Greetings to all,
Several days of bad weather this week may have diminished our species count from last week but it didn’t lessen the sure signs of spring. The island is greener, the Scilla still looks beautiful and hopefully by next week we should see some Virginia Bluebells. Most importantly, spring means that the Wooded Island Walk is now into the 51st year of birding the park and island.
We welcomed our first 2 Black-crowned Night Herons back to Jackson Park and hopefully there will be more. Researchers and teams at U of I, IDNR, Lincoln Park Zoo, Illinois Audubon Society, Windy City Bird Lab and the Chicago Black-crowned Night Heron Project have banded together to make new sites in the region to attract the species. We are honored to have Jackson Park chosen as one of the targeted 2025 sites. Bird decoys and speakers playing the Black-crown call have been placed on the northernmost island in an effort to attract them. Birders who have walked the island for a long time will remember how that island used to be full of them.
Today was Cormorant Appreciation Day as we were treated to several large flocks flying over us while walking in the meadow. We had a conservative count of almost 500! As we were admiring the large group of Red-breasted Mergansers from the Music Bridge we noticed one male with a rather large fish in his mouth being chased by several others. He dropped it several times and recovered it quickly but was still unsuccessful. The last time he dropped the fish a stealth Ring-billed Gull swooped in and was treated to a free lunch.
BIRDERS: Cheryl, Marian, Leslie, Roger, Luther, Mark W., Jim, Caterina, Eric, Pam, Jeff, Cathy, Daniela, Howard, Bil, Darby, Tracy, Monica, Eileen, Jeff, Jayne and welcome to Traci, Katie and Jaesoo.
TIME: 8:00am to 11:29am.
WEATHER: Overcast-broken clouds, 41-47 F°, light N-NW breeze
Compiler: Cheryl
Photographers: Leslie and Eric
Canada Goose Number observed: 17
Wood Duck Number observed: 2
Blue-winged Teal Number observed: 6
Mallard Number observed: 11
Ring-necked Duck Number observed: 2
Red-breasted Merganser Number observed: 43
Killdeer Number observed: 2
Ring-billed Gull Number observed: 6
American Herring Gull Number observed: 1
Caspian Tern Number observed: 2
Pied-billed Grebe Number observed: 3
Double-crested Cormorant Number observed: 497
Black-crowned Night Heron Number observed: 2
Great Blue Heron Number observed: 1
Cooper's Hawk Number observed: 1
Belted Kingfisher Number observed: 2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Number observed: 5
Downy Woodpecker Number observed: 4
Hairy Woodpecker Number observed: 1
Northern Flicker Number observed: 21
Eastern Phoebe Number observed: 7
American Crow Number observed: 4
Black-capped Chickadee Number observed: 3
Tree Swallow Number observed: 2
Northern Rough-winged Swallow Number observed: 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet Number observed: 3
Brown Creeper Number observed: 2
European Starling Number observed: 41
Hermit Thrush Number observed: 1
American Robin Number observed: 30
House Sparrow Number observed: 3
House Finch Number observed: 2
American Goldfinch Number observed: 2
Fox Sparrow Number observed: 2
Dark-eyed Junco Number observed: 28
Song Sparrow Number observed: 11
Swamp Sparrow Number observed: 2
Red-winged Blackbird Number observed: 27
Brown-headed Cowbird Number observed: 10
Common Grackle Number observed: 15
Northern Cardinal Number observed: 7
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.
Good birding to all,
Cheryl and Jennie
Photo: Coopers hawk by Michael Rosano