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Author: Peter Kasper
Sunday, May 20
We had a very good morning of birding today. The highlight was an immature
Bald Eagle perched on a dead tree by Lake Logo. Other unusual finds
included four
American Woodcocks that we flushed from beside a trail in the
sparrow hedge area. Remarkably, we also flushed a
Sora a few minutes earlier
along the same trail. We also managed to find a number of warblers including
American Redstart,
Palm Warbler,
Bay-breasted Warbler,
Black-and-white Warbler,
Tennessee Warbler, and
Wilson's Warbler. The sparrow hedge area was
particularly productive today with a
Clay-colored Sparrow, several
Bell's Vireos, and lots of
Yellow-breasted Chats.
Friday, May 18
A quick trip to Nepese pond and the sparrow hedge area produced a number of
good birds. The highlight was two
White-rumped Sandpipers at Nepese pond
along with a couple of
Purple Martins and a number of
Semipalmated Plovers. The sparrow hedge area contained up to five or more
Yellow-breasted Chat territories and a singing
Clay-colored Sparrow.
Willow Flycatchers were also present in good numbers.
Sunday, May 13
Bell's Vireos and
Willow Flycatchers have returned to the sparrow-hedge
area. In addition that area also produced
Sedge Wrens,
Yellow-breasted Chats, and
Orchard Orioles. The south Eola rd. grasslands were packed with
Bobolinks and
Sedge Wrens and I managed to locate a
Henslow's Sparrow east of
yesterday's survey point.
Saturday, May 12
This morning was a pre-breeding monitoring session for Grassland Birds. The good news was the large number of
Bobolinks at five of the ten survey points.
The bad news was the lack of any
Henslow's Sparrows and
Grasshopper Sparrows at any of the points. Other birds of note between points and after the survey
process were
Great Horned Owl,
Magnolia Warbler,
Black-and-white Warbler,
Northern Waterthrush,
Yellow-breasted Chat,
Indigo Bunting, and
Orchard Oriole. Other interesting sightings were a young
Killdeer following behind its
parents by Lake Logo and three
Red-tailed Hawk chicks in the nest in the
buffalo fields. Dave Wednesday, May 9
I had quite a good morning birding today. I concentrated on the centre of the
main ring and the Nepese pond area with a slight detour to Swenson rd pond. In a few hours I managed to chalk up 71 species including 5 new year birds:
Green Heron,
Dunlin (Swenson rd.),
Red-eyed Vireo,
Wilson's Warbler, and
Yellow-breasted Chat. The chat was singing and performing display
flights in the main ring savannah. I also managed to relocate the
Mourning Warbler by Nepese pond.
Tuesday, May 8
This morning I concentrated on the area around Nepese Pond. The pond itself
held a number of shorebirds;
Least Sandpiper,
Solitary Sandpiper, and
Lesser Yellowlegs. There was a nice variety of warblers in the scrub around the pond
including the year's first
American Redstart,
Magnolia Warbler,
Blackpoll Warbler, and our earliest ever
Mourning Warbler. Other warblers seen
were
Nashville Warbler,
Yellow Warbler,
Chestnut-sided Warbler,
Yellow-rumped Warbler,
Palm Warbler,
Bay-breasted Warbler,
Northern Waterthrush, and
Common Yellowthroat. On my way back from the pond I also
spotted the first
Eastern Kingbirds of the year by the Bison field.
Saturday, May 5
Today was the day of the annual spring count and a small group of dedicated
souls birded the Fermilab site from 6:00am to 5:00pm. Duringt hat time we
logged 99 species and counted a total of 1275 birds. The pair of
Peregrine Falcons were clearly the stars of the day and cooperated nicely by perching
close together when we took a break at Wilson Hall. Other notable finds inclued
4
American Pipits in the fields along east Wilson rd, a
White-eyed Vireo south-west of the Ed. center, and a lone
Sandhill Crane flying over
the prairie west of the Big Woods. Apart from the pipits and vireo there were
quite a few other species which were new for the year:
Spotted Sandpiper,
Least Sandpiper,
Chimney Swift,
Eastern Wood-Pewee,
Great Crested Flycatcher,
Warbling Vireo,
Bank Swallow,
Marsh Wren,
Veery,
Swainson's Thrush,
Wood Thrush,
Blue-winged Warbler,
Tennessee Warbler,
Chestnut-sided Warbler,
Blackburnian Warbler,
Bay-breasted Warbler,
Black-and-white Warbler,
Northern Waterthrush,
Scarlet Tanager, and
Orchard Oriole.
Thursday, May 3
There were quite a few new arrivals to be seen on my trip to the Big Woods this
morning.
Bobolinks and a
Henslow's Sparrow were singing just north west of
the woods and inside the woods I picked up
Blue-headed Vireo,
Golden-winged Warbler,
Black-throated Green Warbler,
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and
Baltimore Oriole. A
Red-headed Woodpecker was reported from the bison savannah
yesterday.
Tuesday, May 1
There were several new arrivals to be seen on site this morning:
Sedge Wren,
Gray Catbird,
Pine Warbler,
Yellow Warbler,
Common Yellowthroat,
Vesper Sparrow,
Lincoln's Sparrow, and
Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
Palm Warblers were also present in good numbers. On the other hand waterfowl numbers were
well down .. a couple of
Green-winged Teal and an
American Black Duck were
the only migrants I was able to locate. The
Peregrine Falcons are still
hanging about Wilson Hall.
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