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Author: Peter Kasper
Saturday, January 28
The morning for the DuPage Birding Club field trip was beautiful but
extremely windy. As a consequence, birding was limited. The bird of
the day was a
Bald Eagle again in the Casey Pond area. This is
probably the same bird seen two weeks ago in the same location and
after a week's absence appears to have returned. Other highlights of
the morning were
American Black Duck,
Ring-necked Duck,
Common Goldeneye,
Hooded Merganser,
Common Merganser,
Great Blue Heron and
American Coot. Dave
Friday, January 27
Birding late this afternoon and evening was both pleasant and
rewarding. The warm weather has opened sizable holes in the ice
cover of most bodies of water. Main Ring Lake was covered by
hundreds of both
Common Mergansers and
Common Goldeneyes. A first-
for-the-year
Ruddy Duck was also found in the Main Ring Moat.
American Coots are still on the Main Injector Moat and a lone pair
of
Hooded Mergansers are still on Bulrush Pond. Some other
interesting birds were four
Great Blue Herons, an
American Kestrel on the Main Ring Berm, several flocks of
Horned Larks and a
Song Sparrow. A pair of
Mourning Doves were seen copulating on a power
line along Road A. Several
Great Horned Owls were in two different
locations and a
Eastern Screech-Owl responded inside the Ring area.
The highlight of the day was seeing seven
Northern Harriers,
together at times, and two
Short-eared Owls interacting along North Eola Road. Then four of the
harriers and one of the owls started circling above a stand of
several trees. Odd I thought, until I looked closer into the trees
and found a
Great Horned Owl perched in one of the trees. After awhile the harriers got bored and dispersed while the
Short-eared Owls disappeared. Dave
Wednesday, January 25
It was a very nice morning for birding today with above average
temperatures and little to no wind. The Sparrow Hedge area had
little to provide as far as birds are concerned but the beaver house
on A. E. Sea is progressing well. Open water inside the Ring area
produced several first of the year
Ring-necked Ducks along with
American Black Ducks,
Common Goldeneyes,
Common Mergansers and an
American Coot. Three
American Crows were also inside the Ring while
Eastern Bluebirds were seen or heard in several locations. Some other birds of interest were
Great Blue Heron,
American Robin,
Song Sparrow and
Swamp Sparrow. The birds of the day were a couple of
Long-eared Owls also inside the Ring. Dave
Sunday, January 22
Even though the morning was cold and windy some interesting birds
were found. The north roads area had two nice raptors hunting the
fields. First was a young male
Northern Harrier followed later by a
beautiful light
Rough-legged Hawk. A couple of flocks of
Horned Larks were feeding on the plowed roads but only one
Lapland Longspur was spotted among them this week. A
Great Horned Owl was also
flushed from one
of the wood lots. A
Wilson's Snipe and a
Swamp Sparrow were found
along some open creeks. Several
American Coots were found in one of
the Main Injector moats. Some other birds of note were
American Black Duck,
Great Blue Heron, and
Herring Gull. Dave
Wednesday, January 18
The afternoon birding started with a beautiful male
Northern Harrier hunting the western edge of the Dog Training field. Later another
female harrier was seen in the area. About 40
Common Mergansers were
in Main Ring Lake which was about 10 percent open. Among the Ed Center feeder birds was a
Song Sparrow, while
Eastern Bluebirds were
heard in the woods behind the feeders. Along Outer Ring Road a
Northern Flicker was perched in a low tree and an
American Kestrel was hunting the adjoining field. As for the main objective, three
Great Horned Owls were found, an
Eastern Screech-Owl responded to a
call as did a
Barred Owl. Dave
Sunday, January 15
Though the morning started out fairly cold, it warmed up
sufficiently to provide us with some very good birding. Raptors were the biggest hit of the day starting with the
