If you've spent time birding at Montrose, then you probably know the drill when it comes to shore-birding; the birds drop in, stay a minute, and are gone with the wind. It is a constant touch-and-go, and catching one is often a matter of being in the right place at the right time. 

That being said, for this fall's shorebird migration, I decided that I wouldn't miss a single bird. How does one do that? You need to be at Montrose ALL THE TIME. So that's exactly what I did. Starting on July 15th, (the start of sizeable shorebird flights on Lake Michigan) I was at Montrose daily, usually at sunrise, then again in the evenings. July is still very early on in shorebird migration, so most outings were dull, hot, and uneventful; but you never know when that good bird is going to drop in.

Before all of the shorebird action was underway, I did add one other year bird, a Broad Winged Hawk at Columbia Woods in the Palos area! During migration, Broad Winged Hawks will stream overhead in groups by the hundreds, but a bird on breeding territory in Cook County is an uncommon sight.

#256. Broad Winged Hawk

​This July a special visitor popped in earlier than expected. Actually, it wasn't a bird I was "expecting" at all. On July 12th, my friend Simon Tolzmann called me saying he had a Western Sandpiper on Montrose Beach. Of all things I could have been doing, I was wakeboarding with a friend on a private lake in McHenry County nearly 100 miles away! I jumped in the car immediately, periodically praying throughout my drive that the bird would stay. It did, and it was a HUGE addition for the year!

At the time, the beach was still closed due to Covid (hence the heavily cropped photo), but could easily be viewed from a nearby stone wall. On the flip side, a long overdue Sanderling was another nice pickup.

Sanderling #257
Western Sandpiper #258

(7/18) If you were to ask me which bird I was most afraid of missing this year, my answer would have been Whimbrel. Not only are Whimbrels extremely uncommon in the western Great Lakes, but they are notorious for never staying put. On your typical year, roughly 3-4 Whimbrels are seen in Cook County - most are flyovers, with some occasional drop-ins. But they almost NEVER stay long enough to chase. 

Earlier in the day, I jokingly told some other birders I would be spending my afternoon "sitting at Montrose waiting for Whimbrels." The first part of that sentence was entirely true - I'd be at Montrose for the rest of the afternoon, waiting to see what would drop in. The joke? Me claiming I was going to Montrose to "wait for Whimbrels" on a sweltering 90 degree afternoon in mid July...said no one ever!

By 3:00 I was so hot and uncomfortable I thought of giving in. There were no shorebirds in sight, but just as I was folding up the legs of my tripod preparing to walk the hot sand back to the car, I heard it's distinctive "ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ki." 

I turned just in time to see a massive shorebird with a long, down-curved bill land on the beach right in front of me. No freaking way...WHIMBREL!!! I put my camera up, hands shaking as I tried to capture a photo. After less than a minute, the bird was back in the air heading southwest over the sanctuary. I let out a huge sigh of relief, and smiled...classic Whimbrel.

#259. Whimbrel

While new year birds are typically the highlight for me, spending so much time at Montrose allowed me to sharpen my photography skills by snapping a few quality pics of some of the regular species.

​Lesser Yellowlegs:

Least Sandpiper:

Piping Plover - one of "Monty and Rose's" newly fledged chicks!

Short Billed Dowitcher

(7/20) On the most eventful day yet in terms of shorebird diversity, I spent 7 hours on the beach in the rain watching shorebirds drop by in numbers. Although there was nothing rare of note, I counted a whopping total of 13 shorebird species at Montrose Beach - a fantastic number for the date. This goes to show how much diversity and turnover truly occurs when you put in the time on a productive day. 

And for my reward, I was just able to catch this Stilt Sandpiper in the fading light at Techny Basin, adding another fantastic year bird to my list. 

#260. Stilt Sandpiper

​(7/28) In a typical year, hundreds of cormorants scatter across the Chicago lakefront during the post-breeding season, many of them congregating on the break wall at Rainbow Beach. For the last couple of years, however, a Neotropic Cormorant has spent its fall at Rainbow Beach on the south lakefront. But picking this amazing bird out among the regular population was like spotting a needle in a haystack. Despite the fact that the earliest this bird had ever been spotted was September, I decided to give it a shot all the same. When I arrived, only 10 Cormorants were on the tower, so naturally I expected the bird wouldn't be there. But as I focused the wheel of my binoculars, I spotted an obviously smaller bird with a long tail, white cheek patch, and diagnostic white gape. The Neotropic Cormorant was back! I was so relieved that it had returned again this season. 

#261 Neotropic Cormorant

(7/29) Just as I was turning in for the night, I got word that a Red Knot was spotted at Rainbow earlier that evening. I needed to see that bird, so I set my alarm and was on the road by 4:30. I wanted to arrive before sunrise, just incase it decided to leave at first light. But it didn't even matter, because the bird wasn't there. 

​(7/30) I was doing my typical routine at Montrose, waiting to see what would drop in. Simon and I had just walked onto the beach to try and photograph the bands of a migrant Piping Plover to pass the time, when my phone buzzed. 

"Red Knot in the fluddle at Montrose."

What??!! We whipped our heads around and watched as a large red shorebird flew by and landed in the plover enclosure right next to us. The Red Knot had shown up at Montrose! This marked year bird #262 for me, breaking my own personal record of 261 from 2018. Props to Aerin Tedesco for first finding the bird!

​#262. Red Knot

In birding, things rarely work out perfectly, and that's all part of the game. But this time, July had played out flawlessly, exceeding my highest expectations in nearly every category. My patience had paid off, and the shorebirds delivered. Throughout the course of the month, I made a total of 29 trips to Montrose, 27 of which were after July 12th. With shorebird migration just heating up, I knew my persistence would not waiver in August. Stay tuned for more soon!

Good birding,
Isoo

Number of species seen in Cook County this July: 121
​Number of year birds gained: 7

Once the calendar tipped into June, I knew the rush of my big year was behind me. The remainder of the year would be filled with lots of chases, fewer year birds, and a question of how close I could come to the record. With migrants on their way out and breeding season in full swing, June lived up to it's reputation of being the slowest part of any big year; and yet, birding doldrums notwithstanding, I actually found June to be quite refreshing. With far fewer birds to chase and targets to stress about, I enjoyed what I would call a "break" from big year standards. For me, it's a always a pleasure to walk through a forest full of bird song, looking for breeding passerines in their colorful summer plumage. Over the course of the month I added just two year birds and, because of that, I'll keep this post short and sweet.

(6/1) The calendar may have flipped to June, but that doesn't mean migration has come to a screeching stop. I started off with a bang and a chance for redemption when a late Worm Eating Warbler was found at Graceland Cemetery, the only rarity on my year list that I was unable to get a photo of. Documentation is a huge part of a big year (maybe as important as seeing the birds themselves), so I made sure to stop by Graceland and snap quick photo of the bird. It's been an incredible year for Worm Eating Warblers in Cook County, with a whopping total of 6 individuals showing up this spring. 

(6/6) Being at the peak of nesting season, early June is the prime time to look for breeding birds. I had my sights set on a target breeder for the month; the Northern Bobwhite. This is a species that had been seen inconsistently for the majority of recent summers at Eggers Grove on Chicago's south side. In 2018, the bird had gone completely undetected, followed by a single sighting in summer of 2019. Presumably this is the final bird in what used to be an established population here at Eggers, though with a year since the last sighting, it could easily have become a Peregrine's lunch. I was still hopeful though as Bobwhites are extremely skulky birds that are best detected by voice in the summer.

At first, my search wasn't going well, having gone two hours without any luck. But then suddenly, I heard a distant rising call note that sounded like it could have been the Bobwhite. As I was inching closer to the origin of the sound, it called again, then once more, and eventually showed itself hiding deep in the underbrush...I had found it, a NORTHERN BOBWHITE! Elated, I recognized that this was my 3rd game bird species in Cook County this year, and I had self-found all 3 of them. Given the urban sprawl of the Chicago area, game birds are particularly hard to find anywhere near the city. If I'm not mistaken, this may be the first time in decades where anyone has had a Cook County game bird slam for their year list.

On the way out, I ran into my friend Jeff Skrentny, who said he had been looking for this bird all year. I guess today was my lucky day :)
​
​#254. Northern Bobwhite

(6/8) Continuing the ridiculous trend of game birds in Cook County, a few days later my neighbor reported  a Wild Turkey on my block...yes, you heard that right, on my block! I ran out of the house and was able to catch up with the turkey hanging out in a yard a few houses down. Given the location (suburban Evanston), the origin of this bird is in question, but nonetheless a memorable and extremely bizarre sighting. To add onto the excitement, I found a singing Acadian Flycatcher in my yard while I was looking for the turkey. You don't always have to go far to find good birds! 

(6/10) Finally, just when it felt like it would never happen, Montrose re-opened! Sweet, sweet relief. My first day back was spent monitoring the nesting Piping Plovers on the beach, (something I did every Monday throughout the summer) which also happened to be a year bird. I was excited to again have access to our beloved lakefront parks, but I was even more excited to see that "Monty and Rose," Chicago's now famous piping plover pair, had returned...and they ended up successfully fledging 4 chicks!

#255. Piping Plover

(6/17-19) My friend Henry Griffin and I embarked on a socially-distanced, two night camping trip to deep southern Illinois in hopes of adding some new state birds, and exploring the diverse variety of habitats the area had to offer. It was my first time visiting this part of the state, and I was truly blown away by the scenery -- from canyons to cypress swamps -- it is quite a dramatic change in landscape from the rest of the state! Frustratingly, I had a camera malfunction and was stuck shooting in a square format the entire trip, but I still managed to capture some of the landscape's birds and beauty. It was without a doubt the highlight of my month. 

​
​Eurasian Tree Sparrow:

Cattle Egrets:

On our way south, we stopped for this rarity Scissor Tailed Flycather in Morgan County:

Nesting Yellow Crowned Night Herons:

Black Bellied Whistling Ducks:

Terrible photos, but a great bird, and southern Illinois specialty; Least Tern!

Black Vulture

Driving through the forests of Pomona was a highlight of our trip, with over 10 species of warblers singing here!

Beautiful cypress swamps at the Horseshoe Lake Conservation Area:

Eastern Box Turtle:

Sunrise at our campground, Ferne Clyffe State Park:

That's a wrap for June! Like I said, short and sweet, and quite a change from the hectic rush of the last month. Though the ticking of year birds has slowed down, I expect July to be more eventful as our first migrant shorebirds (including some very exciting ones) begin to trickle though on their way back south. Stay tuned for more updates!

Good birding,
Isoo O'Brien

 Well here we are, the time of year that every birder waits for... May! This special time marks the peak of spring migration for the majority of the country, and Chicago is without a doubt one of the best places to experience this incredible natural phenomenon. This May was certainly far from normal. Given our current situation with COVID-19, I had to continue being creative with my birding this month. The lakefront parks, home to Cook County's hottest migrant traps, remained inaccessible for the entirety of the month. We'll never know what great rarities we missed at Montrose. This also meant that shorebird habitat was few and far between, as Lake Michigan's shoreline is the home to the vast majority of what Cook County has to offer in terms of it's shorebirds. The peak of migration this year was short and sweet -- for the majority of early May, northern Illinois was blasted with north winds, cold fronts, rain, and few migrants with the exception of a handful of good birds. Come the third week, conditions suddenly switched in our favor for the rest of the month, delivering some off the charts days followed by what felt like an abrupt end before the month was even over. 

