Photo: Green heron by Lindsay Vacek
Hello everyone,
It was a chilly but nice morning and we had many wonderful birds. We had lots of Kinglets, both Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned. There were probably many more kinglets around than our count reflects but we just didn’t see them. Brown Creepers have arrived and we also saw an adorable Winter Wren.
Special visitors were a late Black and White Warbler, a late Ruby-throated Hummingbird and a Merlin (see Leslie’s great photo). The ground to the west of the north lagoon was covered with Juncos and Sparrows, including three Fox Sparrows as we ended our walk. It looked like the ground was alive!
Our esteemed Black-crowned Night Heron, O Sagi, was not present in the Japanese Garden this week. As you may have heard, the moon bridge in the garden sustained damage in a fire earlier in the week and is closed until it can be repaired. I wonder if all the commotion related to the fire scared him/her away. Or, s/he got tired of the cold Chicago weather and headed south.
BIRDERS: Kristin, Marian, Mike, Jennie, Ana (visiting from D.C.), Beth, Lucy, Jane, Eric, Leslie, Peter, Rob, Renate.
TIME: 8:00am to 12:15pm
WEATHER: 39 degrees and sunny at the start of the walk,
Compiler: Mike
Photographers: Eric and Leslie
Canada Goose 58
Wood Duck 15
Mallard 8
Chimney Swift 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Ring-billed Gull 10
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 4
Green Heron 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 4
Northern Flicker 3
Merlin 1
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 7
Black-capped Chickadee 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 7
Golden-crowned Kinglet 16
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Brown Creeper 4
Winter Wren 1
European Starling 6
Gray Catbird 1
Gray-cheeked Thrush 1
Swainson's Thrush 3
American Robin 30
American Goldfinch 10
Fox Sparrow 3
Dark-eyed Junco 26
White-crowned Sparrow 10
White-throated Sparrow 14
Song Sparrow 1
Rusty Blackbird 1
Black-and-white Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 5
Northern Cardinal 4
If you’d like more information about a bird, check out the All About Birds ID guide:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/
Corrections, additions and comments are welcome.
Recordings are not used to attract birds.
The Walks are free and open to one and all. They are held year-round. Newcomers are warmly welcomed.
Saturday morning walks: Start at 8:00 a.m. and cover a distance of two miles. Birders walk from the meeting spot counterclockwise onto Wooded Island. Exiting Wooded Island at the south end, the birders walk along the soccer field and enter the south end of Bobolink Meadow. The Meadow’s path leads to the Music Bridge. After crossing the Music Bridge birders walk through the parking lot and around the Columbia Basin (North Lagoon) and return to our meeting spot. In late fall, winter and early spring, the birders check for birds on the lakefront at the Outer Harbor near LaRabida Hospital and the Inner Harbor after the Wooded Island walk.
Meeting Spot: Birders meet on the west shore of the Columbia Basin (North Lagoon). Park on Stony Island Avenue near 59th Street, walk east across the parkland area, then cross Cornell Drive to reach the spot.
Good birding everyone,
Jennie