxwings paid us a visit as we walked along another path, flying across the grasslands and hovering over sunflowers a few yards in front of us, giving us some excellent views. In fact, for some reason, many of the birds we saw today either let us approach close or approached us very close.
As always, click on the images for larger views.

Digiscoping

Semipalmated Sandpiper

I've read a lot about digiscoping but never really tried it (partly because I didn't have a spotting scope). But I recently fixed the lack of spotting scope with a lucky clearance purchase of a Meade ETX-90 Spotting Scope (for $150), which is a "Maksutov-Cassegrain" style (basically a mirror lens), which is short but very 'fat' (see image below). This type of scope is typically used as an astronomical telescope but with the 45° erecting prism (original images are seen back-to-front, so left & right are reversed - the erecting prism corrects that) it is very useful as a spotting scope. What's even better for me is that I can also use it as an astronomical telescope and can even change eyepieces to alter magnification!

American Bittern digiscoped at extreme distance

Before I go on, I need to tell you two things. First, I am brand new to this digiscoping thing so feel free to come on the journey with me but please read other articles on the subject before diving in yourself. Second, while I see digiscoping as a useful method of getting shots of distant subjects, for me it will never replace standard digital photography as the quality of the images does not so far compare with my Digital SLR.

ETX 125 (above) and ETX 90 (below) spotting scopes

So, on with the show. My new spotting scope allows me to attach my digital SLR camera to the back of it, making a 1,200mm f13.8 lens. Anyone who knows photography knows that to get a decent image with a f13.8 lens, you're going to need tons of light. My experiments so far with that method have convinced me that's never going to be a practical way of getting reasonable images. However, I tried pointing my wife's little Nikon Coolpix 3200 camera down the eyepiece the other day and started to see some potential with the images I was getting.

The key to the whole thing is getting the camera's lens lined up with the eyepiece's bright-spot, which isn't terribly easy without one of the mounts that are available to do that (which are generally designed for more traditional spotting scopes) but I did manage to get a few decent shots, including the Semipalmated Sandpiper above left.

So, this is where I'm at so far with it. For getting an ID shot on a distant bird, its going to be great. I hope it will be especially useful in winter with waterfowl (and the car window mount I got will hopefully keep me warm inside the car!). A solid tripod is absolutely necessary with this system, as it a bright day. For me, digiscoping definitely has potential and for $150, it came with a relatively cheap price tag.

Wilson's Phalarope, Phalaropus tricolor

Wilson's Phalarope, first yearI remembering hearing that birding in inclement weather was often the best birding and this morning proved that adage for me when at Rollins Savanna -- while getting very wet during the morning rain -- I saw this Wilson's Phalarope. I was scanning around the edge of one of the ponds when I saw what at first appeared to be a very pale Lesser Yellowlegs - but the color and movement was all wrong!

I'm glad I looked a little longer as it quickly became apparent the bird was a phalarope. It was being very phalaropey (not a word I'm sure!) running around wildly picking up insects from the top of the water. It started very close to a Greater Yellowlegs and then spent some time near a Lesser Yellowlegs while almost circumnavigating the entire pond.
Wilson's Phalarope, first year
I got the picture at the top right when it flew after some arriving Lesser Yellowlegs stirred up the feeding yellowlegs and the phalarope. It inexplicably (but most politely) landed on the shore in front of me and started feeding, seemingly ambivalent about by presence. I watched the bird (while continuing to get wetter) for about an hour and left it and everything else right where I found them.

Below are some other images of the Phalarope. You may be able to see the rain in some of the shots when it was particularly heavy and making little bubbles on the surface of the water. Its a miracle I didn't damage any of my equipment! Needless to say the conditions for photography were terrible but as the weather wasn't playing, this was the best I could do.

Black-crowned Night Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax

Standing nearly 2-feet tall with a wingspan of nearly 4-feet, the Black-crowned Night Heron is a substantial bird, getting on for twice the size of the more often seen Green Heron (and more than twice the weight!).

This bird was a Fermilab feeding not far from a Green Heron. I've seen many before but it wasn't until I photographed it that the size difference struck me. The bird you see here is a adult bird, with the distinctive light gray wings and black back (and black-crown of course). When in flight, the contrast between the two colors is striking (and diagnostic for adults).

Immature birds are far less striking, being streaked grayish-brown with white spots on the wings. Although this is a night-heron, it isn't as strict at feeding only at night as its less common cousin the Yellow-crowned Night Heron. The Black-crowned Night Heron feeds mainly on small fish but also eats other invertebrates & amphibians. Illinois is close to the northern edge of the summer range for this bird and although farm from uncommon, it is not seen as often as the smaller Green Heron.

Bugs!

Eastern Tiger SwallowtailI couldn't help snapping a few more of the butterflies and dragonflies I've been seeing lately. These were taken at Moraine Hills State Park recently. I'm amazed at the variety of dragonflies and butterflies and while none of these are rare, they seem very local.
Eastern Amberwing
The names of each are below the images, which now link to larger versions thanks to PBase, where I have uploaded several of my images. PBase is one of many online image storage solutions and the one I have chosen after looking at several of them.
White-faced MeadowhawkEastern Pondhawk