Due to the pandemic, eLearning gave me the flexibility to bird to my heart's content. This month was without a question the biggest month of birding I've ever had. I ended up making it out 30/31 days, set a new Cook County big month record of 201 species, and drove roughly 5,000 miles just in the pursuit of year birds. I spent most days in the field for multiple hours on end, covering as much ground as possible, often coming home having ticked off over 100 species of birds. This post will certainly be long and exciting, I hope you'll stay along for the ride!

(5/1) I decided to try and start May off with a bang and chased one of my rarest target birds for the year, an annually returning (or I should say supposedly returning) Yellow Headed Blackbird at Paul Douglas Forest Preserve. But when I arrived the gate to the preserve was closed...ughhh. However, all was fine because shorty thereafter Jacob Drucker found a Cerulean Warbler at Washington Park, which meant regardless of the situation, I was out of there. By the time I arrived, the bird hadn't been re-found since the initial sighting, so things were looking dismal. Just a few minutes into my search, a flash of electric blue caught my eye as it darted into the shrubbery...the CERULEAN WARBLER! The craziest part was that this was actually an extremely overdue lifer for me! I couldn't have asked for a better way to get this bird because it then proceeded to feed on the ground for over 10 minutes literally 6 feet away. This is truly incredible and unheard of behavior for this typically canopy dwelling species. What a way to kick off the month!

#174. Swainson's Thrush
#175. Ovenbird
#176. Rose Breasted Grosbeak
#177. Gray Catbird
#178. Cerulean Warbler

After a successful rarity chase, I headed over to Washington Park's next door neighbor, Jackson Park. A very overdue Pine Warbler was a nice get.

#179. Pine Warbler
#180. Common Yellowthroat

(5/2) May 2nd was a very exciting day because it was our first huge push of warblers and other passerine migrants this spring, which is what May is all about! Team Cvetas, Fran Morel, and I did our version of an "Evanston Big Day," something all 3 of us have wanted to do for awhile as residents of Evanston. Because of the naturally fast paced atmosphere of a big day, no photos were taken, but we got some great birds. Kicking off our morning with a lake watch from the Northwestern University's Lakefill, we had some great pickups for the day including a late Horned Grebe, a few migrating Forster's Terns, a perched Merlin at The Point, and a flyby American Pipit. Warbler diversity was impressive for the date, and our visit was highlighted by Blackburnian, Bay Breasted, and Wilson's warblers, all birds typically expected later in migration. And of course, the year birds were coming in thick. Among our nearly 80 species at Northwestern, I added:

#181. American Pipit
#182. Indigo Bunting
#183. Least Flycather
#184. Blackburnian Warbler
#185. Wilson's Warbler
#186. Bay Breasted Warbler
#187. Magnolia Warbler
#188. Nashville Warbler
#189. Northern Parula
#190. American Redstart
#191. Warbling Vireo

Next stop, Perkins Woods and Gillson Park. Gillson is technically in Wilmette, but for whatever reason Evanston birders like to glump Gillson into our Evanston lists, so we decided to make it a stop on our big day. We added another handful of migrants between these two stops, highlighted by a Canada Warbler.

#192. Black and White Warbler
#193. Canada Warbler
#194. Chestnut Sided Warbler
#195. Orchard Oriole
#196. Scarlet Tanager
#197. Eastern Kingbird

During our time at Gillson, I got a notification from our local Cook County Notables group saying that a White Faced Ibis had showed up at Orland Grasslands, all the way on the other side of the county. A hell of a bird for Cook, and I knew immediately that I had to go. But there was a problem, and I was worried this would happen. Under official big day rules, 95% of the birds on the list must have been seen by all members of the party. If I left, assuming I would miss stuff, I would put our entire big day in jeopardy and likely cause us to miss birds. However, thanks to my very understanding team, they let me chase the ibis. I was worried that on top of leaving I would also miss the bird, but thankfully when I arrived there were already a dozen birders looking at it. Super stoked to pick up this bonus because it's without a doubt one of my best birds in Cook this year!

​#198. White Faced Ibis

Luckily I somehow only missed a single bird for our big day, so my chasing the ibis had no effect on our total! We ended a successful day with 105 species. Not too shabby for Evanston, and still so early on in migration!

#199. Wood Thrush
​#200. Blackpoll Warbler

(5/3) A Kentucky Warbler was reported at Burnham Prairie, a pretty uncommon find here in Chicago, so I headed down to check it out. I just so happened to have my eyes in the right place to see this particularly skulky individual, which after watching it's behavior for a bit, I realized could have instead taken hours to find.

#201. Gray Cheeked Thrush
​#202. Kentucky Warbler

(5/4) With early may being the peak time to look for this bird, my friend Henry Griffin and I decided to try for Eastern Whip-Poor-Will at Plum Creek Forest Preserve, another super tough bird to get in Cook. There had never actually been a sighting here, but we both agreed the habitat looked perfect, so we gave it a go. Despite a bitterly cold evening coupled with strong north winds, our instincts prevailed as an Eastern Whip-Poor-Will gave it's characteristic "whip poor will" song continuously just 20 feet away from us! Without a doubt, in my opinion, one of the best bird songs in existence. 

#203. Eastern Whip-Poor-Will

(5/6) I found myself back at Burnham Prairie after Dan Lory messaged me saying he had just found a Snowy Egret, a very good bird for Cook County...the only catch is, it had actually flown away. However, Burnham Prairie is just one preserve located in an area of rich wetland habitat (what we call the Calumet area), so I had a feeling the bird was still hanging out somewhere nearby. Henry Griffin and I met up at Burnham to see if there was any chance the bird may have returned. We gave it our best effort, but found nothing when all of a sudden the Snowy Egret was back at the entrance pond on our way out!

#204. Snowy Egret

(5/9) One of my fluddles in southern Cook finally delivered it's first gift, a Black Bellied Plover! Ridegeland really pulled through with these guys this spring, as this was my first of three here.

#205. Veery
#206. Black Bellied Plover

(5/10)  I met up with my friend Lucas Rot and birded around my patch at Northwestern University. On a normal year, I'd be birding here on a weekly basis, but my current goal has caused me to neglect my patch and focus on other areas, making today's visit feel all the more enjoyable. We had a respectable 74 species, and with it came a handful of new year birds:

#207. Bank Swallow
#208. Common Tern
#209. Cape May Warbler
#210. Tennessee Warbler

Some stops in southern Cook after Northwestern yielded:

#211. Philadelphia Vireo
#212. Bobolink

Later in the day, Ridgeland pulled through with another great shorebird, this time an American Golden Plover! A tough bird to pin down in Cook that I was certainly worried about missing altogether. My year bird was a bit far for photos, but luckily I found a second American Golden Plover here later in the month, which gave some better photo ops.

​#213. American Golden Plover

(5/11) After a very quiet morning of birding at LaBagh Woods, I got a report saying there had just been a Yellow Crowned Night Heron seen at North Pond, which then flew south towards the huge Black Crowned Night Heron rookery at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Assuming it was hanging out there, I rushed over to go look for the bird. The only issue was that the Zoo was closed, and I wasn't able to see the entire rookery from the outside. And alas, after over an hour of picking though hundreds of Black Crowned Night Herons, I was unable to find the Yellow Crowned. Assuming it was gone or just not visible, I headed home. Later, while sitting on the couch scrolling through my Facebook feed, a picture of a Yellow Crowned Night Heron popped up...it was at the LPZ heron rookery! Racing to beat sunset, I rushed back to the zoo and sure enough I found the Yellow Crowned Night Heron roosting in the pines among the hundreds of other herons...finally success! I was in such a rush out the door that I left my camera at home, but managed to snap a crappy pic with my iPhone. Three birding trips in one day!

#214. Black Throated Blue Warbler
#215. Red Eyed Vireo
#216. Prothonotary Warbler
#217. Yellow Crowned Night Heron

(5/12) With migrant activity still far behind schedule, I chased a few birds  I was hoping to add to my list at some nearby spots. My first bird was a Least Bittern in the tiny marsh at Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie, where the bird called nonstop but refused to show itself; typical Least Bittern behavior. On the other hand, the flock of Short Billed Dowitchers at Lake Glenview, another target for the day, were a lot more cooperative and photogenic.

#218. Least Bittern
#219. Short Billed Dowitcher

​(5/13) Another long morning of birding, and another day with few migrants. I finally added a few long overdue migrants in Palos and southern Cook County.

#220. Golden Winged Warbler
#221. Blue Winged Warbler
#222. Grasshopper Sparrow
#223. Least Sandpiper

(5/14) I didn't plan on doing much birding due to the heavy downpour occuring all morning, but then I had to change my mind when Jacob Druker reported 150 Short Billed Dowitchers and a bunch of other shorebirds on the flooded ballfields at Washington Park! So as usual, I decided to hit Ridgeland Avenue and could immediately see there were TONS of shorebirds around. Among them, I immediately picked out 22 Short Billed Dowtichers, followed by a handful of White Rumped Sandpipers! I was extremely scared of missing this bird for the year due to the unpredictability of when or if the lakefront would reopen for shorebird migration this fall. I estimated well over a hundred shorebirds at the fluddle, and with them a nice showing of species diversity. It was my best day there this spring.

#224. Semipalmated Sandpiper
#225. Semipalmated Plover
#226. White Rumped Sandpiper

On my way home, I got a phone call from my friend Eddie Kasper. "Hey, did you see that report of a Yellow Headed Blackbird up by you in Evanston?" I opened up the eBird report to find a picture of an adult male Yellow Headed Blackbird just hanging out on someone's from lawn -- not exactly typical Yellow Headed Blackbird behavior! Of course, I went to go check it out. I was expecting somewhat of a suspenseful search for this bird, but there was no need for that because it was right there waiting for me when I pulled up! What a truly random place for this bird.

​#227. Yellow Headed Blackbird

 (5/15) If you couldn't already tell, migration was off to a slow start this year. But, after days of cold, rain, north winds, and birds backed up to the south of us, the gates had finally opened -- and oh man, was the birding good. On the 15th of May (which like clockwork, seems to be one of the best days every year) I experienced what was the closet to what I would consider a true bird fallout. I started the morning off at Northwestern, and noticed incredible numbers of birds. It was a perfect example of one of those most overcast mornings where passerines are dripping off the trees, if you know what I mean. I ended up with a fairly regular mid-migration species total of 78, but the numbers were off the charts. Eric Walters, who was also there that morning, took a much greater effort to obtain accurate counts for each species. Here are some of the notable counts from his eBird checklist:

Gray Catbird: 74
Veery: 79
Gray Cheeked Thrush: 74
Swainson's Thrush: 49
Lincoln's Sparrow: 51
White Crowned Sparrow: 103
Ovenbird: 47
Northern Waterthrush: 20
Golden Winged Warbler: 7
​Common Yellowthroat: 77 (I felt I had well over 100)
Rose Breasted Grosbeak: 19

Mid way through my visit, I made a quick run over to the Clark Street Beach Bird Sanctuary, Northwestern's next door neighbor, and picked up this young male Blue Grosbeak! Talk about an awfully convenient chase.

#228. Blue Grosbeak

I added 2 new year birds on the remainder of my walk, and was particularly thrilled about the Yellow Breasted Chat, a new site bird for me!

