The Magic Hedge

After 2 days of birding at the "Magic Hedge" on Montrose Harbor (about 1 mile away from my house). These are in no particular order. I'll try to add some more description later. The Magic Hedge sounds like this idiotically hokey name for a very small park smack dab in the middle of Chicago - but that's before you go. Once you go, you realize that the Hedge is, in fact, magical, and I say that without a hint of irony. It's probably one of the best bird-watching spots in Illinois and it's right down the road! The particular bit of hedge that it was named for in the park is amazing - there are birds everywhere and just SO many species. But the park actually butts up to the beach, so you can bird the migrating birds as well. Large parts of it are roped off to walkers so that the birds (and foliage) can live in peace. It's pretty cool. The only downside is that it doesn't really ever get raptors.

Gray Catbird - I saw one of these at Eagle Creek (ostensibly what got me on my current birding kick) and had to end up identifying it by his call, which is loud and sounds like a really annoyed cat mewing/yowling. Kind of like Izzie when she's hungry, actually. Anyway, I swear this guy was chasing me around the park on Sunday - kept hearing him, and then he'd jump out onto the trail. This time I was able to see his rather pretty rump - which is rufous-colored instead of gray like the rest of him.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher - probably the only Flycatcher of the 5 that I'll ever be able to identify.
Worm-Eating Warbler

European Starling (juvenile) - an entire freaking flock of them descended on the tree I was looking in - all juveniles in some form of molt.

Purple Finch

Promonotary Warbler

Guesses anyone?
No idea? Here's a hint:

Yeah, that's right, Red-Winged Blackbird. I saw the female first (above), then the next day an entire flock of males all together. I never would've identified the female without some fellow birders coming along.

While looking for a picture to accompany my Male Red-winged Blackbird, I was linked to a story in the UK Telegraph newspaper recounting the frequent attacks being made by territorial Blackbirds in Chicago in 2008. The last line of the article: "Mr. Stoltz advised anyone targeted by an angry blackbird, to stare directly at it. If that fails, barking like a dog should keep it away". Crack journalism, that.

Eastern Kingbird - he sat and modeled for me for a while.
CEDAR WAXWING! I actually only saw the top half of it for like 5 seconds, about 2 minutes after I walked into the Hedge for the first time. I've been dying to see one of these since the 2nd grade because it was the prettiest picture in my bird book. So I'd like to see the entire thing some time, but it sure made me happy that I finally found where that stupid hedge was!

Caspian Tern - probably spent 20 minutes looking at 4 of them sitting on the beach. Finally identified them using the following field markers - Black tail, Black legs, Black tip on the end of the beak that I was only able to see through my binoculars while standing maybe 10 feet away. Another field marker is that their beak is redder and larger than other Terns, but without anything to compare it to, I had to use the other field markers to confirm.

This is how I saw them - standing in a field of Gulls with his black tail sticking out. This particular one is either a juvenile or molting because his black head isn't as striking.

Black and White Warbler (my favorite find of Sunday)

Female American Redstart was another one of my favorites because I had to look her up when I got back home, but I'm positive of the identification. The female has the exact same pattern of colors as the male, but in different colors (gray and yellow instead of black and orange). I could see the yellow on the sides of the breast, but then she flapped her wings and I saw all kinds of yellow which was under her wings. She's very pretty.

American Tree Sparrow

Also saw a Downy Woodpecker, dozens of Ring-Billed Gulls, Mallard Ducks, Flycatchers, Cormorants, a bird that may or may not have been an Ovenbird, a Mama Goldfinch feeding her exceptionally loud baby (or teenager, she wasn't very small, and she sounded like an extremely incessant squeaky toy), and some warblers that I couldn't identify. Also, there were Swallows EVERYWHERE. They call constantly and fly above your head constantly, so your eye is always drawn to them. I think they were Barn Swallows and Bank Swallows, but I'm not very good at identifying them because they're often backlit and they're fast little buggers. And for the third consecutive bird-watching session, I saw the Black-Capped Chickadee at the same time and location as the Woodpecker. It's like they're symbiotic. I also have 2 descriptions of birds in my notebook that I can't identify and don't have a picture in my head, so I probably won't be able to. That's frustrating. But overall, the Magic Hedge lived up to its name!

