10,000 Pageviews! Hurrah!
I have seen some great birds in the last month or so, but most of them were when I didn't have access to a camera (Lifer Rough-legged Hawks fall into that category), or I didn't get a good photo of them. (Lifer Red-necked Grebes fall into this category). Over the course of this month, we've gone from the 50's to the 10's in temperatures, and ice has slowly crept over most of my favorite spots. That having been said, let's see what I did see:
We'll start with the basics, the Red-bellied Woodpecker (
Melanerpes carolinus). I can't think of any days birdwatching I haven't seen one of these woodpeckers, yet they're still fascinating to watch.
Nearby, the Mystery Goose still lingererd on, though I haven't seen it since. This is probably a leucistic Canada Goose (
Branta canadensis), but it's nonetheless quite odd-looking.
Ruddy Ducks (
Oxyura jamaicensis), like the female above, have been inconsistent and not all that common on the lake this year. I've read that it's the long Indian Summer weather we had that has interfered with migration, and the presence of boaters even into December seems to have also interfered with the ducks. That's what happens when there's about twenty boat clubs on this lake!
On November 15, I saw this large flock of American Coots (
Fulica americana) at Marine Point, before turning my attentions to what I thought was just a group of common waterfowl:
What I thought was a peaceful landscape of Mallards (
Anas platyrhynchos) and Canada Geese had one other bird, a Loon seen diving in this picture, the only picture of the loon. Notably, I don't know what species it is. It is likely a Common Loon, but only the day before (11/14), a Red-throated Loon was seen in the area, and the thinness of the bill in the Loon above could more closely match Red-throated Loon. Then again, it is a very odd angle, and far off, in bad light. I don't expect an ID.
On the same day, the Ides of November, one might say, I also found this Belted Kingfisher (
Megaceryle alcyon) flying about at Center Park. To date, this is my best photo of a Kingfisher.
Great Blue Herons (
Ardea herodias) always remind me of an old man in a gray coat, sitting by the shore, fishing. Every move they make, even in flight, is so slow and deliberate as to resemble great age. For all that, Herons are also remarkably savage killers. I recently saw a mildly-disturbing photo of a Great Blue Heron attempting to eat a Pied-billed Grebe. I don't know why this alarmed me, but I suppose it's because it's unexpected. I've seen videos of Great Blue Herons hunting moles, eating goldfish out of ponds, even poking at a nearby turtle once or twice before giving up.
Out in the tranquil waters of Dividing Dam Bay (it has no real name, it's just "the bay north of the park with the zoo" or some such phrase), several small flocks of Northern Shovelers (
Anas clypeata), small ducks with big bills, foraged on plankton at the water's surface. They use their oversized bills to feed on plankton by filtering it from the water. This is apparently successful for them- there's about five million Northern Shovelers in North America alone!
Far off, beyond the zone where I could even attempt a good photo, Common Loons (
Gavia immer) dive for fish. These are, nominally, my favorite birds, especially in their summer plumage. With this loon, I ended my Ides of November birdwatching, as the sun was setting.
I resumed my birdwatching November 17, with this... well, it's not exactly a bird, is it? What a surprise! My mother and I encountered this White-tailed Deer while walking through a park.
Don't worry, though, I did see some birds, too, including this probable last Double-crested Cormorant (
Phalacrocorax auritus) of the year, which initially looked like a piece of wood, until it moved.
In certain lights, Lake Springfield is quite beautifully blue. In other lights, it looks brown and filthy.
Off Marine Point, on November 20, I had my first lifer bird in awhile, the American Black Duck (
Anas rubripes) (dark blob, below right). Now I just need the American Wigeon, that surprisingly elusive little dabbler, to complete my "fairly common ducks of Central Illinois" personal checklist.
(Update- the day I put this blogpost out, I found my American Wigeons! No photos, sadly.)
Meanwhile, over at Lake Park on this same day, I found some "oddly colored Mallards", until I got a better look at them and realized they were Green-winged Teal (
Anas crecca)!
As per usual, the Pied-billed Grebes (
Podilymbus podiceps) concentrated on the waters in ones or twos. They have mostly moved on since, southwards, away from the ice now on the lake.
