If you’re sitting outside before sunset look up! The Common Nighthawks are moving. They pass over in small groups. They have a distinctive shape and show white bars across their wings.
Evening Sky
Shorebirds!
We are finally getting some interesting shorebirds at the beach. Since the Piping Plovers left a few weeks ago we have seen only Sanderlings and a few smaller sandpipers. Today I went down around 6:30 and just as I was heading out to the beach I got a text alert. Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Waukegan! This is a bird that visits only briefly so you need to get there right away when it appears. I was about five minutes away on foot. Gustavo had found it and he was keeping a safe distance to keep from disturbing it. We both enjoyed watching it and it’s companion, which we hadn’t positively identified yet. After some careful observation I decided that it was a Baird’s Sandpiper. These birds have wings that are long enough to cross in back, over the tail. Two great birds!! Dad soon showed up and enjoyed the show until the bird flew off to the west.
It was time for breakfast by the time we finished at the beach so we went home. I knew it was going to be very hot today so I stayed in. At one point the thermometer said 97º! I had some book keeping chores to do so I stayed busy.
We had another great bird last Sunday. We finally saw a resident Eastern Screech Owl. This bird is near the Dead River Trail at the South Unit of Illinois Beach State Park. You only need to walk a short distance on the trail. There are some widely spaced steps built into the trail. If you stand on the second step and look north you will see a broken trunk that has been burned out. If you are lucky, the owl will be sitting in view. A lot of the time he is in the trunk but sitting too low to see. We never had seen him before in all of the times we hiked that trail.
A Northern Harrier
Dad surprised me this morning by coming down to the beach. I was about half way to the outlet when I looked down the beach and there he was. I told him that I had seen a Northern Harrier over the swimming area. It wasn’t long until the bird circled back and flew over the backwater. It was an immature bird with lots of warm brown tones and narrow barring on the wings. The tail, long for a raptor, had wide bars, dark brown contrasting with white. The white rump is the most obvious field mark.
The Harrier hunts by flying low over the dunes or marshes and hovering over his prey. We didn’t see him catch anything this time.
There was not much more of interest. The shorebirds and warblers haven’t come in yet and the summer residents, though still here, are no longer singing. It seems quiet and empty.
We are very excited for Lisa and her new job!! Good luck!!!!!
Catching Up
There have been no adventures in the last week. That’s probably a good thing. I have been down to the beach almost every morning. I find that if I arrive about twenty after six the other birders already have a head start and I can walk the beach alone. There have been a few new shorebirds but nothing exciting. We had a total of five immature Piping Plovers. They are on their way south now. They have not been seen since the storm. We had some nice photo ops from the resident species.
Do you remember the colored pencils? I finally actually drew a bird with them. This is an unexpected bird that came to our feeder yesterday, the Red-breasted Nuthatch.
I have been out in the garden tidying up. I started a flower from seed in the Aerogarden early last spring. It did very well and I planted in the front yard garden. It is a blanket flower. The seed came from a plant at the beach. This plant seems much more robust than the plant the seed was from. The single stem that holds the flower is about three feet tall.
Outside the library window I had a spider set up shop. I only noticed it when the hummingbird checked the spider web for tiny insects.
I’m sure you are wishing I would post another sunrise photo so here it is! Love, Mom
Clouds
Quiet Day
Of course I started at the beach. It was very cool and cloudy. I walked as far north as I could with Gustavo, a birding friend. There was very little to see. And definitely no plovers. By the time we got to the north end it was just starting to rain. I got back to the car before getting very wet. The rest of the day I worked on choosing the colors for my pallette. I limited myself to twelve colors. I may change a few as I work with it but I think most of it will work. At the end of the day I went back to the beach. This time the wind surfers were there. When I got out to the north beach I saw a longboard surfer. I never see that on our beach.
More of the same-August 1 & 2
I took this photo on August 1 from the north end of the beach. The plovers like it up there. It used to be very quiet for them but now there are too many bird monitors. Today I did a different section of the beach that not many other people go to. It is directly north of the long parking lot.
I didn’t think they really needed me on the beach. The immature Piping Plover is easy to identify. Walking at the top of one of the dunes I could see the other birders at the outlet. You can see it on the map. I needed a break from the social aspect of birding. There were a lot of nice wild flowers in this area and a nice look at the water that flows out from the water plant. The Great Blue Heron and the Wood Ducks like this spot.
This afternoon I went up to the Johns Manville overlook to visit the resident Kestrel. He was perched on the cyclone fence as usual. The Meadowlark has changed his song from the ringing five syllable song to a dull “Zeeet”. The Indigo Bunting was near the railroad tracks singing “Fire, Fire, Where, Where, Here, Here, Now, better hurry up!!” Soon the hawks will be migrating and this spot is a good place to see them.
I got home and watered the outdoor plants. As soon as I was done we got a big rain.