Today I went on a field trip with my birding club to Starved Rock State Park to search for gulls and Bald Eagles on the Illinois River.
Once we got there we went up to the lock by the dam on this balcony overlooking the river. It was really windy but not as cold as yesterday’s below zero temperatures. There were tons of Herring Gulls and Bald Eagles. There were tons of different plumages of juvenile Bald Eagles. There were also a lot of Common Mergansers, a few Common Goldeneyes, one Redhead, a Red-breasted Merganser and some Canada Geese.
One of the trip leaders from my bird club Dan Williams spotted a Thayers Gull and I hurried to get a look. This was a life bird for me! I was very excited to finally see one.
We also watched a barge come into the lock. It was pushing and breaking ice to get in and as it was coming in gulls and eagles were swooping around catching and grabbing fish. It was really cool.
Although it was pretty cold, I was so glad that I went on the field trip.
One of the many Bald Eagles we saw - Photo by Birdfreak
5 comments ↓
Dakota - sounds like an awesome trip today. Wish I could have been there!
“One of the many bald eagles” you say….thats one ill never see down here, good for you! nice photo also!!!
happy birding
You did get the Bald Eagle . . Congrats!
Gulls are hard for me. I’d need someone to point out a Thayer’s Gull to me! Congrats on a new lifer.
[…] Eddie took a lot of photos, but I did not take any this time. It was exciting to see a new bird in the middle of January, and this is my second lifer this year! My other lifer was a Thayer’s Gull. […]
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