#229. Yellow Throated Vireo
#230. Yellow Breasted Chat

After Northwestern, I made an afternoon trip to Helmick in south Cook. I wasn't coming here to look for any particular targets, but was mostly just looking for anything out of the ordinary in general. I've adopted Helmick as one of my regular patches this year because it's a location untouched by birders that I thought had a huge potential for rarities. Today being the great day that it was, I decided it was worth making the hour drive -- and I was right. Immediately after parking, my eyes laid on a group of birds in mixed in with the geese in the empty field parallel to the bike trail. The birds were far off, and upon first glance, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But as soon as I raised my bins, my heart started pounding and my hands started to shake. I realized I had stumbled across something special.

6 BLACK BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS!

Perhaps the most rewarding, and certainly exciting part of birding is finding a true self-found rarity. Black Bellied Whistling Ducks are extremely rare in Cook County, making this just the 7th county record. Interestingly, this species has seen an incredible influx northward in the past few years, with sightings across Illinois and the surrounding states becoming more and more frequent. I look forward to seeing the distribution changes of this species in the years to come, and imagine they will become increasingly easier to find in Cook County. But for now, a very rare bird, and a huge addition to my total. Possibly the highlight of my entire month. Gotta love the peak of spring migration!

#231. Black Bellied Whistling Duck

 -#232. Great Crested Flycatcher

​My day wasn't over just yet- when I got home, I did a quick hour loop through my yard and neighborhood, tallying over 50 species and adding 3 more year birds! Adding year birds in your yard, on any year, feels special. But when you've been running around the county like a madman for the last 5 and a half months looking for them, it almost feels comforting. The perfect way to top off a 100+ species day, probably my best day so far this year.

#233. Olive Sided Flycatcher

#234. Eastern Wood Pewee
​#235. Common Nighthawk

(5/16) Not much of a birding day for me, though I did add to my streak of year birds found in the yard!

#236. Ruby Throated Hummingbird

(5/17) I wasn't expecting to have to chase this species this year, but given the curveball I was thrown this spring, I drove all the way to Rainbow Beach to add this bird to my year list.

#237. Ruddy Turnstone

(5/18) I woke up to a group-me alert saying that a Prairie Warbler had been found at Grant Park in downtown Chicago. I rushed over there as soon as I could, and found a group of disappointed birders, who were unable to re-locate the warbler. This certainly decreased out hopes, but my friend Henry and I put our best effort into searching. The whole area was full of warblers, which made our search a bit more challenging. After splitting up and then reconvening an hour later, we still hadn't found the bird. But that's when Henry said "Hey, did you hear that? I think that might have been it!" We walked towards the direction in which Henry heard the song, and then I too heard a distinctive series of rising buzzes -- definitely the Prairie Warbler! We were treated to killer looks at this bird for about a minute, then watched it fly east across Lake Shore Drive, and disappear in the restricted area subject to the lakefront closure. I felt so incredibly lucky to see this bird, and just so happened to be in the right place at the right time. Props go to Henry for this one -- if it weren't for his amazing ear, there's a good chance I would have missed this bird completely. 

#238. Prairie Warbler. 

(5/19) Another huge push of migrants, and another great day of birding. On this morning, I tallied a whopping 25 species of warblers at Jackson Park, my most ever at a single location. With them came two new year birds, a male Mourning Warbler and a long overdue Hooded Warbler.

#239. Mourning Warbler
#240. Hooded Warbler

(5/22) I met my friend Eddie Kasper for another visit to Jackson Park. Once again, we were quite successful and had over 80 species of birds.

#241. Yellow Bellied Flycatcher
#242. Willow Flycatcher

After Jackson, Eddie and I parted ways and I headed to Graceland Cemetery. With the lakefront closure, Graceland Cemetery has attracted a ton of attention from birders, serving as a nearby alternative migrant trap to Montrose. As a result, some great birds have been seen here throughout the month, and today was no exception. I was hoping to see a White Eyed Vireo that had been hanging around here for the past few days, and thanks to some friendly birders, I got on it right away!

#243. White Eyed Vireo

Shortly after, I was treated to my best ever view of a Connecticut Warbler walking on the cemetery lawn. These guys are famously secretive birds, so seeing one walking on the lawn feet away is no ordinary experience, plus they are also quite an uncommon bird!

#244. Connecticut Warbler

(5/23) I went to go check and see if the Bell's Vireo on 87th and LSD had returned, which would make it the 4th summer in a row the bird has come back. I was a bit worried since I don't think the bird has ever successfully found a mate, but it was back singing its heart out in it's usual spot! I hope this bird successfully breeds here at some point, Bell's Vireos are just so hard to come by in Cook County.

​#245. Bell's Vireo

Next stop, Big Marsh in the Calumet area for another target bird, the Common Gallinule. Interestingly, Common Gallinules are another species that have seen a huge expansion northward in recent years. In 2013, Aaron Gyllenhall (who holds the Cook County big year record)  missed Common Gallinule on his big year. But now, with a little bit of effort, you can find them reliably breeding here in the Calumet area. As expected, the birds were acting very secretive, but it was a successful search. Normally I wouldn't post such horrible photos, but part of this blog is making sure I have everything documented as well as possible.

#246. Alder Flycatcher
#247. Common Gallinule

(5/24) I once again found myself in deep southern Cook County at one of my favorite birding locations, Plum Creek Forest Preserve. As I was driving in, I was shocked to find a Wild Turkey foraging alongside the road. Historically, Wild Turkeys have been absent in Cook County, but this was one of a few sightings we've had this year. Back in March, I was ecstatic to have found a group of them at another nearby forest preserve. But what I came to Plum Creek today for were uncommon breeding birds I still needed, such as Acadian Flycatcher and Black Billed Cuckoo. I managed to successfully track down a singing Acadian Flycatcher, along with a handful of other great breeders including all 6 woodpeckers, Carolina Wren, Blue Winged Warbler, Tufted Titmouse, and 3 Barred Owls!

#248. Acadian Flycatcher

Later in the day I added a long overdue year bird, Yellow Billed Cuckoo, at Perkins Woods near my home in Evanston.

#249. Yellow Billed Cuckoo

With only a few possible targets remaining for me for the remainder of the month, I headed to the Palos Preserves to look for Black Billed Cuckoos and Summer Tanagers. I was expecting to strike out on both of them, but lucked out with this Black Billed Cuckoo at Cap Sauers. I can't believe I hit 250 before the end of May with the lakefront closure.

#250. Black Billed Cuckoo

#251. Dickcissel

(5/30) My friend Josh Engel gave me intel that he had found a King Rail in the Calumet area, which is an incredibly hard bird in Cook County, and in Illinois in general. I met up with Illinois big year birders Nathan Goldberg, Steve Huggins, and Glenn Giacinto, and together we were all treated to amazing looks at the Rail, which came out into the open. Congrats to Steve for hitting his 300th bird in Illinois this year!

#252. King Rail

As soon as we were wrapping things up in Calumet, Matthew Cvetas told me he had a Summer Tanager in Palos, the last expected breeder of my needs list. The birds were calling and easy to locate. I believe this is the only the second time I've had this species in Cook County.

​#253. Summer Tanager

(5/31) In the final moments of May, I found myself standing in the dark at Perkins Woods, listening to the eerie trill of an Eastern Screech Owl. The owl marked my 201st bird this May, a new Cook County big month record. The rush of spring migration was over, and I couldn't have asked for a better way to put an end the most exciting and important part my big year. As for now, I hope that like my month, my year will also be the biggest. Catch you next month! 

Good birding,
Isoo OBrien



Number of species seen this month: 201
Number of year birds gained this month: 80

After a long winter of slow birding, finally April pulls through. In the end, there are two groups of birds that will set your big year apart from others; I like to call them "freebies" and "never guaranteed species." Freebies are birds you would never anticipate the idea of getting for your year list. Last year, Cook County killed it in this category with a handful of mega rarities, including Ancient Murrelet, Long Billed Curlew, King Eider, and more. However, many of the typical annual rarities were a no-show or didn't stick around, making it a tougher year for any sort of record breaking big year. With this winter being especially dry with almost no notable birds, it felt good to clear up a lot of species I was worried may or may not show up this year. I set a new month record of 141 species, not too shabby for a lakefront closure. Here's what went down in this very exciting month!

​(4/1) I added 3 new birds on the first day of April to start out the month. Those were:

#123: Caspian Tern
#124: Palm Warbler 
#125: American White Pelican

As recent as 4 or 5 years ago, Pelicans were very challenging to find in Cook County, but with their recent population boom it seemed like they were everywhere this month!

(4/2) With all the chasing I've been doing, I've paid little attention the the birds in my yard. For the first time all year, I dedicated the morning to yard birding. I had a nice 20 species including my first of the year Yellow Bellied Sapsucker,

#126: Yellow Bellied Sapsucker

(4/3) With the lakefront closure, I had to get a little more creative and spent much of the month visiting under-birded locations that I thought had the potential to harbor rarities or anything else I might need. One of those frequently visited locations for me was Busse Woods in Schamburg. No rarities today, but at least it didn't end up being a 0 day.

#127: Northern Rough Winged Swallow

One of my local spots in Evanston yielded an unexpectedly early Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher.

#128. Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher

(4/4) After a long time of waiting, a good bird was finally found in Cook County, a Harlequin Duck in Rogers Park! I rushed over there only to receive a message that the bird had flown north when I was as close as 2 blocks away... ugh. I wouldn't give up that easily though, and started checking all the breakwalls and rocky areas to the north since that's where they like to feed. High numbers of northbound Bonaparte's Gulls made each stop a little more eventful, and I counted 129 individual birds during my search!

#129. Bonaparte's Gull
#130. Eastern Towhee

I ended up going all the way to Winnetka looking for the duck and failed to find it. However, the next day (4/5) the duck made an appearance back at the original spot! Dozens of lucky birders were treated to excellent views of this breathtaking bird:

#131. Harlequin Duck

(4/7) Today I took my mom birding all around Cook County. She picked the right day to come, because we got a huge push of migrants the previous night. Seeing high numbers of passerines for the first time was exciting because it's a sign that warblers and the peak of migration are just around the corner. We started at Northwestern which hosted a nice waterfowl movement over the lake. I quickly added Ruby Crowned Kinglet followed by a Sora spotted by my mom under a bush in the parking lot! During migration, rails are notorious for showing up in weird locations far from their expected habitats, and this Sora did exactly that.

#132. Ruby Crowned Kinglet
​#133. Sora

After unsuccessfully checking some fluddles near the Will county border, we stopped at some farmfields on the way to Orland Grasslands to see if we could turn up anything. I ended up getting my 3rd year bird of the day, a singing Vesper Sparrow.

#134. Vesper Sparrow

Throughout the month I became very familiar with farmfields, fluddles, and other underbirded locations in far southern Cook County. I focused heavily on these areas because I believed they had potential to produce rarities and possibly a few of the very difficult targets for my year list. I visited these areas multiple times per week as if they were a new patch for me. This southern Cook County jaunt was another one of many Smith's Longspur searches in the few farmfields and grassy areas in the most remote areas of Cook. I figured our trip to Orland Grasslands that day would be no different then my previous unsuccessful attempts, but I was wrong. A few minutes into our walk, I flushed two birds out of the main burn area and immediately recognized them by their dry rattle call, buffy underparts, white outer tail feathers, and a white lesser covert patch... SMITH'S LONGSPURS!!! Panicking, I watched the birds touch down all the way on the other side of the grassland. I thankfully refound the birds and got photos, video, and audio. Nothing feels more rewarding then finding a bird you put hours of searching into, especially when you didn't think you would even get it at all. Effort is everything.