Illinois State Beach

I went up to Illinois State Beach this past weekend to go birdwatching (by myself). It was interesting. It was similar to the Dunes up in Northwest Indiana in terms of terrain (obviously, since it was on the lake). In case you haven't noticed, I'm essentially using my blog as my birding journal, because then I can post pictures to it and typing is faster than writing. So the thing about going on your own is that every single rustle in the bushes scares the bejeesus out of you. I kept expecting some exotic animal to come out of the bushes and chase me. I'm pretty certain most of the sounds were chipmunks, but I only realized that after I got used to it. So the birdwatching started out pretty slowly. Aside from the migrating birds that I saw on the Lake, I didn't see an actual bird for like 30 minutes. It was very frustrating. But when I finally did, this little guy came and visited me for quite some time. I thought with all the notes I took on him and the amount of time that he spent with me that he'd be really easy to identify. Turns out that he was a flycatcher in which there are 5 distinct species that all look incredibly similar. I've narrowed it down to a Willow Flycatcher or an Alder Flycatcher, two species that can only be told apart by their song, and my little guy wouldn't sing. I'm going to call it an Alder because my research shows that they've been known to nest in that particular park. Although the following pictures seem different, it's probably just different lighting. The first is an Alder and the second is a Willow. The one I saw had the cute gray crown (which all the bird books call brown, but frankly, I don't see it) like the second picture. But this first guy just might not have his up.

So after him, I didn't see anything (except a brown bird that I couldn't identify) for a while. Then I found a trail that didn't look terribly well-used and eventually I came to a clearing that had a whole bunch of birds. I came upon a bench and was rather frustrated by the lack of birds so I sat down and heard, very softly some pecking which I knew was a woodpecker. So I looked around and found him. And he flew away. So I followed him. He was a Downy Woodpecker. The Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers are nearly identical except for 2 things. The Hairy is about 3 inches larger than the Downy and his beak is significantly larger. As I was studying him, I did focus on his beak because I was looking at the hair around the base and therefore I'm able to identify him as a Downy because his beak was small, not large. The one on the right is a Hairy Woodpecker, and the left is a Downy Woodpecker.

Black-Capped Chickadees so far have been around at the same time as the Woodpeckers. They must like the same habitat.

Then this guy caught my eye. He's a white-breasted Nuthatch. They kind of creep along the branches with their belly to the branch, just like in the picture. He was really easy to identify because of the unique way that his head is marked. I actually drew it in my notebook while I was watching him, and it looks just like that in the pictures. You can't really see it all that well in this picture.




Then I saw a pair of Eastern Bluebirds flying around. It was cute because it was a male and a female and they stuck together the whole time. I didn't have any trouble identifying them, although in the shade, he looked a shade darker of blue - not that bright.




I'm not sure if I saw this guy or not. It's a brown-headed cowbird. I thought that they were relatively large, but I saw a bird from the back that had a navy blue body with a brown head. It could've been a trick of the light, I suppose. But I never saw the face of that bird before he flew away.



There were tons of Goldfinches flying around, as always.

Then I saw a finch-like bird with a red stripe on his crown that I must have made up in my head because I can't find it anywhere. I saw him clear as day and wrote a description down, but maybe I was seeing things, because I can't find anything like it.

It was also during this time that I scared a stag out of the bushes. Scared me half to death. All I saw was him bounding away. His antlers were so freaking cool! I could see the fuzz on them, I was so close. I also had a chipmunk nearly run across my feet at one point. So after my tour of the woods I went to the beach. I've never tried to identify gulls before, so this was new. At the very end of the day I saw 2 Killdeer playing. They're pretty easy to identify because when they fly, you see a white stripe on the wing, plus their markings are unique.

So I kept watching gulls flying along the shoreline, South to North, and I saw white ones and brown ones. Much to my surprise, there are NO brown gulls in the bird books. Turns out that Juvenile Gulls are gray and brown and those are probably what I was seeing. I saw some Herring Gulls (much larger with the really big yellow beak) and Ring-Billed Gulls (smaller with the beak with black on it). You can't really see the size difference in the pictures, but Herring Gulls are probably 1.5x the size of Ring-Billed Gulls.

Ring-Billed Gull:

Juvenile Ring-Billed Gull in flight

Juvenile Herring Gull in flight

Herring Gull

I also saw Double-Crested Cormorants flying over. I would've never known they were cormorants in migration unless I had seen them at Eagle Creek and Starved Rock in their neat wing-drying position and seen them fly before. When they're migrating/flying they look kind of duck-like, black, and you can see their big 'ol yellow beak out in front.

