An afternoon at air station prairie

Today I had a wonderful birding trip to Air Station Prairie in Glenview. There have been many interesting shorebirds here that I was trying to find. I had many target birds including Lesser Yellowlegs, Least sandpiper, Virginia Rail, Semipalimated Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper Solitary Sandpiper. I approached 2 ponds as I walked in where I saw at least 30 shorebirds. Immediately, I got great looks at this SOLITARY SANDPIPER! Life bird 181!  

For most of the time, I tried to identify many sandpipers at both ponds. some were to far out to make out using my binoculars, but I did identify a few shorebirds such as this KILLDEER, which was common at the prairie.

Just minutes later, I identified my first LESSER YELLOWLEGS! Life bird 182 (no picture though)! These birds have clear yellow legs slightly taller than the killdeer and the solitary sandpiper. Just before we had to leave, I checked one of the ponds and saw the VIRGINIA RAIL! Life bird 183! I was lucky to get just feet away from the rail and get a nice shot of it (see below)!

At the end of the day I was super exited to see 3 life birds! The bird of the day goes to the Virginia rail, which was a treat. It was a great day of birding!

Life List 183 (3 new life birds today)

Birds seen birding today

Virginia rail 1 LIFE BIRD!

mallard 10 

lesser yellowlegs 2 LIFE BIRD

solitary sandpiper 2 LIFE BIRD

barn swallow 1

song sparrow 1

cedar waxwing 1

mourning dove 2

American goldfinch 5

killdeer 10

eastern kingbird 5

red winged blackbird 10