#135. Smith's Longspur

(4/8) I decided to try my luck at Busse Woods again. Eared Grebe was a bird hot on my radar and Busse seemed like the perfect place to look. As I was expecting, no Eared Grebes were found but I added a Pectoral Sandpiper to my year list. The north pool at Busse is another good place to look for shorebirds and is also extremely under birded. 
​
​#136. Pectoral Sandpiper

(4/11) After seeing reports of a Ring Necked Pheasant at Bartel Grassland, Jeff Skrentny and I teamed up to try and find the bird (at a distance of course). Though we could never find the pheasant, we both added multiple new birds, including Virginia Rail, Barn Swallow, and a handful of singing Henslow's Sparrows. On my way out I did a quick check at the Bobolink Meadow Parking Lot. I wasn't expecting to find anything so I was incredibly surprised to find this NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD perched just a few feet from my car! Another relieving bird to check off since that was the first one to show up in the county this year. Amazingly, this bird came so close that it actually ran under my car. An awesome way to add an awesome bird to my big year list.
​
#137. Henslow's Sparrow
#138. Virginia Rail
#139. Barn Swallow
​#140. Northern Mockingbird

(4/15)  I got word of a Yellow Throated Warbler visiting a feeder at a private residence in Wilmette. I arranged a time to visit and got the Warbler almost immediately. Thanks Karen for the hospitality and Tamima for helping me get access!

​#141. Yellow Throated Warbler

(4/17) On this cold and snowy mid April morning, I was definitely not expecting anything eventful to happen in Cook County birding, and that's why I was shocked to find out the first mega rarity of the year had made an appearance, A Townsend's Warbler at Deer Grove Forest Preserve. With no hesitation I jumped in the car to go and search for the bird. Annoyingly the observer refused to give a more specific location of this bird in the massive preserve she found it in, so basically it was a needle in a haystack, and I was skeptical in our abilities to find it.  After hours of searching in the sleet, things weren't looking promising. I was giving up when Nathan Goldberg called me saying that Andy Sigler had just refound the bird. We had killer looks at the bird as we watched it feed low to the ground only a feet away. A 6th state record and without a question the best bird I've seen so far this year!

#142. Chipping Sparrow
#143 Townsend's Warbler

(4/19) With migration in full swing at this point, checking fludldles for shorebirds became a regular part of my many south cook jaunts. The fluddle at Lansing Municipal Airport hosted my first Greater Yellowlegs of the year.

#144. Greater Yellowlegs

Following my typical routine of checking the few cornfields in the county for anything of interest, I finally cashed in. While driving down a busy street in Lynwood, I spotted a game bird way out in a field. It sure as hell looked like a Ring Necked Pheasant. I waited for an opportunity to stop and snapped a pic... a RING NECKED PHEASANT indeed! Over the course of the last month, I've put about 20 hours of birding into areas that I thought had the potential for this bird. Doing your own searching as opposed to waiting for chase birds IS HOW you do a big year. After finding a place to scope it out, I found a second bird with it! Hopefully this pair breeds somewhere nearby.

#145. Ring Necked Pheasant

My shorebirding wasn't over for the day, and the Volbrecht Road fluddle produced 3 Dunlins for my year list. I am relying pretty heavily on these few fluddles this Spring with the lakefront closure eliminating access to pretty much all other shorebird habitat in the county.

146. Dunlin
147. Purple Martin

More shorebirding in the northern half of the county the following day (4/20) yielded:

148. Lesser Yellowlegs
149. Spotted Sandpiper

(4/21) On this Easter Sunday Joe Lill found a Louisiana Waterthrush at Bunker Hill Forest Preserve, which is a pretty tough bird up here. 

​#150. Louisiana Waterthrush

(4/23) On another southern Cook run, combined with one of many failed attempts at finding a Yellow Rail this month, I added:

#151. House Wren
#152. Chimney Swift
#153. Sedge Wren
#154. Marsh Wren

(4/24) ​Now that we have no access to Montrose, Jackson Park became the new top hotspot in town for migrants. On my first of many trips there this spring followed by a quick stop at Burnham Prairie, I added:

#155. Northern Waterthrush
#156. Green Heron
#157. Solitary Sandpiper

(4/25) The last week of April was a whirlwind full of great birds, starting with 6 American Avocets at Centennial Park! Without the lakefront (and even with the lakefront sometimes), Cook County definitely lacks in the shorebird department. With that being said, anything out of the ordinary in terms of shorebirds, such as these Avocets, were very lucky.

#158. American Avocet

(4/27) My luck with rare shorebirds continues. I had just gotten to the southern end of the county when I got word of 3 Dowtichers at Techny Basin, which is all the way up north. Given the date, they were almost certainly Long Billed Dowitchers, so of course I whipped the car around and headed straight for Techny. I found the birds immediately, and Long Billed they were!

#159. Long Billed Dowitcher

(4/28) On this day we got our first real push of migrating passerines! I started off birding my local patch, Northwestern University, but was quickly interrupted by a sighting of a Worm Eating Warbler at North Pond! I rushed there and quickly got the bird, but it flew off before I could get a photo. However, I got Ted Wolff on the bird as well, continuing my streak of having evidence for every notable bird I've seen this year. 

#160. Cliff Swallow
#161. Worm Eating Warbler
#162. Blue Headed Vireo

Next, off to Jackson Park. Birds were on the move last night and there was no question about it. My best bird was a Willet at 63rd St. beach, which was my only one this entire spring. 

#163. Willet

​#164. Forster's Tern
#165. Baltimore Oriole
#166. Yellow Warbler
#167. Lincoln's Sparrow

Another stop at Burnham Prairie followed by Bartel Grassland produced:

#168. Black-Throated Green Warbler
#169. American Bittern

(4/29) Just as soon as I thought the window had closed for the year for this bird to show up it did! A Brewer's Blackbird at Bunker Hill Forest Preserve! Only my second ever in Cook County.

#170. Brewer's Blackbird

​(4/30) To close out a very successful month, April gives one last gift. This Lark Sparrow at the Gomper's Park ballfields was my final year bird for the month of April!

#171. Orange Crowned warbler
#172. Clay Colored Sparrow
#173. Lark Sparrow

Overall a very good month with many good birds. Stay tuned for my next post as I will be covering the month of May, the high holidays of birding here in Chicago. See you in a month!

Good birding,
​Isoo 



Number of species seen this month: 141
Number of year birds gained this month: 51

Once January came to a close, I knew I'd be in for a slow couple of months. March isn't exactly a prime birding month here in Chicago. As a matter of fact, it's a pretty awkward transition period in terms of birding; most of the wintering species are departing while the majority of spring migrants have yet to arrive. It's probably my least favorite time of year for birding, though the subtle signs of spring approaching are something I look forward to at the end of a long winter. Despite the fact that March may not be a special month, it has so far been by far my most successful. As usual I birded very hard, resulting in a month total of 101 species. Unlike January and February, I also added a few new species that I won't see again this year. Two out of the three of these great birds were actually my first year birds of the month! On the morning of March 1st, I started the day out at Montrose. As I was on my way to the beach, the local passerines caught my attention. I followed the sound of the scolding chickadees only to find 6 species of birds, all acting just as stressed, gathered around the same bush. Behavior like this typically indicates there's a predator or some other source of disturbance nearby. With all of the birds gathered on that one small bush, I couldn't help but think there was a real possibility a Northern Saw Whet Owl was perched somewhere right there. I started looking around, and within the matter of a minute I spotted it. A roosting NORTHERN SAW WHET OWL! It felt extremely relieving to find this bird as it's one of the hardest regularly occurring birds to find in Cook County; as a matter of fact, one could call this bird a serious pain in the ass to track down. I must have struck out at least 7 times at their only "reliable" wintering spot and had already given up on finding one until next fall. This bird was more than likely a migrant on it's way back to it's breeding grounds in the Boreal Forest. The month couldn't have gotten of to a better start!

#102. Northern Saw Whet Owl

3/4) During the middle of the school day, I received a message that a Ross's Goose had just showed up at Lake Glenview. A hell of a tough bird in Cook County, and a species that didn't even show up at all last year. Getting an RBA during school is always the worst because it raises the question of whether the bird will stick around until the end of the day. Luckily, this one did! Here is the single photo I snapped of the goose before my camera died:

#103. Ross's Goose

A quick loop around the lake yielded:

#104. Horned Grebe

With the sun setting, Tom Lally and I decided to head to Air Station Prairie to watch for displaying Woodcocks. Just as we were about to give up, an American Woodcock gave its classic "peent!" call from across the prairie. It's always a treat to watch Woodcocks display in early spring. 

#105. American Woodcock

(3/7) Despite the fact that there wasn't much around, I felt the urge to be out birding. I went to Park 566 where I added:

#106. Eastern Meadowlark

(3/8) On Sunday the 8th, Chicago experienced its first real influx of spring migrants. I had about 40 species at Montrose, significantly more than the rather weak totals of 15-20 species we were seeing all winter. Between the hordes of red wings and grackles I picked out my first Rusty Blackbirds of the year, a sure sign that Spring migration is underway!

#107. Rusty Blackbird

Similarly to Montrose, McGinnis Slough was extremely productive. The highlight among my 18 species of waterfowl were a group of 21 Tundra Swans, a fairly uncommon find in Cook County. Here's a digiscope of one of the swans.

A flyover Turkey Vulture and a Wilson's Snipe were two more additions to top off a solid day:

#108. Turkey Vulture
#109. Wilson's Snipe

(3/12) After school I chased a continuing Black Scoter off the end of fishhook pier at Montrose. I had already tried twice for it with no luck, making this my 3rd attempt. Shortly after I arrived, Josh Engel did the same and eventually picked out the Black Scoter with the scaup far out on the lake. Scoters are tough to come by in the Spring so cleaning up all 3 species by March was unexpected. Thanks Josh!

#110. Fox Sparrow
#111. Black Scoter

If there's one bird that should represent the month of March, it's without a doubt the Greater White Fronted Goose. Typically, us Chicago birders consider ourselves lucky when a bird or two drops into a local park with a group of Canada Geese. You may not remember, but I actually drove an hour to get my year bird in early January; believe it or not, it was one of the highlights of the month. For whatever reason, I saw a truly unprecedented number of this species throughout the county in March. I stumbled across this bird on 7 different occasions within the first two weeks of the month, my numbers soaring past 1,000. Ironically, despite multiple hardcore searches, I failed to find a Snow Goose this season, a hole that will likely remain on my list until next winter. I even managed to find a leucistic Greater White Fronted Goose this month- pretty awesome, but at the same time a huge letdown considering it wasn't the much needed Snow Goose I was expecting it to be. That's my nemesis for now. The photos here are just a tiny fraction of the Greater White Fronted Geese I found withing this 2 week period. It was quite a spectacle!

​(3/16) I visited McGinnis Slough again and racked up another impressive list of waterfowl. Between the hundreds Ring Necked Ducks, American Coots, and many others, I picked out my first Blue Winged Teal of the year. At my next stop, I added Common Loon, the first one to show up in the county this spring.