And I finally was able to identify a Barn Swallow. I've seen Swallows before, and all the books said they would be really easy to identify because of their coloring - blue and orange. But I couldn't see the coloring before (which makes me think, now that I've seen them, that those weren't Barn Swallows). There were 2 of them and they were flying all around me and they were absolutely gorgeous! The blue and peach-color of their belly are just beautiful. And it's fun to watch them fly.

So that's all, unless I somehow identify my mysterious finch.

19

So I drove up from Gas City, IN today for work and was mostly driving on state roads and of course was keeping my eye out for hawks. I saw upwards of 20 Turkey Vultures and I counted exactly 19 Hawks either perched or in flight. I would say there's a high probability that they were all Red-Tailed although I was only able to identify (at 70mph) 4 for sure - 2 in flight where I saw the black patagial bars and 2 perched where I saw their red tails. I've searched online and found some pictures of the 3 variations I saw in coloring.

Interestingly, there were 2 variations that I found and they were grouped by location. While I was down near Kokomo I saw what I'll call the darker morph (although it is by no means what an actual dark morph Red-Tailed Hawk looks like), and as I drove north I saw a standard Eastern Red-Tailed Hawk. The difference in these were that the ones in the north had a much more obvious and lightly colored red head as with these:

You can see they have buff chests where the belly band is barely apparent, you can't see the red tail because of the angle, their actual head and face is red, and the outer feather are a very dark brown that contrast strongly with the belly. Down near Kokomo, the ones I saw did not have the obviously red head, but it looked more like their head was the same dark brown as their back and the belly band was more apparent as with the following picture.

That's still not a great representation of it. I also saw one where part of his face was white. Also I noticed that there was some white spotting on some of their wings as well.

This is the view I got of about 4 of them, which is from the underneath as they fly. You can see that all you really see is buff/white and those black patagial bars. If you're lucky and can concentrate on it, sometimes the sun shines through the tail so that you can see a slight red tint to the tail, but the tail is pale underneath and normally that's all you see.

Then, I was driving and saw a hawk perched low on the ground. He happened to be perched slightly to the side and I was able to see, very distinctly, his red tail, but he had an entirely pale head, like so:

That could have been what's called a Krider's Hawk, which is a subspecies of the Red-Tailed Hawk that has the white head. Juvenile Red-Tailed Hawks can have pale heads, but their tails are not red, and are instead black and white striped. I remember thinking that if I hadn't seen that red tail I would've had no idea what kind of hawk he was and just thought he was a "pale morph". But actually the top 2 pictures are considered (kind of) pale morphs because of their white chests. Most Eastern Red-Tailed Hawks have fairly pale chests and are considered (kind of, again) pale morphs. So I'm not going to go out on a limb and say with certainty that what I saw was a Krider's because I gather they're somewhat rare, but it may have been the mix of a Krider's and a regular Eastern. I gather the coloring variations are genetic, much like our differences in colors of hair and eyes. I suppose if Kriders average about 1 out of every 20, I'm on par for as many hawks as I saw today!

Anyway, I just thought it was interesting to note the geographic variations in coloring and am curious if that is how it works or was just a coincidence (or all in my head).

One day I'm going to write a book titled "Birdwatching at 70mph". I'm a little proud of myself for being able to notice all those details when I probably only saw each hawk for about 2 seconds. And don't worry - I am very careful when highspeed birdwatching :)

Starved Rock

So on Sunday, Natalie and I got up at 6am to drive out to Starved Rock State Park which is about 2 hours west and a little south of downtown Chicago. I've been wanting to go ever since I learned that Bald Eagles go there in droves. After doing some research I realized that the Bald Eagles aren't there until October or November, but we were itching to go hiking so we went anyway. Ever since Mom and I did some bird watching at Eagle Creek I've been interested in becoming a better birder. So I've bought lots of books and read them and I bought a new pair of binoculars. So here are my birds!

The find of the day was definitely the Osprey. He was circling overhead the Illinois River next to the dam. We were on top of Starved Rock (the actual overlook) looking down into the river. I noticed him circling and with their white head and brown ocular stripe (extending from the eye) they're unmistakeable. I saw my first one at the dam at Lake Shafer around 2000 and I've always wanted to see another one.

