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Wooded Island Birding Outing

  • Jackson Park Chicago, Illinois (map)

Hello everyone,

Mark your calendars: The annual Spring Bird Count for the Illinois Natural History Survey will take place on Saturday May 10, 2025, and once again our group will perform the count for the Wooded Island/Bobolink Meadow area. We’ll meet at our usual time and follow our usual route but we’ll carefully find and count every bird we see. We need all the birders we can get to make sure we don’t miss any birds so I hope you can join us. For more information about the Spring Bird Count and the Illinois Natural Survey, click here.

My apologies that this report is going out so late, but I’ve been distracted by birds this week! Spring migration is in full swing and I hope everyone has a chance to get out and see all our wonderful spring visitors, as I have done the last few days.

We had some very nice sightings even though it was a bit chilly, and we ended up with a very respectable 61 species on the list. White-throated sparrows were plentiful and the count of 43 is probably an undercount since they can be very hard to find as they dig in the leaf litter. We had a lovely look at a Baltimore Oriole in the same tree as an Orchard Oriole.

We were surprised and happy to find a pair of Gadwall and a pair of Bufflehead paddling around, and three Green-winged Teal were hanging around with them. These are three ducks that we don’t see very often in the park.

Oddly, we didn’t have any Great Blue Herons on this walk. It almost seems like the decoys that are supposed to attract them are scaring them away. We had plenty of Green Herons though, and they are always nice to see.

BIRDERS: Gary, Luther, Darby, Katie, Traci, Mark W., Caterina, Marian, Jennie, Cheryl, Daniela, Kristin, Lucy, Simone, Robert, Mark C., Howard, Val, Marisa, Tyler, Tracy, Jeff, Renate, Pam and welcome to Julie, Joan, Laura, and Mark L.

TIME: 8:00am to 11:40am

WEATHER: 44 degrees, cloudy, breezy, becoming sunny

Compiler: Cheryl

  1. Canada Goose   Number observed: 15

  2. Wood Duck   Number observed: 4

  3. Blue-winged Teal   Number observed: 3

  4. Gadwall   Number observed: 2

  5. Mallard   Number observed: 18

  6. Green-winged Teal   Number observed: 3

  7. Bufflehead   Number observed: 2

  8. Red-breasted Merganser   Number observed: 1

  9. Mourning Dove   Number observed: 2

  10. Chimney Swift   Number observed: 9

  11. American Coot   Number observed: 2

  12. Ring-billed Gull   Number observed: 12

  13. American Herring Gull   Number observed: 1

  14. Caspian Tern   Number observed: 1

  15. Pied-billed Grebe   Number observed: 1

  16. Double-crested Cormorant   Number observed: 2

  17. Green Heron   Number observed: 3

  18. Cooper's Hawk   Number observed: 2

  19. Belted Kingfisher   Number observed: 1

  20. Downy Woodpecker   Number observed: 3

  21. Northern Flicker   Number observed: 1

  22. American Kestrel   Number observed: 1

  23. American Crow   Number observed: 2

  24. Black-capped Chickadee   Number observed: 3

  25. Tree Swallow   Number observed: 12

  26. Purple Martin   Number observed: 8

  27. Northern Rough-winged Swallow   Number observed: 16

  28. Barn Swallow   Number observed: 17

  29. Cliff Swallow   Number observed: 10

  30. Ruby-crowned Kinglet   Number observed: 9

  31. Brown Creeper   Number observed: 1

  32. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   Number observed: 3

  33. Northern House Wren   Number observed: 1

  34. Marsh Wren   Number observed: 1

  35. European Starling   Number observed: 5

  36. Gray Catbird   Number observed: 1

  37. Hermit Thrush   Number observed: 1

  38. American Robin   Number observed: 15

  39. House Sparrow   Number observed: 3

  40. House Finch   Number observed: 2

  41. American Goldfinch   Number observed: 6

  42. Field Sparrow   Number observed: 1

  43. American Tree Sparrow   Number observed: 1

  44. Dark-eyed Junco   Number observed: 1

  45. White-crowned Sparrow   Number observed: 1

  46. White-throated Sparrow   Number observed: 43

  47. Song Sparrow   Number observed: 4

  48. Swamp Sparrow   Number observed: 3

  49. Eastern Towhee   Number observed: 1

  50. Orchard Oriole   Number observed: 3

  51. Baltimore Oriole   Number observed: 1

  52. Red-winged Blackbird   Number observed: 20

  53. Brown-headed Cowbird   Number observed: 5

  54. Common Grackle   Number observed: 5

  55. Black-and-white Warbler   Number observed: 1

  56. Orange-crowned Warbler   Number observed: 2

  57. Yellow Warbler   Number observed: 2

  58. Palm Warbler   Number observed: 9

  59. Yellow-rumped Warbler   Number observed: 2

  60. Black-throated Green Warbler   Number observed: 1

  61. Northern Cardinal   Number observed: 3

 

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 everyone,

Jennie

Photo: Trumpeter swans by Rachel Hogancamp