#112. Blue Winged Teal
#113. Common Loon

(3/20) On March 20th, we got another large push of migrants, so of course that meant Montrose in the morning. I only added 1 year bird, but I had no complains as I witnessed what was arguably one of the strongest waterfowl movements I'd ever seen. While being soaked by waves and struggling to hold my scope still, I counted thousands of ducks making their way north past the end of Fishhook Pier. The unfortunate reality of lakewatching is that it's almost always associated with bad weather, but at the same time almost always worth it. Here's a few of the photos I took that morning of the waterfowl:

#114. Eastern Phoebe

​Green Winged Teal:

Northern Pintail:

Lesser Scaup:

Common Loon:

Northern Shoveler:

(3/24) On March 24, local birder Tamima Itani told me she had word of an Eastern Screech Owl not far from my home in Evanston. An easy bird, but one that's constantly eluded me for the past 3 months. This bird was a piece of cake though, because I had Tamima there to point it out to me. This was only my second ever visual at a red morph Eastern Screech Owl. Thanks Tamima!

#115. Eastern Screech Owl

(3/26) Another good migrant day at Montrose was under way. Things were starting to heat up along the lakefront. Huge numbers of sparrows and blackbirds were everywhere. During my visit, I added:

#116. Tree Swallow
#117. Brown Thrasher

Little did I know at the time, this would be my last trip to Montrose for awhile. The entire Chicago lakefront, Montrose included, were promptly shut down later in the day due to COVID-19. More on that later...

After Montrose, I headed all the way up to the north western most corner of the county to Bakers Lake. It was extremely active, and within my first 10 minutes of scanning from the overlook I already ticked over 30 species. My year bird Great Egrets were back in numbers on the rookery and a pair of Ospreys had returned to their regular nesting platform!

#118. Great Egret
#119. Osprey

(3/28) After not gaining any uncommon or rare year birds after the start of March, things began to turn around at the end of the month. On the 28th, my friend Vlad found a Red Throated Loon at Northwestern. Another tough bird in the spring, and it was in my patch! I headed over and quickly got the loon. It was easily the best look I've ever had at the species.

#120. Red Throated Loon
​

(3/29) I woke up to a text from Ben Sanders saying a Wild Turkey had been seen in southern Cook County. I'd already searched this area multiple times for turkeys with no luck, but with nothing better to do I figured I might as well take my chances. Wild Turkey is an extremely hard bird to find in the county because it's become so heavily urbanized, which is the opposite of their preferred habitat. I'd already spent the majority of the month in the far southernmost part of the county, constantly scouring the remote farmfields and woodlands of the area hoping one day I might be lucky enough to stumble upon one. This specific turkey was reported feeding along a roadside by itself, so I really wasn't at all expecting to find anything. There was no way it would still be around, right? Well, I couldn't be more happy to report that I was wrong. In my car from about a half mile away, I could see a massive game bird crossing the street ahead of me. No way... that was it! My Cook County year bird WILD TURKEY!!! Not only did I get the bird, but I found 3 other turkeys along with it! My best bird yet this year.

At that moment, I reached the high point of my big year- I was overcome with a huge sense of happiness and relief. From day 1, the thought of tracking down a turkey this year was associated with stress, uncertainty, and doubt to be honest. I had to sit in my car and wait 10 minutes for my adrenaline rush to calm down. The turkeys stayed 2 days for many other lucky birders to see.

​#121. Wild Turkey

]
To add onto my luck, I was greeted by a Field Sparrow in my backard when I got home to top of a good day!

#122. Field Sparrow

And there we have it. March is over, and spring is here. The best time for birding in Chicago is slowly creeping upon us. But before I conclude this post, there is something very important that I need to address.

As I had stated above, the entire Chicago lakefront, Montrose included, have been shut down completely to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. With peak birding just around the corner, this is extremely unfortunate for the Chicago birding community. The main migrant traps will more than likely not be accessible for the peak of spring migration in May. As a result, many people have been asking me how this will effect my big year and whether I plan on continuing. In short, my answer is yes, I will continue my big year. No matter the setbacks I face, I will absolutely not back down. This is a dream of mine, and I won't be able to do it again anytime soon since this is my last full year here before college. This disadvantage has already motivated me to push myself even harder.

​So how will this effect the year? I am going to miss some birds, and I've accepted that. Missing regular spring migrants aren't my main concern, it's missing rarities. As you all know, the lakefront tends to host an impressive amount of rare birds each spring. There is a lot of potential for annually occurring rarities in the spring that may not show up in other places this year. To name a few possible examples, birds like Laughing Gull, Lark Sparrow, and Prairie Warbler that I would hope to show up this year may not happen at all. Because of this, I am expecting some pretty big holes in my list until the fall. My shorebird list will probably remain short until August. I probably won't see easy birds like Ruddy Turnstone, Short Billed Dowitcher, or Willet until then. However, looking on the bright side of things, school is likely cancelled for the entire year. This gives me the opportunity to bird every day in April and May, and I hope to turn up some extra birds with my extra time. So far I've already done that in the first week of April. This is also a great excuse to explore some under birded areas that have the potential to harbor any rarities or other interesting finds. 

So overall, I have been put at a disadvantage for this year. I'll  continue to bird as hard as possible as long as I'm not putting myself and others at risk. I am still hoping to break 270 species which would put me on the top 5 for Cook County big years. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how this months plays out. My April goal will be 170.  For now, fingers crossed that the lakefront opens for at least some of May. April has already gotten off to a killer start, and I hope my good luck continues throughout the rest of the month. Until next time, please stay safe and healthy!

Good birding,
​Isoo

Hi everyone, It's crazy to think that two whole months have gone by already. Winter birding is beginning to wrap up around here as the first spring migrants are beginning to trickle into the Chicago area. From this point until summer, basically all of my new additions will be spring migrants- it's exciting to know that peak birding season (May) isn't all that far away! Anyways, let's talk February. February was overall a pretty uneventful month, I didn't add anything too unexpected though I had some really good days. By the end of the month I was at 101 species, just surpassing my goal of 100 which I knew would be challenging to reach. I started the month off strong in southern Cook County where the majority of the month's focus was. I was hoping if I made enough trips I'd stumble upon a Wild Turkey or a Ring Necked Pheasant, but unfortunately that never happened. On our first day off Simon and I went to Plum Creek where I added my first new bird of the month:

(2/2)

87. Eastern Bluebird

While cruising the road listening for anything of interest, I heard a Yellow Rumped Warbler chip so I pulled over, and that's when I heard the high pitched honking of Greater White Fronted Geese overhead! We looked up to see a flock of about 100 birds heading east. Surprisingly not a new bird, but definitely an exciting sight! Photo by Simon.

We spent the rest of the morning checking some agricultural areas around Matteson looking for pheasants and Lapland Longspurs. As I'd expected we found no pheasants, but lucked out with Lapland Longspurs finding a total of 150+ birds distributed between 3 different flocks!

88. Lapland Longspur

Our last stop of the day was the owl roost at Bartel Grassland where I added:

89. Great Horned Owl

(2/3) During the school day I got word of a Snowy Owl at 31st Street beach- a bird I knew I definitely had to go get. Steve Huggins confirmed the bird was still there late afternoon, so I sped over there after school. I got it almost instantly. It felt really relieving to get this bird as I was slightly worried none would show up on the lakefront this year. What a bird!
​
90. Snowy Owl

(2/7) On Friday after school I went to River Park and got a nice pair of Pied Billed Grebes.

​91. Pied Billed Grebe

(2/8) While birding in the morning I got word of a Northern Saw Whet Owl in palos that had been calling actively that morning. Saw whet is arguably Cook County's toughest regularly occurring wintering bird, and one that has definitely given me much trouble in the past. So of course, the Tolzmann's and I went down to palos that night also hoping to add Eastern Screech Owl and Barred Owl to our year lists. We started out owling in some other locations before trying for the saw whet, which tends to only call in the dead of night. After multiple uneventful stops, we finally got a few hoots out of a Barred Owl at Maple Lake!

92. Barred Owl

Saw whet time. Unlike my many other attempts, this one was filled with hope- I had actually just learned that this location was much more reliable than the previous places I'd been trying. However, despite my high hopes, I once again failed to get Northern Saw Whet Owl... frustrating! I'm sure the Great Horned Owl calling nearby definitely wasn't helping us.

(2/15) I took my first break from Cook County birding for the year to attend the IOS Gull Frolic, one of my favorite birding events of all time! As usual, we were awarded with crushing looks at uncommon wintering gulls and the opportunity to catch up with many people from the birding community. 

Adult and 2nd cycle Herring Gulls:

Adult Lesser Black Backed Gull:

(2/16) I decided to hit some south side hotspots to fill a few holes in my list. I started out by checking 4 historical roosting locations for Long Eared Owl, all to which held nothing. Next I went to Park 566 to look for Savannah Sparrow, a common bird but one of the very few year birds around that would be new for me. While searching, I spotted two big dark ducks flying past me and I realized they were either Surf or Black Scoters- they were Surf! An awesome bird and bonus for the month, and surprisingly my first time ever seeing Surf Scoters on Lake Michigan in the Spring. The birds touched down briefly before continuing north.

93. Surf Scoter

94. Savannah Sparrow

After that I went to Turning Basin #5 along the Calumet River hoping to see the continuing juvenile Lesser Black Backed Gull that's been hanging around, the only wintering gull missing from my list. When I got there things were looking pretty dismal; all the gulls were really far and there were hundreds of juveniles to pick through. But in the end, all went well because Amar Ayyash pulled up with a pickup truck full of bread and we chummed the gull in in no time. Thanks Amar!

95. Lesser Black Backed Gull

(2/20) After school I went to Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie to look for the resident Red Breasted Nuthatches. Never found them, but I still got my year bird dosage in for the day.

96. Common Grackle

(2/22) I made my first trip to Montrose this year hoping to catch a glimpse of some early spring migrants, but more importantly, I was holding out for the possibility that I might have a shot at my nemesis bird for the year, Long Eared Owl. Bob Hughes found one early the previous morning, and by the time I made it there after school the bird wasn't where he had it. Although it would be unlikely, I knew it definitely wasn't out of the question for the bird to come back to the same roost the next day. And that's exactly what happened!!! After 13 attempts at this bird, victory had never felt so sweet. Nemesis conquered. Huge thanks to Bob for getting me on it. Long Eared Owl!

​97. Long Eared Owl

With the SSW winds set up perfectly for goose migration, I went to Orland Grasslands in the southernmost part of the county where I hoped I could get lucky with some flyover Snow or Ross's Geese. To my surprise very few geese were moving and I got nothing of note besides a flyby Killdeer.

98. Killdeer

A stop at Cap Sauers in Palos yielded my year bird Pileated Woodpecker, which promply flew away before I got any photos. On the other hand, this Red Headed Woodpecker nearby was much more cooperative! A treat to see these two uncommon woodpecker species just a few trees apart.

99. Pileated Woodpecker

​Red Headed Woodpecker:

(2/23) I went to Wolf Lake in the morning, where it was clear that waterfowl migration was definitely under way! My trip was highlighted by singing Red Winged Blackbirds, 5 flyover Greater White Fronted Geese, and my first of the year Northern Shovelers! Nothing is more exciting then when you start to notice the first signs of spring! This is a photo of 4 different shovelers I had at Northwestern later in the afternoon:

​100. Northern Shoveler

(2/29) Another trip to Memorial Park Cemetery for the Red Breasted Nuthatches. This time, things were different. I got the bird pretty easily and it even sat still for me for over a minute!

And that's it for February! Like I said, nothing super spectacular happened, but March has already gotten off to an amazing start with birds #102 and #103 being my most exciting yet! Birds of the month go to Long Eared Owl and Snowy Owl; it really did feel amazing to finally get the Long Eared after so much work. See you in a month!