The other find of the day was what I think was a Red-shouldered Hawk. I saw two of them on telephone poles as we were driving on the state road right outside the park. I nearly crashed the car when I saw them! Then we saw one more as we were leaving. There's a possibility that one or all of these were actually Red-Tailed Hawks - my raptor identifying skills are not highly developed. But I'm pretty sure that at least the last one was a Red-Shouldered Hawk due to its very distinctive red-shoulders. I saw him flying away low over a field and was therefore able to see his back. Also I looked very hard for the black patagial bars (on the leading edge of the underside of the wing between its "elbow" and "wrist) and red tail that identify the Red-Tailed Hawk and was unable to see it. That said, I looked at the tail and don't remember seeing the distinctive black and white striping of the Red Shouldered Hawk either. The underside of the tail is pale for both Hawks and that's all I really saw. The Red-Shouldered Hawk is significantly smaller than the Red-Tailed by about 5" in body length and 10" in wingspan but I wasn't really able to gauge their size. I did find some information that said that Red-Shouldered Hawks are known to nest in Starved Rock, but they are more commonly found in the canopy of forests whereas telephone poles over fields are more the domain of Red-Tailed Hawks. But it was right on the edge of the forest. You can see where this gets difficult. Especially since they fly away as soon as you get out of the car. This first picture is what he looked like perched. Normally Red-Shouldered Hawks have a very reddish breast, but hawks of any kind have a widely varied colored plumage so you can't rely on that alone.

Here you can see the distinctive red shoulder. The third one that I saw flying low had a back whose coloring looked very much like this, but you can see on this guy that the chest is barred in a more red color rather than pale.

My final determination might have to be that the first two were Red-Tailed Hawks and the last one was a Red-Shouldered Hawk.

Anyway. We got into the actual park and as we were leaving the visitor's center we went past the Hummingbird garden and saw plenty of them.

We then climbed Starved Rock where we saw the Osprey (and plenty of gulls). Then we climbed down and climbed up the other side of the canyon to Lover's Leap and Eagle Look and saw lots and lots of these:

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Double-Crested Cormorant:

As we were hiking down we saw these little guys jumping all around in the brush. They were a fun identification problem because I've never seen them before so I just memorized the description: Very small, gray, long black tail, white and black barring on the wings, white ocular ring. They were so cute!

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher

Behind us a couple of these guys chirped at us. They were slightly dull and may have been molting.

Northern Cardinal

In a clearing Natalie picked up on the American Goldfinch at the far side of the clearing. We saw another one up on the cliff walls.

Then we managed to get lost. Kind of. We were trying to find French Canyon and went down some stairs, then up, then down again...then up. But it ended up being a good thing, because at a bend in the trail this little guy caught our eye. He was very playful and seemed to like hanging upside down off the branches :)

Black-Capped Chickadee

As we were watching him, something black and white caught my eye. Then another, and another...we were within 4 feet of 3 Red-Bellied Woodpeckers. They hopped all over the place eventually flying above us. One of them was even pecking the branch he was on. You can't see here, but they really barely have a red belly - it's actually rufous (rusty) and some of them it's barely visible. Our guys' head weren't that bright either (it's not mating season).
I noticed a reddish-brown bird down in the brush near the ground with the woodpeckers and loftily explained to Natalie that the females look nothing like the males and that it was a female Red-Bellied Woodpecker. Yeah, not so much. The females look the same. I didn't get a great look at it except to say that it was strikingly rufous colored and around the same size as the woodpecker. Going on that alone, it had to have been a Brown Thrasher or Wood Thrush. The Brown Thrasher is around the size of a Mockingbird (same family) and the Wood Thrush about 4 inches smaller. The Wood Thrush's main habitat is forest, whereas the Brown Thrasher tends toward more marshy areas, but will also be found in forests. They are both ground foragers so I just can't make a determination since I was too quick to write it off as a female woodpecker and didn't look closely. I did find a few notations on the internet saying that Wood Thrushes were common at Starved Rock, but both birds are common to Illinois.

Brown Thrasher

Wood Thrush

Last find of the day (before the skies opened up) just a Common Grackle. He was difficult to identify because he was backlit on a tree way far away, but his all or mostly black coloring and tail gave him away.

So obviously, I had a blast. Next time I'll try to take pictures of the canyons and hopefully some Bald Eagles. I did try to take some this time, but they are all bad and very blurry, so you get professional photographer's pictures instead.