Well, it's been too long since I posted on here last. First there was a lack of time, and then there was a lack of subject matter with which to print, resulting from the lack of time. Now there's a lack of health (a minor cold, I assure you). I'm not sure if somebody upstairs is trying to tell me something or not, but I'm stubborn enough to work on this blog regardless.
I was originally planning to go to Emiquon. I ended up asking in a Facebook group (Illinois Birding Network, I believe) if there were good numbers of Snow Geese, my target species. There were. At the same time, a couple of reports online mentioned two to four Golden Eagles downstate just north of Pere Marquette State Park, as well as two Harris' Sparrows in a nearby part of Calhoun County. A fellow birder, Vaughn Suhling, messaged me about the Snow Geese, and we both decided to go after the Golden Eagles. (That makes perfect sense, right?) Obviously, this led to our joining forces.
I told a few friends beforehand that I was meeting up to go birding with someone I'd met online. They all (and I do mean all) told me that they were glad to see me one last time, before I died. Seriously, y'all read too many news horror stories. I met up with Vaughn just north of Winchester. Within ten minutes, we'd seen a Great Horned Owl on our way south, and were getting along splendidly. We discussed birds and many other things on our way down to Stump Lake Fish and Waterfowl Management Area, where the latest Golden Eagle sightings had occurred.
We saw quite a few birds at Stump Lake, mostly ducks, but also this Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). It may be Illinois' most common hawk species, but I rarely get satisfactory photos of it. I'm still not sure why it has one foot raised up. It held that foot up for several pictures.
Massive flocks of Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) and Northern Pintails (Anas acuta) hid in a flooded cornfield nearby. They were flushed by a Golden Eagle just before we arrived, according to another birder. We exchanged phone numbers with that birder, in case one of us saw the Golden Eagle again. A few minutes later, down the road, we saw this shape circling above the bluffs:
We pulled off, looked at it, and just behind us, we could see the other birder, Craig Taylor, looking at it. It was about this time our phone rang, and it was Craig calling to let us know that he saw the eagle we were seeing. All three of us watched as the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) circled above. Yes! It wasn't even 9:00 in the morning, and we had our target species of the day. Unfortunately, it remained behind the branches before slipping out of sight, so this is my best photo. The ongoing curse of bad pictures of 2017 lifer birds is continuing, with this being the seventh.
Golden Eagles are a very good bird for Illinois, since they are usually birds of the Rockies and other western mountain ranges. They wander more in winter, and I'm glad a few wandered this way.
The three of us talked for a bit more, before realizing that there were twenty-four Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) sitting on the powerlines behind us. True to their nature as birds, they all flew off once we pulled the cameras out. Still, that was quite an impressive number of bluebirds!
We hung around for a bit, hoping that the eagle would reappear. Craig Taylor had told us that there was a second Golden Eagle that had flown by before we showed up, but we never saw it. I took a few photos of the bluffs. Neither Golden Eagle ever reappeared.
We drove down, past a couple of Northern Harriers and many more field, to the marina at Pere Marquette. Here, ducks of many species flew overhead. I asked Vaughn if he had a favorite duck, and he said probably Common Mergansers. Not very long afterwards, these Common Mergansers (Mergus merganser) flew overhead. Good timing!
We walked out on a levee nearby, with bluffs on one side and the Illinois River on the other. This view was, as usual, far better in person, though at this particular time there weren't many birds.
Most of the birds we did see, like these Northern Pintails, were flying up and down the river.
We did have a few Ruddy Ducks (Oxyura jamaicensis) bouncing about on the river. I do mean bouncing, the waves were quite rapid at times.
We made our way to Pohlman Slough, where the Harris' Sparrows had been sighted a few days before. Harris' Sparrows, for the unaware, are birds from the Great Plains that rarely come to Illinois, though more commonly than Golden Eagles. Even now, having missed out on those here, I know of at least four other spots where Harris' Sparrows have been seen recently in Illinois.
We did see a few sparrows, including this White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), but overall there were few visible birds. Most hid in the dead growth of tangled stems surrounding us.
Far off and above us, a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) sat in its nest. We watched it for a bit. This bird has chosen an excellent place to build a nest, and based off the size of the nest, I'd imagine it's been used for a few years. I think this is the largest of the ten or so Bald Eagle nests I've seen.
We found a flock of House Finches (Haemorhous mexicanus), and inexplicably, my camera chose to focus well on this banal, introduced bird. I tried and failed to get a decent photo of a Golden Eagle, but without intent I get a great photo of a House Finch? I do not understand this. (It's amazing how I can take a great photo and then complain about it regardless, too!)
After a bit, we determined that there was no evident Harris' Sparrow, so we gave up on it and went to Swan Lake, in the Two Rivers National Wildlife Refuge. Technically, we were already in that refuge, but I had never been to the visitor's center, so we went there. It was closed, but the manager let us see inside and get a map. We talked with him for a little bit, while watching ducks from the deck.
To the east of us, a frozen pond had many dabbling ducks on its surface, mainly Northern Pintails, Mallards, and Gadwalls (Anas strepera), but also a few Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata) and American Wigeons (Anas americana). All of these ducks flew just after this picture was taken.
Behind the first set of ponds was a belt of trees, a levee, and Swan Lake. However, the large white birds on its surface were Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens), not swans. Many other ducks were also around, including Scaup, Redheads, Goldeneyes, Shovelers, and more of the ducks from earlier, the Mallard-Pintail-Gadwall trio. We even saw a few American Coots, too!
I took a photo of some waterfowl flying in front of the geese, which turned out to be a Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) taking off from the water.
Right in front of us, a Cooper's Hawk (Accipter cooperii) flew past. I'm surprised to see one, considering the limited numbers of small birds in this spot at the time for it to hunt. The clouds, as you might be able to tell from the lighting of these photos, had rolled in, and the wind picked up, making us much colder. Once we had seen all the birds clearly visible, we left.
Driving back to the ferry, I looked up at some large white birds. At first, I thought they were Snow Geese, and then my brain and my eyes had a brief disagreement when I got to the foot-long bills of these birds. I said, "Pelicans!" Vaughn, surprised, pulled over, and we looked up:
I took a photo of a portion of the flock. From what we could count, there were 55 American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos). Generally, pelicans are later migrants not seen this early in February, so we were a bit surprised to see so many this early in the year. Then again, it's been a warm winter. After getting back in the car, we arrived at the ferry, where we saw this:
About seventy more pelicans flew past, bringing the day's total to about 125 pelicans! Not bad for early February! We tried again to find the Golden Eagle, but it was not visible. Still, we had seen it once. On the way back, I spotted a Merlin, as the last bird of the trip. If you start out with a Great Horned Owl, end up with a Golden Eagle in the middle, and get a Merlin at the end, that's a pretty good trip in my book! What made this even better was meeting an excellent birder and friend. I learned quite a bit from Vaughn, and I look forward to future expeditions with him.
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