Good birding,
​Isoo

Number of species seen this month: 75
​Number of year birds gained this month: 16

Hi all! So as I'm sure many of you have already heard, I decided that in 2020 I'll be doing a Cook County bi​g year! Before we get into things, allow me to briefly introduce myself and explain my goal:

My name is Isoo O'Brien and I'm a 16 year old birder from Evanston, Illinois. I've been birding for almost 7 years now, but more intensely for the last 3. I've always had an interest in hardcore birding and listing, and that interest has intensified in the more recent half of my birding career as I've grown old enough to seek further birding opportunities, and as of last fall, finally get my driver's license. In 2018 I made my first valiant effort at a Cook County year list, ending with a total of 261 species. As respectable of a total that may be, I know I can push myself much further. Now that I can drive, this is the year where I truly test my limits. So, as a result, this year I will be going for 275 species in Cook County! The current record is 281 which was set by Aaron Gyllenhaal in 2013, a truly incredible total- without a good year for migration and vagrants it may even be impossible to break. However, that won't stop me from chasing the record, and I know my persistence won't waiver. Without further ado, join me on this crazy and incredible birding adventure!
​

I decided that I'll be posting long monthly recaps of my adventures- I'd love to post more, but the demands of Junior year and almost daily birding are already pretty demanding. I also would like to apologize in advance for the amount of crappy photos in this post; I hadn't originally planned on blogging so doc shots were my priority, but that will change for future posts.

This year has been an unusually warm winter here in Chicago, which has its advantages and disadvantages. Species that are usually scarce here in the winter become easier to find due to the warmer temperatures, which adds some interesting ticks to my list I might not have expected to add this early in the year. However, the disadvantages may outweigh the advantages; without consistent cold temps and ice, already difficult species become harder, and birds like ducks and gulls disperse as opposed to being concentrated in the few areas of open water. Birds don't rely on feeders like they usually do. The excellent cone crop in Canada doesn't help either, making it one of the worst irruptions for winter finches in several years. I probably won't add generally easy species like Pine Siskin, Red Breasted Nuthatch, Purple Finch or Common Redpoll until next winter, but it will be nice to have that cushion to hopefully carry me through to a strong finish when the time comes. Anyway that's enough said, lets jump into the action!

(1/1) I awoke to the sound of my alarm at 6:00 AM, adrenaline pumping through my body as I got ready to head to my first destination of the year, Chicago Botanic Garden. On the way there I picked up my first bird of the year:

1. Rock Pigeon :(

Although January may be one of the slowest times of the year for birding, it's one of the most fun times too, especially if you're doing a big year! The year list has reset, and no matter how common the species is it's always exciting to add it to your year list for the first time. Within my first few minutes at CBG, I got:

2. Canada Goose
3. American Robin
4. Downy Woodpecker
5. House Sparrow 
6. Cedar Waxwing
7. Black Capped Chickadee
8. American Goldfinch
9. White Throated Sparrow
10. Ring Billed Gull
11. Northern Cardinal
12. Dark Eyed Junco
13. House Finch
14. Mourning Dove
15. Mallard
16. Golden Crowned Kinglet

By now I met up with the Tolzmanns and we started looking for the wintering Northern Shrike that's been hanging out around Dixon Prairie. Not even a minute into the search I spotted the shrike fly into a tree. This is a great wintering bird that I didn't see at all last year, so naturally it felt good to add it to the list on day 1!

17: European Starling
18. Northern Shrike

​19. Herring Gull
20. Red Breasted Merganser
21. Common Goldeneye
22. Red Tailed Hawk
23. White Breasted Nuthatch

We then went to a preserve just east of CBG where I knew a family of Red Headed Woodpeckers was hanging out, another uncommon bird in Cook County. We got it almost instantly.

24. Red Headed Woodpecker

​Heading south, we made some stops along Forestway Drive at Skokie Lagoons where I hoped to add Bald Eagle and some other common waterfowl species. During a brief panic where I was tearing the car apart Iooking for my lost my car keys, (I found them eventually, phew!) we added our targets:

25. Hooded Merganser
26. Common Merganser
27. Red Bellied Woodpecker
28. Bald Eagle
​
A stop at Skokie Lagoons south of Willow Rd. yielded my first woodland birding of the year. Right off the bat the diagnostic chip note of a Yellow Rumped Warbler alerted me to its presence, quickly followed by a flyover Sharp Shinned Hawk and 3 calling Hermit Thrushes. The benefits of this year's warm winter were certainly evident here. These 3 species are fairly uncommon winter residents which become much easier to find in early Spring.

29. Yellow Rumped Warbler
30. Sharp Shinned Hawk
31. Blue Jay
32. Hermit Thrush

We stopped at some of my local patches in Evanston to search for a Winter Wren I found on the CBC a few days prior, as well as a Cackling Goose wintering in a cemetery a few blocks from my house. Continuing our good luck for the day, we got both!

33. Winter Wren
34. Hairy Woodpecker
35. American Crow
36. Bufflehead
​37 Cackling Goose

Heading south into the city we decided to stop at the Lincoln Park Zoo's duck pond and  Diversey Turning Basin along the Chicago River. The river's warm water inflow makes it a great place to look for uncommon wintering ducks, which is exactly what we found!

38. American Coot
39. Green Winged Teal
40. Northern Pintail
41. American Black Duck
42. Wood Duck

We then tried for a roosting Long Eared Owl and some other owls in the Palos area, but unfortunately to no avail due to unexpected strong winds. However, a pair of Short Eared Owls and multiple Northern Harriers graced the darkening sky at Bartel Grassland to conclude an overall great first day.

43. Northern Harrier
44. Short Eared Owl

I had until the 6th before I had to head back to school, so I continued to bird hard for the rest of the week. By the end of break I had over 70 species, which is the vast majority of our winter residents. 

(1/2) The next day I covered all of southern Cook County with my friend visiting from Indianapolis. We started in Calumet and made our way to Palos in the afternoon, ending with a total of 50 species! The warm weather definitely helped diversify our waterfowl list:

45: Ruddy Duck
46. Greater Scaup
47. Monk Parakeet
48. Northern Flicker
49. American Tree Sparrow
50. Lesser Scaup
51. Ring Necked Duck
52. Redhead
53. Canvasback
54. Gadwall
55. Mute Swan
​56. Double Crested Cormorant
57. Great Blue Heron
58. Tufted Titmouse
59. Cooper's Hawk
60. Song Sparrow
61. Brown Creeper
62. Trumpeter Swan

(1/3) I decided to chase some targets closer to home. I started at the North Shore Channel around the Evanston/Chicago border, adding Swamp Sparrow and Black Crowned Night Heron to the list.

63. Swamp Sparrow
64. Black Crowned Night Heron

Tom Lally was counting up to as many as 6 Merlins in St. Adalbert Cemetery in Niles, so that was my next stop. I only had 1, but it was nice to get suck great looks at this otherwise uncommon wintering falcon.

65. Merlin

​A quick stop at Chevalier Woods near O'Hare Airport got me an unexpected Carolina Wren! This is a tough bird in Cook County, only frequenting one area where it is already really tough to pin down.

66. Carolina Wren

​(1/4) Simon and I tried for another Long Eared Owl at Deer Grove. We looked around in the snow for over 3 hours to no avail, it honestly was a pretty miserable experience. My only addition that was an American Kestrel, but at least I avoided a 0 day.

67. American Kestrel

(1/5)

I decided to go back to Calumet with hopes of finding some of my missed targets and added:

68. Red Shouldered Hawk

​69. Iceland Gull
70. American Wigeon

I was under 10  minutes from home when Jeff Skrentny texted me saying he had a Greater White Fronted Goose at O'Brien Lock and Dam, just 5 minutes from where I was birding in Calumet earlier. Greater White Fronted Goose is a regular but very uncommon bird in the county, so of course I had to turn back around to make the near hour drive to O'Brien. I would probably have another shot at this species in the future, but on a big year one should never assume of second chances. If a rare/very uncommon bird is present then you should go, enough said. So glad I got the bird and didn't turn all the way back around for nothing, a strong way to end winter break!

71. Greater White Fronted Goose

(1/12) After not gaining any new birds during the week, this weekend treated me well. Our first burst of extreme cold had run its course the day before, and I was hoping that finally some gulls were pushed south with the colder temps. They were. I was on my way to the south side to check when I got a message saying there was a LeConte's Sparrow at Rainbow Beach! This small and elusive sparrow is a fairly uncommon migrant during spring and fall, but to have one in the dead of winter is extremely unusual. When I first got to Rainbow I immediately noticed the amount of gulls on the beach. An adult Great Black Backed Gull caught my attention, followed by a first cycle Glaucous Gull and multiple "Thayer's" type Iceland Gulls. When it comes to birding, weather is everything and will often determine the quality of your day, especially during migration. On top of that, I successfully got the LeConte's Sparrow, probably my most unexpected and out of season bird this month.

72. Great Black Backed Gull
73. Glaucous Gull

​74. LeConte's Sparrow

Saying the middle of January kicked my ass would be an understatement. From the 12th to the 25th I only added 2 birds despite all my effort. The most frustrating thing without a doubt has been Long Eared Owl. Within the last month I've gone for 3 different Long Eared Owls a total of 9 times (all of which have been 40 or more minutes away) and have never been successful despite frequent other sightings in between my several attempts. To further piss me off, my dad and I got back at 1:30 AM from a whole night of owling in Palos with NOT A SINGLE OWL despite perfect owling conditions. I've also gone for local screech and Great Horned Owl 3 times with no luck. At this point I'm guessing you're probably questioning my birding ability. Anyway, birding wouldn't be fun if you got everything, right? I'll go for the damn Long Eared Owl every day until I get it, and that's fine. On the bright side, my 2 additions during this time period were some pretty quality birds. Tundra Swan definitely ranks among one of my best birds this month.

75. Long Tailed Duck

​76. Tundra Swan

​(1/25-26)
Don't worry, my luck turned around and I had a crushing weekend to finish the month. On Saturday I added:

77. Belted Kingfisher
78. Eurasian Collared Dove

On Sunday morning during one of my attempts at the Long Eared Owl a Eurasian Tree Sparrow was found at Park 566- the first rarity of the year! I sprinted back to the car and made it to 566 as fast as I could. The bird was reported to be hanging out with a big flock of American Tree Sparrows on the North end, and when I arrived I immediately began to pick through them. However, due to the presence of multiple raptors in the area much of the flock had dispersed upon my arrival. I looked for an hour, and no Eurasian Tree Sparrow was to be found. I probably missed it by 5 minutes, which was extremely disappointing and frustrating. Despite this, I had an overall great day and had luck with almost every other target:

79: Peregrine Falcon
80. Sandhill Crane

​81. White Winged Scoter
82. Rough Legged Hawk

​83. Red Winged Blackbird
84. White Crowned Sparrow

​85. Brown Headed Cowbird
86. Horned Lark

And that was it for January! 86 is a January month record for Cook County, not to shabby, especially with no winter finches around! As for February, my priorities are going to be owls. When I'm not looking for owls I plan to be spending all my time in southern Cook County (starting tomorrow morning) looking for Ring Necked Pheasants, Wild Turkeys, and hopefully some white geese. These birds are extremely hard to find so it might be a total crap shoot, but the success of my year will depend on how many hard/rare birds end up on my list, so of course I'm gonna give it my best effort. Hopefully a much needed winter rarity will make an appearance this month as well! Making it my goal right now to be at 100 by the end of February. It will be hard, but I know I'll make it happen somehow, persistence is key.

See you in a month,
Good birding!


