A favorite birding site near our NE Illinois home is the 175 acre Bliss Woods Forest Preserve in Sugar Grove.
A bike trail connects Bliss woods with the 402 acre Hannaford
Woods-Nickels Farm Forest Preserve, forming a complex known as the
Bliss Woods-Waubonsee College open space assemblage. This protects a
varied habitat including hardwood forest, open prairies and wetlands.
Most of this section of Illinois is flat land, planted in miles and
miles of corn and soybeans, but thanks to preservation of the remnants
of the Kaneville Esker, this preserve is a green gem, with rolling hills
and valleys. Ridges (eskers) and prominent mounds (kames) interrupt the
monotony of the prairie. These features, as well as prairie potholes
(also known as kettles), were produced about 13,000 years ago by
retreating glaciers. Many have been disturbed or removed, as they are a convenient source of gravel.
Blackberry Creek as it courses through Bliss Woods:
Woodland path in Hannford Woods:
This barn, surrounded by a white rail fence, is on private property just across from the entrance to Hannaford Woods:
We visited the
preserves several times before returning to Florida on May 24. On the
first visit to Bliss Woods we obtained only distant views of a Scarlet
Tanager, one of our favorite birds. Two days before returning to Florida
we tried one last time. The morning started out windy and quite chilly
at 46 degrees F (7.8 degrees Celsius). The tree limbs were moving so
much that we held little hope of seeing many birds at all. Some of those
which took flight actually flew backwards!
A male Northern Flicker was not affected by the wind as he searched for ants on the mowed lawn in the picnic area:
The winds
subsided and the skies brightened, though the temperature dropped a
couple of degrees. Yellow Warblers were already gathering nesting
materials. This one sang in a small tree on its territory:
American Goldfinches bounded about, carefree, as they will not breed until later in the season:
Indigo Buntings had arrived en masse:
A White-breasted
Nuthatch seemed to be exploring a nest hole. It kept poking its head in
but never entered. I wondered if it might be occupied by another
creature such as a squirrel or chipmunk:
High in a nearby oak tree, I spotted a White-breasted Nuthatch fledgling:
As a parent approached with a grub, it started begging silently:
"I still want more!"
This first year male Orchard Oriole was the second we saw this week:
A male Orchard
Oriole in full breeding plumage flew by but I was unable to get a photo,
so here is one from May 14 a year ago. It is smaller than a Baltimore
Oriole and has brick-red plumage rather than bright orange of the latter
species:
A Red-tailed Hawk swooped in low. Not a threat to small birds, it was probably hoping to surprise a rabbit or squirrel:
We have been
watching a pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatcher build a nest which straddles a
low-hanging limb of an old oak. Now the bird is sitting tight, surely
incubating its eggs. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the
fragile-looking nest had not been disrupted by the high winds and rain:
Finally, we were rewarded when a male Scarlet Tanager suddenly flew into full sun in a tree just above the trail:
His coat is
deeply scarlet except for black wings and tail. The sun was high and the
leaves cast strong dappled shadows. Nearly all of my dozen photos were
spoiled because of the sharp contrasting patches of light. This one
better illustrates the problem, as the red color (and the green on the
leaves) is washed out in the highlights:
Speaking of
highlights, my final visit to Hannaford Woods produced a Life Bird! This
does not happen very often these days, as I have lost interest in
chasing after target birds. While walking the trail I heard a very loud
warbler song coming from close to the ground nearby. I simply could not
identify the song and tried to find the bird for the better part of half
an hour. The understory was so dense and it was so tantalizingly close
by!
Before continuing down the
trail, I recorded the song on my iPhone, hoping to research it and
identify the singer. On the way back I replayed the song and the bird
responded immediately. I caught a glimpse of it, singing a few inches
off the ground. It had a brown back and a distinct eye ring, but it flew
off in less than a second. It continued to sing in the distance, but to
my surprise a second bird appeared and sat still long enough for me to
capture a 25 second burst of images before it flew off. My photos
confirmed that it was a Connecticut Warbler, the first I had ever seen,
and the first County record this spring.
This seclusive but not rare
warbler breeds in the far north Central US and central Canada. Despite
its name it is rarely found in the NE United States, and then only in
the fall. The few winter records are from South and Central America.
Connecticut Warbler (May 19, 2015):
Another "first"
occurred early in our stay. I was looking for a Sora in Jones Meadow
Park, a small wetlands near our home. Sure enough, I saw two Soras and
heard one or two others:
Then, a Virginia Rail started calling and suddenly strutted out at the edge of the marsh:
A damselfly, which I believe to be a female bluet species, allowed me a close-up shot:
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post with these beautiful and different birds. I like here very much and geneit therefore these pictures.
Greetings, Helma