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Wooded Island Birding Outing

  • Jackson Park Chicago, Illinois (map)

Hello everyone,

We had all the summer weather this morning. Sun, light rain, hard rain, and clouds. And lots of humidity. But we are hardy birders and we handled it just fine.

The kids were active today. There were a lot of robins around, many of which were cute spotted juveniles, some with fuzz still on the tops of their heads. We had 3 juvenile Green Herons flying back and forth between a couple trees. There must have been a well-hidden nest close by – we never found one in the spring. The Wood Duck ducklings are getting big and enjoying swimming between the lily pads in the Columbia Basin. The mama Mallard and her quickly growing babies were neatly lined up in a row on a log in the lagoon.

Our White-eyed Vireos are still around (even though Merlin and eBird don’t believe it) and Eric was lucky enough to get a photo of one of the elusive birds. Warbling Vireos were singing away again now that their chicks have presumably grown up and gone out on their own.

A group of Northern Flickers were at the top of the big dead tree along the shore of the lagoon. An aggressive Starling chased them off but they came back after a short time. Osaka was snoozing peacefully in its usual spot in the Japanese Garden.

BIRDERS: Luther, Kristin, Mark C., Suzanne, Cheryl, Jennie, Mike, Marian, Mark W., Shannon, Madhu, Roger, Eric, Tracy, Jen, Pam, Jan, Marisa, Katie, Traci and welcome to Sarah and Brian.

TIME: 8:00am to 11:30am

WEATHER: Low 70s, cloudy, then sunny, then rain, then sunny, then more rain, then sunny again.

Compiler: Cheryl

  1. Canada Goose   Number observed: 132

  2. Wood Duck   Number observed: 10

  3. Mallard   Number observed: 14

  4. Mourning Dove   Number observed: 2

  5. Chimney Swift   Number observed: 4

  6. Killdeer   Number observed: 1

  7. Ring-billed Gull   Number observed: 7

  8. American Herring Gull   Number observed: 1

  9. Caspian Tern   Number observed: 3

  10. Double-crested Cormorant   Number observed: 3

  11. Black-crowned Night Heron   Number observed: 2

  12. Green Heron   Number observed: 3

  13. Great Egret   Number observed: 1

  14. Great Blue Heron   Number observed: 5

  15. Cooper's Hawk   Number observed: 2

  16. Downy Woodpecker   Number observed: 2

  17. Northern Flicker   Number observed: 4

  18. Eastern Wood-Pewee   Number observed: 1

  19. Willow Flycatcher   Number observed: 2

  20. Eastern Kingbird   Number observed: 4

  21. White-eyed Vireo   Number observed: 1

  22. Warbling Vireo   Number observed: 4

  23. American Crow   Number observed: 2

  24. Black-capped Chickadee   Number observed: 4

  25. Purple Martin   Number observed: 15

  26. Northern Rough-winged Swallow   Number observed: 1

  27. Barn Swallow   Number observed: 11

  28. Cliff Swallow   Number observed: 3

  29. White-breasted Nuthatch   Number observed: 2

  30. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   Number observed: 1

  31. Northern House Wren   Number observed: 3

  32. European Starling   Number observed: 40

  33. Gray Catbird   Number observed: 3

  34. Eastern Bluebird   Number observed: 1

  35. American Robin   Number observed: 28

  36. Cedar Waxwing   Number observed: 5

  37. House Sparrow   Number observed: 4

  38. American Goldfinch   Number observed: 7

  39. Chipping Sparrow   Number observed: 1

  40. Song Sparrow   Number observed: 6

  41. Orchard Oriole   Number observed: 2

  42. Red-winged Blackbird   Number observed: 14

  43. Brown-headed Cowbird   Number observed: 8

  44. Yellow Warbler   Number observed: 5

  45. Northern Cardinal   Number observed: 6

  46. Indigo Bunting   Number observed: 1

 

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: White-eyed vireo by Megumi Aita