July 2007

Sunday was another excellent day of birding. I was able to bird again with Dan Williams and his wife Barbara. We birded Anna Page Park, a great piece of land of the Rockford Park District. I had only birded the park a couple times before but will return many more times for sure!

My goal was to get a picture of a White-eyed Vireo that was just recently found by the Williams. The vireo was rediscovered but decided to spend his time singing high up in the trees instead of skulking down low. No photograph was possible.

Our hike yielded many wonderful birds including a Bell’s Vireo, a bird I have only seen once before (also in Winnebago County). In total we saw all five possible July vireos (Red-eyed, Yellow-throated, Warbling, White-eyed, & Bell’s) and six flycatchers (Acadian, Willow, Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Wood-Pewee, & Great-crested).

Willow Flycatcher

Acadian Flycatcher

Eastern Kingbird Nest

Eastern Kingbird, annoyed that we were walking below nest (on trail)

- Birdfreak

On Saturday I had the wonderful opportunity to bird with Dan Williams. Our destination was Afton Forest Preserve, a nicely restored farmland in DeKalb County, Illinois. This avian oasis has been the location of numerous rarities including Vermillion Flycatcher, a bird I saw a few years back while attending college at N.I.U.

Our target bird was an American Avocet that had been sighted two days earlier. Unfortunately, we did not relocated the Avocet but I was happy to learn lots of info about identifying shorebirds. Especially in our county, Winnebago, there is a great lacking of shorebird habitat, so opportunities to study shorebirds are limited.

We did find a nice mixture of shorebirds, including both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs and Short-billed Dowitchers among others.

Lesser Yellowlegs

There were plenty of other birds flying about including Green Herons, Sedge Wrens, and a LOT of Great Egrets.

- Birdfreak

One of the main reasons we decided to visit Horicon Marsh in July (other than the fact that it is always great birding) was to find shorebirds. Our list wasn’t very big, but Veery got a lifer, the Short-billed Dowitcher. We also saw Solitary, Semi-palmated and Spotted Sandpipers, Lessor Yellowlegs, and lots of Killdeer.

Lessor Yellowlegs (above) and a pissed off Killdeer (below)

There were plenty of Black Terns flying all over the marsh and only a couple of Forster’s Terns. Our trip in May gave us the opposite. We also spotted young Common Moorhens, American Coots, and Blue-winged Teals.

Black Terns (above) and Common Moorhen Juveniles (below)

We saw a lot of young birds out of the nest, being fed by parents. Black Terns, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, and an Eastern Wood-Pewee were busily gathering food for hungry young.

Eastern Wood-Pewee young (above) and an adult Yellow-headed Blackbird (below)

A wonderful day at Horicon Marsh, a lucky Friday the 13th of birding!

Born on July 16th, 1910 in London, David Lambert Lack is considered one of the pioneers of population biology. He who wrote many popular books on birds and their behavior, such as The Life of the Robin.

Much of what we know about robins is thanks to an amateur ornithologist called David Lack (1911-1973). In the 1930s, Lack, a school teacher in Dartington, South Devon, devoted his spare time to observing local robins. His study led to a classic work of natural history, “The Life Of The Robin”, published in 1943. –ICONS A Portrait of England

When he was twenty-eight, he spent an entire year in the Galapagos Islands, studying birds. He wrote Darwin’s Finches: An Essay on the General Biological Theory of Evolution, describing the14 specialized species of finch that evolved from an original invading flock of ordinary seed-eating finches.
From 1945 until 1973, when he passed away, David Lambert Lack was the director of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Oxford.

Great Egrets at Horicon Marsh

The Birdfreak Team set out to explore Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin, to see what late July had to offer. We last visited Horicon Marsh on Mother’s Day and were excited to see how much had changed over two months.
There was much more plant growth and we found many prairie and wetland flowers in full bloom, such as this Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium).

We noticed that there were many more Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons this time around, as well as Black-crowned Night-Herons and Green Herons.
Earlier in the week, a Little Blue Heron was discovered, a rare find for Horicon Marsh. A local birder we ran into told us that the Little Blue was seen earlier that morning, but unfortunately, we missed him.

Three of the four Black-crowned Night-Herons we saw along Highway 49

There were many Sandhill Cranes flying around and calling. We spotted a lovely couple on Dike Road, one of the dirt roads that take you into a part of the marsh. Here we also spotted a pair of Northern Harriers and plenty of Double-crested Cormorants.

Sandhill Cranes (above) and Double-crested Cormorant (below)

We also saw quite a few American White Pelicans, and a few Canada Goose. Stay tuned for the “Little Birds” of our Horicon Marsh trip.

American White Pelicans (above) and Great Egrets (below)

I and the Bird #53 is out and they are celebrating two years of this bird-loving carnival for bloggers…or is it blog-loving carnival for birders? Either way, we hope to be part of many future editions. This carnival really brings all of the bird bloggers together, especially since the ever-growing community is hard to keep up with. This edition was great as always, and we love reading them. Soon, we will be hosting one as well!

So here is an unrelated picture of a newly-fledged baby bird to celebrate another cool edition of I and the Bird! (We think it is a Red-eyed Vireo based on adult vireos reacting nearby.)