​Number of species seen this month: 86
​Number of year birds gained this month: 86

     On June first, Eddie Kasper, Henry Griffin, Ethan Ellis, and myself took on one of birding's greatest challenges; the Big Day! For those who may not be familiar with the term, a big day is a fast-paced hardcore day of birding in which participants try to find as many species as possible within a single day. Big days always take place within a specific geographic area, and in our case it was Cook County. As the birder who was most familiar with the area, I put together most of the schedule. Our route had us starting at 2:19 AM in the southwest suburbs, down to the southeastern most corner of the county, back up northwest, southeast again closer to the lake, up the lakefront from near Indiana to the north side of the city,  to the west side of the city, and finally back down to the southwest part of the county with much necessary zigzagging and backtracking in between. We set our goal at 110-115 species. At the end of the day we covered over 300 miles hitting 24 locations in 21.5 hours, and had one hell of a good day. Get ready for a long post!

      We awoke to the ringing of our alarms at the early hour of 1:56 AM, adrenaline pumping through our bodies despite running on 2 hours of sleep (Ethan going on none). First stop, Wolf Road Prairie. Two singing SEDGE WRENs and it's close relative the MARSH WREN were our first two birds of the day. After some effort, Miller Meadow produced a trilling EASTERN SCREECH OWL for us, a bird that has always proved to be reliable here on past big days. Moving south, we made a quick stop along Ford Rd at Cap Sauers for Barred Owl to no avail. We finished our nocturnal morning hours strong at Buttonbush Slough in Palos, with a grunting VIRGINIA RAIL, and to our surprise, a calling LEAST BITTERN! Our hopes were held high as the day was quickly approaching.

With first light quickly starting to brighten the sky and morning chorus picking up, we hit the ground running at Plum Creek Forest Preserve at 4:45 AM. Pulling off at the prairie area, we briefly glimpsed an AMERICAN WOODCOCK flying by, while the short "Tsi-lick" of numerous HENSLOW'S SPARROWs and descending song of FIELD SPARROWs echoed across the prairie. A few GRASSHOPPER SPARROWs and EASTERN MEADOWLARKs gave into the chorus, and a single DICKISSEL followed by a far off BOBOLINK completed our list for all expected grassland species. Continuing on into the woods, a male ORCHARD ORIOLE and a ROSE BREASTED GROSBEAK belched out their beautiful songs right in the parking lot, and Eddie's sharp eye got us all on a flyby BLACK BILLED CUCKOO! Our fast paced walk though the woods yielded the expected WOOD THRUSH, TUFTED TITMOUSE and ACADIAN FLYCATHER, followed by calling RED HEADED and PILEATED WOODPECKERs! Now that was a relief, considering the fact that these two woodpeckers are pretty unpredictable and not particularly easy at any location in Cook County. We wrapped up Plum Creek with a singing ALDER FLYCATHER and an extremely far off BLUE WINGED WARBLER, putting us at just over 60 species at 6 AM. Plum Creek is known for its spectacular variety of high quality breeding birds, and our list really reflected that. Moving on, a 7 minute stop at the Orland Grassland South parking lot had us a flyby BALD EAGLE and a BLUE WINGED TEAL on the pond. We considered the eagle a bonus, as we had no location for this species at any point in the day. Now in the Palos area again, we were back at Cap Sauers by 6:55. We picked up the OSPREY on it's nesting platform at Bergman Slough, followed by a singing SCARLET TANAGER and a YELLOW BILLED CUCKOO in the canopy. Unfortunately, we missed the expected Veery and Yellow Throated Vireo here as well as the Summer Tanager Eddie found while scouting a few days before. Thankfully, Swallow Cliff proved to be an excellent stop. Almost dismissed as one of the many singing CHIPPING SPARROWs in the parking lot, a pair a PINE WARBLERs started singing from the pines! Pine Warbler hasn't been recorded breeding in Cook County many years prior to this, so this was a really awesome pickup for our day. Within moments of heading into the woods, a VEERY gave it's namesake " veer-u veer-u veer-u" song and an extremely distant SUMMER TANAGER sang a few notes. Heading up the mud trail, the annually returning KENTUCKY WARBLER sang once for us as well as a YELLOW THROATED VIREO, clearing up all of our misses at Cap Sauers. We were on a roll, and if there was anything within sight and earshot we were getting on it. A quick stop at Pulaski Woods came up empty for Hooded Warbler, but we picked up our only BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER for the day. A few minutes at Little Red Schoolhouse added GREEN HERON, COOPER'S HAWK and a few other common birds to our list. We rolled out of the Palos area at 9:15 with just under 90 species. 

With the day warming up, things started to slow down as we rolled into Big Marsh in the Calumet area. For some reason, water levels were extremely high and the habitat had unfortunately come back unexpectedly poor this year. Despite our efforts, we amazingly failed to kick up a Sora, and missed American Coot and Pied Billed Grebe. We never got a Swamp Sparrow or Common Gallinule to call from the back of the marsh. However, multiple WILLOW FLYCATHERs sang "fitz-bew" and a MUTE SWAN flew over, one we were relying on here. With all our misses at Big Marsh, we decided that a quick stop at Hedgewisch Marsh would be worth it. On our way out, we played Sora out the window at Indian Ridge and finally got a response. Hedgewish provided a COMMON GALLINULE for us, but we came up empty again for the coot and grebe. We had to keep moving. We drove under the skyway on our way to Steelworker's Park, picking up MONK PARAKEET. Pulling up to the abandoned power station just west of the park, Ethan picked out an AMERICAN KESTREL, and the BELL'S VIREO was singing from his usual spot. The "che-beck" of a LEAST FLYCATHER yielded bird #100. We checked Rainbow Beach for RED BREASTED MERGANSER before departing the south side, and sure enough we found them! We left for the north side at 104 species.

Our next stop was North Avenue Turning Basin along the Chicago River, where we instantly picked up the continuing GREATER SCAUP, and even got lucky with a flyover PEREGRINE FALCON! This meant we wouldn't have to stop for this species later in the day, therefore we could use that time elsewhere. We high tailed it to Lincoln Park, where a fastwalk around the lilypool got us a CANADA WARBLER and a sprint through the zoo got us the long-staying AMERICAN WIGEON. Next stop, Montrose Point, where we hoped to add some lingering migrants to our day list. Let's just say we got more than a few. Basically jogging the entire way though Montrose, we started by picking up SANDERLING, DUNLIN, and a flock of more than 20 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS on the beach. Despite the date and heat of mid-day, the hedge was still hopping with warblers. Within our short 10 minute loop around the hedge, we picked up 12 species of warblers, including BLACK AND WHITE, CANADA, MOURNING, and BLACKPOLL. Upon departure, Eddie found us a amazing YELLOW BREASTED CHAT and the chip a of seriously late NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH alerted me to it's presence in the foliage. In an hour at Montrose we had 55 species, more than anyone else had that morning. Our 13 new additions at this location put us at 122, and it was only 3:50!

After stopping to eat at for the first time all day, we decided to change our plans. The current schedule had us going north for Prothonotary Warbler, Brown Creeper, Peregrine Falcon, Bald Eagle and Red Headed Woodpecker, but since we were having such a successful day we had all but 2 of those. Instead of going far out of the way for only 2 birds, we decided making a stop west near i94 would be a better use of time, and also get us back down south faster. The feeders we planned on stopping at were the only reliable place for Eurasian Collared Dove in the county. We also still needed House Finch, which would be a devastating miss. As if things couldn't get any easier, a EURASIAN COLLARED DOVE was the first bird we saw at the feeders, and a pair of HOUSE FINCHES were soon to follow. We headed south. Now amazingly ahead of schedule (this never happens on big days), we made a quick stop at Bemis Woods for another attempt at Hooded Warbler, but again, to no avail. We quickly picked up the YELLOW THROATED WARBLER in residential Westchester, and decided the smartest move would be to check Eggers Grove. There was a decent chance the pond may hold a grebe or a coot, and the Great Horned Owl chicks that just recently fledged should still be around. Storms began to form around us, and we were hit with heavy rainfall as we pulled up to Eggers. Scanning the pond for anything of interest, suddenly two juvenille GREAT HORNED OWLS flew in and landed right in front of us! Not only that, but we scoped out a PIED BILLED GREBE and BELTED KINGFISHER chattered from across the pond. 3 more birds in the bag baby! 

Grateful that the rain had let up, our ears filled with the last sounds of marsh and grassland birdsong as we watched the sun set over Bartel Grassland. The melodic trill of a SWAMP SPARROW was a nice surprise, making up for our miss at Big Marsh earlier. As light continued to fade, we decided to try for Wilson's Snipe. During breeding season snipes are pretty tough to find in Cook County, but if there was any place where one would be, it would be here. For about 20 minutes we played different recordings on and off, trying everything we could to get a response out of a bird. We were about to leave when we heard a "pik pik pik" come from across the grassland, and sure enough a WILSON'S SNIPE flew right over our heads! Bird #131, and another awesome addition for our day! At this point, the only two birds we could possibly get were Barred Owl and Common Nighthawk, so it was back to Cap Sauers for the third time. Eddie and Henry got a few hoots out of a BARRED OWL, but unfortunately Ethan and I missed it, making it our 2nd dirty bird for the day. A final stop for Common Nighthawk near Eddie's house came up with nothing. And with that, we decided to call it quits. It was almost 11 o'clock, and we were exhausted from and incredible day of birding. In total, we finished with 132 species, a total we had never even dreamed of getting. 132 is now the 2nd highest June county big day total for the state, Lake County's total being only 3 higher than ours with several more breeding birds. Huge thanks to Eddie's family for graciously hosting us. June 1st, 2019 was a day to remember, and I can't wait to see what next year's June big day will bring!


For the birds,

Isoo O'Brien

For the first time since my trip around the world in 2015, I left the country. My family and I went on a nine day trip to Mexico visiting 3 cities, Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende and Oaxaca. I somehow managed to go on 5 birding trips, the most I have ever gone on during a vacation. With more experience and more  birding opportunities, I picked up 135 species on my trip, more than than I did in Panama in 2015. We started off our trip with 2 nights in Mexico City and I was very lucky to be staying in a hotel next to a good park for birding, Bosque de Chapultepec. Here are some photos of the birds I saw...

 A bird that can also commonly be found in ​Illinois, NORTHERN SHOVELER:

Juvenile HERMIT WARBLER:

A HERMIT THRUSH taking a drink:

My favorite part of birding this park was seeing large numbers of warblers. Warblers are the most colorful family of birds in North America, and one of my favorite. Most of North America's warblers pass through Illinois every spring on their way to their breeding grounds in Canada and the northern U.S. After breeding in the summer, the warblers pass back through Illinois in the fall to escape the cold and spend the winter in the southern U.S, Mexico and Central America. So for me, seeing these warblers was extra special because not only are they beautiful, but they remind me of spring and warmer weather. In Mexico City we found many species of warblers, including Wilson's, Black Throated Green, Hermit, Townsend's, Yellow Rumped, Nashville, Orange Crowned, Black and White and my first ever BLACK THROATED GRAY WARBLER. This was my favorite bird I saw in Mexico City.