It was around this time that well over a hundred crows took off from the park, flying east, though in the photo below they're basically invisible due to the magic of digital photography.
Thankfully, this Ruddy Duck was not invisible, so I photographed it:
On my way back to my car, a huge flock of Cedar Waxwings (
Bombycilla cedrorum) sat overhead:
On my way out, I found a Killdeer (
Charadrius vociferus) on the beach. (Considering the beach is frozen solid right now, it almost certainly IS the last shorebird I'll see on Lake Springfield this year.)
A quick jaunt up to Lincoln Greens Golf Course afterwards provided me with an irate, accidentally cornered Fox Squirrel (
Sciurus niger):
It had the misfortune of running up a small dead tree, where it barked angrily at me.
I moved on, to let the squirrel down, and took a photo of a Dark-eyed Junco (
Junco hyemalis) among some thorns. I enjoy the juxtaposition of the adorable bird with the harsh thorns:
On the way back home, I stopped at the Chatham Wildlife Sanctuary, where I found the usual turkeys (
Meleagris gallopavo) right alongside the road:
Were it not a wildlife sanctuary, this buck would have been in considerable trouble:
The clouds came once December began, it seems from these photos. I spotted what turned out to be a rare Red-necked Grebe at Center Park, though it was too far away for a good photo. At the same time, however, I did get decent photos of some of the other birds:
Horned Grebes (
Podeceps auritus) (or "demon ducks" for their red eyes) are intermittently out on the lake. Divers, they enjoy catching fish out on the lake. This is at the Beach House on December 2.
Here, I got a photo of the grebe mid-dive, though between the lighting and my camera, I'm not thrilled about the result. Grebes can stay underwater for up to a few minutes at a time, though usually, at least in my experience, not that long.
Further out from the Horned Grebe, the last of the Common Loons migrated southwards. Six Common Loons in Dividing Dam Bay alone? Clearly migration. I haven't seen any since, and neither has anyone else, at least according to Ebird.
At Marina Point, the same day, the local ducks wait for D.B., a local birder who feeds them on a regular basis while he surveys the birds on Lake Springfield.
Meanwhile, far off on the other side of the lake, it was apparently warm enough for someone to go racing about on their boat, scaring the gulls up. This is what I mean when I say Lake Springfield has too many boaters for the size of its lake. I don't dislike boat clubs or boaters, and, having been out on a speedboat, I can understand the joy of racing about on a boat, irrespective of the weather. However, when many people are out racing about on the lake, it isn't all that great for the birds, as well as for the birdwatchers. I don't know what the answer is to this problem, but it bears thinking about.
The oaks, the last trees to shed their leaves, have changed colors, and the deep burgundy-reds of their leaves contrast the blue-gray of the sky and sea splendidly. A quiet sunset behind:
Several days later, on December 9, I went to Marina Point, where I found hundreds of Common Goldeneyes (
Bucephala clangula), one of the later ducks to arrive on Lake Springfield:
Further off lingered a male (left) and female (right) Hooded Merganser (
Lophodytes cucullatus):
I also ran into a man who said that the Bald Eagle nest on Marina Island is being used. I didn't see any eagles on the nest, but here's a photo of it:
The lakeshore, especially in the direction of the wind, was frozen with ice, though the majority of the lake's surface was unfrozen, if bitterly cold.
I went on to Center Park, briefly, and noticed a large white bird in the distance:
This, however, isn't just any large white bird. This is THE large white bird, the Trumpeter Swan (
Cygnus buccinator). This is the heaviest living bird in North America, the largest waterfowl in the world, and one of the greatest recovery stories in all of conservation history.
An estimated 70 birds of this species were found in the contiguous United States in the 1930s, almost all near Yellowstone National Park, thanks to overhunting. Then, naturalists exploring Alaska's Copper River found several thousand more swans, and breeding the two populations together, the species managed to recover. In recent years, there has been an increase in the population, until today there are about 50,000 birds.
Still, the Trumpeter Swan isn't a terribly common bird, so it makes an excellent Fifth Orchid (unexpected happy discovery at end of trip) to a long month's birdwatching.
P.S. If there's a birding term that means the same as Fifth Orchid, I'd like to know. It's not ideal to me to be using too much jargon, but I'd rather have a more universally understood term.