Bald Eagle still
hanging out near Casey's Pond. Others seen were a flyover
Northern Harrier, a couple of
American Kestrels, fairly good looks at a Sharp-
shinned Hawk, and a distant, first of the season,
Rough-legged Hawk . Another highlight of the morning were large numbers of both
Horned Larks and
Lapland Longspurs in the north roads area. Not much to report on waterfowl with just a female
Common Goldeneye and
a pair of
Hooded Mergansers. A
Wilson's Snipe was flushed inside the
Ring while
Red-winged Blackbirds are still around with a couple of
females seen. Previous sightings were all males. Dave
Wednesday, January 11
Another beautiful, warm day for the second week of January greeted
me for a morning's birding at Fermilab today. The Sparrow Hedge area
produced over a dozen species with the highlight being a
Northern Shrike. Other birds worth mentioning were three flyover
American Crows, a
Swamp Sparrow and a
Red-winged Blackbird. The Buffalo savannah was quite active, the highlight being up to a dozen
Eastern Bluebirds. Also the northern stick nest in the area which has been
used by
Great Horned Owls the past several years had a pair of
Red-tailed Hawks working it. The southern stick nest, used by the
Red-tailed Hawks in recent years, was empty. Main Ring Lake, which
was
90 percent open, had many
Common Mergansers, several
Common Goldeneyes, and a pair of
Hooded Mergansers. A beautiful
Sharp-shinned Hawk was perched along the edge of the Main Ring Moat.
Birds of note from other areas were
American Black Duck, several
Great Horned Owls and
Song Sparrows. Stopping at the Ed Center Feeders I
ran into Peter. He mentioned that a
Bald Eagle was spotted on the
west side of Casey's Pond. It was still there when I went to this
location. Dave
Sunday, January 8
Another beautiful morning greeted us today; certainly not your
typical January birding conditions. The first
Cackling Geese of the
year were seen today in good numbers. They were among several
thousand
Canada Geese in partially open Main Ring Lake. Also a
couple of
Northern Harriers were spotted flying through the area
just west of the lake shore. It was good to see an
American Kestrel standing guard atop the kestrel nest box near the end of Swenson Road. They successfully bred here last summer. Other birds of note
in the Ring area were a
Cooper's Hawk,
Northern Flicker,
Hairy Woodpecker,
American Crow,
American Robin and
Song Sparrow. Later Peter also reported an opossum foraging around the feeders. Dave
Thursday, January 5
A beautiful morning, which warmed up soon after the sun got above
the trees, produced some interesting birds. First a
Red-winged Blackbird was spotted in the Sparrow Hedge area along with a couple
of
Blue Jays. Three
Great Blue Herons were sunning themselves on the
west shore of Swan Lake. A
Wilson's Snipe was flushed along Swenson Road Creek. Finally, a
Swamp Sparrow was found among several
American Tree Sparrows on the shores of Lake Logo. Dave
Tuesday, January 3
Late afternoon and evening birding today produced some interesting
birds. The North roads produced several
Horned Larks. A couple of
Northern Harriers were hunting the fields along Eola Road north of
Batavia Road. About seventy-five
Common Goldeneyes were utilizing
the Main Injector Ponds. An
American Kestrel was feeding on a small
rodent atop the
Osprey nest. Finally, it proved to be a good owl day
with a pair
Great Horned Owls, a hunting
Short-eared Owl, a
responding
Eastern Screech-Owl and a
Sunday, January 1
Denis was out this morning in the strong winds and did quite
respectfully with 28 species to start the year and a new five year
survey period. One of his better birds was a
Gadwall in the Swenson Road Pond. Other waterfowl recorded were
American Black Duck,
Common Goldeneye,
Hooded Merganser, and
Common Merganser. Other notable
birds seen were
Great Blue Heron,
Northern Harrier,
Cooper's Hawk,
American Kestrel,
Red-tailed Hawk,
Belted Kingfisher,
White-breasted Nuthatch and
Barred Owl. Dave
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