After 2 days in the city, we drove 3 hours north to the small mountain town of San Miguel de Allende. San Miguel de Allende has a population of about 60,000 people and is a popular tourist and retirement destination for Americans. I would say overall I enjoyed my experience here more than anywhere else in Mexico. I have always preferred small cities where I can get all of my resources yet still be close to nature; San Miguel de Allende was prefect for this because I really enjoyed the city and there were great birds. I did two birding trips here in very different habitats which provided a greater species variation. On our 2nd morning here I birded around Rio Laja, a lake surrounded by great bird habitat just outside the city. In just a little over an hour my dad and I managed to see 34 species. Here are some of the highlights from our morning:

My first ever CURVE BILLED THRASHER:

The only shorebirds I saw on the trip, LEAST SANDPIPERS:

 Probably the most common bird in San Miguel de Allende, the WHITE WINGED DOVE:​

This bird has one of the weirdest ways of killing its prey; this peculiar songbird feeds on lizards, small mammals and even other birds. How does it kill them? Sharing a similar diet to raptors but lacking a raptor's powerful talons, The LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE kills its prey by skewering it on sharp objects such as thorn bushes and barbed wire. Sadly we did not get to watch it feed, but we were awarded with great views.

Later in the afternoon we visited another birding spot, El Charco Botancio. El Charco is not your typical botanic garden, as it contains little to no trees and is almost all entirely cactus and scrub habitat  (basically like a desert) surrounding a large lake. I had not birded in this type of habitat before so I was fortunate enough to pick up several lifers. As soon as I walked in, I sportted this uncommon GRAY FLYCATCHER:

The most abundant bird here was this CLAY COLORED SPARROW, which is also a bird that passes through Illinois during migration:

This male VERMILLION FLYCATHCHER is on of the most common birds in Mexico and one of the most astonishing birds I have ever seen:

My lifer BROAD BILLED HUMMINGBIRD:

Another life bird of the trip for me was this WHITE COLLARED SEEDEATER:

Luckily for the 2nd time now, our hotel was in close to a local park that produced a few nice birds for me, some of which were lifers, including...
​
PLUMBEOUS VIREO:

VIOLET CROWNED HUMMINGBIRD:

During our stay here we spent the majority of our time walking around, here are some pictures I took during our long walks:

sOne night when we were walking to dinner I heard a loud and unmistakable shrill screech of a Barn Owl. Unfortunately I never found the bird, but it has one of the most bizarre calls I have ever heard. After I began walking again, 2 more birds called from a different direction. Even though I didn't see the bird it was still one of the coolest birding experiences I've ever had!

Oaxaca was the highlight of my birding experience in Mexico. In the 3 full days I had here, I saw over 100 species of birds and I gained over 30 lifers. We visited Monte Alban, one of the most famous archaeological sites of Mexico. Monte Alban is an ancient city (now ruins) built by the Zapotec and was believed to have been built in 600 BC. This was by far the coolest site we visited during our trip!

Not only was Monte Alban super cool, but it is one of Oaxaca's top birding locations. I feel like out of all places I visited in Mexico this spot had the most beautiful birds. Here are some photos:\

LADDER BACKED WOODPECKER:

ELEGANT EUPHONIA, a bird on my bucket list for this trip:

BEWICK'S WREN singing:

 Beautiful male SCOTT'S ORIOLE:

My sister and my mom left a day early to return to Chicago to see Hamilton, which meant me and my dad got an extra day in Oaxaca to bird with our fantastic guide, Roque Antonio Martinez.

I had set myself a goal for the day of 100 species, mainly because I have tried for 100 twice before and had fallen short both times, seeing only 98 species. I was truly hoping to break 100 on this day!

Our plan was to visit a variety of habitats, starting out in the thorn forest valley, followed by birding wetlands and highlands. My #1 target for the trip was the Mexican endemic the Red Warbler. Wish me luck!

Roque had an incredibly sharp eye and ear, and as soon as we stepped out of the car he spotted this BRIDLED SPARROW:

GRAY BREASTED WOODPECKER:

BOUCARD'S WREN:

BLACK VENTED ORIOLE:

NUTTING'S FLYCATCHER

WHITE TAILED KITE:

We then walked to a small lake picking up several species of ducks and other water birds. Highlights included large numbers of Blue Winged Teal, Northern Pintail and a very uncommon CINNAMON TEAL. We were also fortunate to pick up many of these LEAST GREBES, the worlds smallest grebe.

With the day warming up and the morning hours disappearing, we moved upward in elevation to a reservoir. Roque spotted an uncommon TUFTED FLYCATCHER, a lifer for me. As we were on our way out, this beautiful ROCK WREN sat right along the side of the road and I was able to capture a nice shot, probably my favorite pics from our trip:

​We then moved on to the highlands with 70 species on our day list. Because the mountains have different birds, we had a good chance at obtaining 100 species. Once again our list began to grow, and we ticked off beautiful birds such as this SLATE THROATED REDSTART:

GRAY SILKY FLYCATCHERS:

After a quick stop in the village of Benito Juarez for lunch, we continued up the mountain where we found a large variety of new species. We picked out both Hermit and Townsend's Warblers, GRAY BARRED WREN and even my first ever CRESCENT CHESTED WARBLER! Sadly, it was at this spot when I missed two very good birds (one of which was the rarest of the day). But it was at that moment when I caught a flash of red among the treetops, and I knew there was only one possibility; the RED WARBLER! A few moments later, the bird emerged from the foilage and showed off its white cheek patches and long down-curved bill, setting it apart from any other warbler.

After adding BLACK HEADED GROSBEAK and RUFOUS CAPPED BRUSHFINCH to out list, we headed back down the mountain toward the city when I realized we were only at 94 species. I was heartbroken.

After saying our goodbyes to Roque, I realized we still had a chance. There was a local botanic garden down the street, but we were only allowed to enter with a tour guide, and thank god there was a tour about to begin. There was one small problem, however; since a group tour was mandatory, we couldn't exactly run off and find birds. To make things worse, there was a guy named Alfonso who's job was to "monitor" the group and make sure everyone stayed together. Anytime we started to trail behind Alfonso, herded us back to the pack. Still, we had added a few more good birds to our list.

Shortly after we arrived, a Rufous Backed Robin sat atop a tree, and a YELLOW HEADED PARROT flew over. At one point, I thought I saw what could have potentially been an Orchard Oriole, so when Alfonso wasn't looking I attempted to make a mad dash towards the bird only to be dragged back in the opposite direction. A PEREGRINE FALCON darted overhead. It was about 30 minutes before dark, and we were at 97 species. Our last species of the day was a male BALTIMORE ORIOLE that I could just barely make out in the last moments of daylight. Once again, I had ended a big day at just 98 species! If only I had turned around a second sooner in the mountains, I would have seen the Band Tailed Pigeons and Chestnut Sided Shrike Vireo (which both my dad and Roque saw!) and reached my goal. Despite that, we had an incredible day of birding. Roque was a fantastic birding guide!

The travel day home was probably the worst travel day I have ever had. My dad and I experienced nearly 8 hours of being delayed (5 hours of which was waiting in lines) followed by a 4 hour layover in Houston. With time to kill in the Oaxaca airport, my dad and I birded around a little outside picking up ORCHARD ORIOLE and MONK PARAKEET, two species we had not seen during the trip bring our final total up to 135. This is the most successful I have ever been when it comes to birding in a foreign county, and I gained over 50 lifers from this one trip!

Life List: 875

* indicates lifer

Full Species List:

Blue Winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Green Winged Teal
Ring Necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Ruddy Duck
Least Grebe 
Pied Billed Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Cattle Egret
Black Crowned Night Heron
Yellow Crowned Night Heron*
White Faced Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
White Tailed Kite*
Cooper's Hawk
Red Tailed Hawk
American Coot
Black Necked Stilt
American Avocet
Killdeer
Least Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Ring Billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared Dove
Inca Dove
White Winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Barn Owl
Vaux's Swift*
Mexican Violetear*
Blue Throated Hummingbird*
Broad Billed Hummingbird*
Berylline Hummingbird*
Violet Crowned Hummingbird*
White Eared Hummingbird*
​Belted Kingfisher
Green Kingfisher*
Gray Breasted Woodpecker*
Golden Fronted Woodpecker
Red Naped Sapsucker*
Ladder Backed Woodpecker*
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Crested Caracara*
American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Monk Parakeet
Yellow Headed Parrot*
Tufted Flycather*
Greater Pewee*
Least Flycather
Gray Flycather*
Dusky Flycather*
PIne Flycather*
Black Pheobe
Say's Pheobe
Vermillion Flycatcher
Ash Thoated Flycather*
Nutting's Flycather*
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Cassin's Kingbird*
Rose Throated Becard
Loggerhead Shrike
Blue Headed Vireo 
Plumbeous Vireo*
Steller's Jay
Northern Rough Winged Swallow
Violet Green Swallow
Brown Creeper
Rock Wren*
Canyon Wren*
Bewick's Wren*
Gray Barred Wren*
Boucard's Wren*
Gray Breasted Wood Wren*
Blue Gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
Brown Backed Solitare*   HO
Hermit Thrush
Rufous Backed Robin*
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Curve Billed Thrasher*
Northern Mockingbird
American Pipit
Gray Silky Flycather*
Black and White Warbler
Crescent Chested Warbler*
Orange Crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
MacGillivray's Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow Warbler
Yellow Rumped Warbler
Black Throated Gray Warbler*
Townsend's Warbler
Hermit Warbler
Black Throated Green Warbler
Rufous Capped Warbler*
Wilson's Warbler
Red Warbler*
Slate Throated Redstart*
White Collared Seedeater*
Bridled Sparrow*
Grasshopper Sparrow
Clay Colored Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Canyon Towhee*
White Throated Towhee*
Collared Towhee*
Rufous Capped Brushfinch*
Hepatic Tanager*
Summer Tanager
Western Tanager
Black Headed Grosbeak
Blue Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Black Vented Oriole*
Orchard Oriole
Bullock's Oriole
Scott's Oriole*
Baltimore Oriole
Great Tailed Grackle
Elegant Euphonia* 
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch
House Sparrow.

​135 total
​51 lifers total

ABA's Camp Colorado was definitely one of the best birding experiences I have ever had. In total we saw 125 species and I made several new friends and many memories along the way. Below is a highlights video of our experience, so I am going to make the writing in this post brief. On July 16, I flew out to Denver and was picked up camp director Jennie Duberstein at the gate, where I met the rest of the campers. Soon after, we piled into the van and headed to The YMCA Of The Rockies in Estes Park, where we would stay for the next week. Our daily schedule looked a lot like this:

• Wake up before sunrise for a full morning of birding usually from around 6 AM to mid-afternoon
• Breakfast in the field
• Arrive back at the Y for lunch and/or free time, where we did things like more birding, play outside, or socializing
• Workshop (learning about things to make us better birders) or bird banding
• Dinner
• Owling and/or evening program given by a camp counselor

We visited a new habitat each of the 5 days in search of new birds. Here are the places we went and what habitats they offered:

• Day 1. Wild Basin (moutain birding in Rocky Mountain National Park)
• Day 2. Pawnee National Grassland and Fossil Creek Reservoir 
• Day 3. Upper Beaver Meadows and Hidden Valley (more mountain birding)
• Day 4. Medicine Bow Curve (looking for birds of the tundra at 12,000 ft)
• Day 5. Rabbit Mountain (foothills birding)

In total, I gained 14 life birds putting my life list at 816. I loved this experience. It was one of the few times where I am able to meet others my age who share the uncommon interest of birding because few of my friends understand it. Usually, I end up birding on my own or with my dad who is not so much of a birder as someone who enjoys being outside; so, the highlight for me was being around others like me with the same interest and being able to bird with them. Anyway, please enjoy this video I put together consisting of the highlights of camp!