picnic at Montrose

At eleven thirty my family and I arrived at Montrose Point in Lincoln Park Chicago for a wonderful picnic with the Griffin family. Henry Griffin and I started walking through the magic hedge, looking for a female black throated blue warbler which should have been in Canada since June. Henry and looked for the warbler but did not find the bird which was one of our target birds. Henry and i made our way up to to the beach to look for a large shorebird called a willet, which was previously reported on July 18. On our walk up to the beach we did find some cool birds such as EASTERN PHEOBE, NORTHERN ROUGH WINGED SWALLOW, followed by a few EASTERN KINGBIRDS. We made our way to the beach where there were no Willets. After lunch, Henry and I went birding again. In the dune area I saw a SONG SPARROW and a few more SPOTTED SANDPIPERS such as this guy spotted near the lakefront.

Henry and I decided to check the beach again for shorebirds. We arrived at the lakefront and saw WILLETS!  Life bird 180! We did not find 1, but we saw 6 of them! Here is a photo of the willets.

At the end of the day I was very happy to add a bird to my life list and see one of our target birds for the day. It was a great birding experience!!!

Bird list for Picnic at Montrose
eastern pheobe 
ring billed gull
herring gull
caspian tern
american goldfinch 
red winged blackbird
spotted sandpiper
gray catbird
northern cardinal
downy woodpecker
killdeer
common grackle
northern rough winged swallow
brown headed cowbird 
song sparrow
WILLET LIFE BIRD!
mallard
house finch
purple martin
cedar waxwing
american robin
house sparrow
great blue heron
 
Total 23 species. Life list 180 (1 new life bird today)