We left Erie, Pennsylvania and headed to Allegany State Park where Mon@rch (Tom) lives. Tom is cool and really smart. We met in the parking lot and went for a short hike to look for Prairie Warblers.
We didn’t find any Prairie Warblers but it was fun. We went to the park station to check it out. Then I got the chance to do something very exciting! I got to help Tom band five baby Eastern Bluebirds!! I took them out of the box, and even got to put a band on one of them. One baby pooped in my hand.
Mon@rch helping me band baby Eastern Bluebirds - photo by Birdfreak
I learned how to tell male and female babies apart by looking at the color of their wings. I found out that if the color is in between you record a U which means you can’t tell if it is male or female.
Tom asked a guy to take a photo of us all together. It was a great way to end our visit, which was too short. I liked hanging out with Mon@rch and we all had the best time.
My uncle (Birdfreak) was asked to participate in an event for Swarovski Optics and me and my Grandpa came along and made into a ten-day trip. I was so excited!!
We left at 3 in the morning from Rockford, Illinois and drove and drove…and drove. Along the way we stopped at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio.
We walked along a boardwalk that was very high up. I am a little scared of heights…okay, a lot afraid of heights and it was scary! But the view was cool and we saw Brandywine Falls, a very high waterfall.
We went birding at Hemlock Draw in Sauk County Wisconsin. We hiked to Honey Creek and found Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Acadian Flycatchers and Cedar Waxwings. We also found cool insects, frogs, and fish. I really enjoyed hiking along the bank and exploring the creek.
The cool bug that I found was a Water Srider. What I learned from my Kaufman insect guide is that four of their legs are long to stride on the water and two are small and not very visible. At first I thought they had eight legs until we got home. Kaufman’s book said: “What appears to be a water strider with eight visible legs will actually be a mating pair.” So, there are actually two of them in the photo below!
“Eight Legs” of (two) Water Strider(s) by Birdfreak
As we were hiking back to the car to eat lunch we found a Hooded Warbler right off the trail. It was really angry at us for disturbing it and I wondered if it had a nest close by.
While looking for waterbirds in flooded farm fields (fuddles), A large bird flew by. I immediately knew it was a tern because I saw Forster’s Terns and Black Terns at Horicon Marsh. The bill sticks out in a unique way and the colors are so bright and great.
My uncle helped me with the identification and THIS IS A LIFER FOR ME!! Two of them flew right over us and then they were gone.
This summer we have had a lot of rain. A lot of farm fields are flooded which sandpipers, Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets and other waterbirds love. Frogs seem to love it to because my and my cousin Sammie saw (and caught) a lot of them and there were many different types.
We also saw a family of Sandhill Cranes. They had one baby and were eating in a field. I love Sandhill Cranes and they are one of my favorite birds. There were also two more cranes in another field.
The American Robin is such a common bird that birders don’t seem to notice it sometimes. But in the winter, an American Robin is really exciting to see and when they first arrive in your yard, it is great.
It is fun seeming them eat worms, especially when they bite a worm and start hopping around to pull it out of the ground. I love to see the baby birds because they are cute and different from the adult.
The robin’s song is heard really early in the morning and really late at night. I love to hear them when I am camping. Their song is the best to wake up to.
My uncle Eddie made a video of an American Robin with music and let me add it to my post. I think this video is very funny.
On July 2nd, I went with my cousins and Grandparents to northern Wisconsin. On July 3rd, we went to Bayfield, Wisconsin to go on a ferry ride to Madeline Island, one of the Apostle Islands.
Madeline Island is located at the very northern point of Wisconsin on Lake Superior. It is the largest Apostle Island. The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is a scenic archipelago of 22 islands surrounding the northern tip of Wisconsin’s Bayfield Peninsula.
We saw about ten Double-crested Cormorants. A couple of them were flying but the rest of them were perched on a breakwater, preening. They were beautiful. There were also noisy Ring-billed Gulls and maybe some were Herring Gulls. They were all over, at least a hundred of them!
The ferry ride was pretty cool. It was the first time I ever rode a ferry. We drove our car right on to the boat. I really love Lake Superior.
I saw this Yellow-breasted Chat at Rock Cut State Park as a storm was beginning. There was a lot of lightning which scared Bandit, my aunt Susie’s dog that we were dog-sitting. The chat was flying around and it landed two times allowing me and my uncle Eddie to get really cool photos of it.
It hovered in one place which was cool to see. I think it was neat that we saw the Yellow-breasted Chat from the car. We never did hike much because of the storm. I also got a Yellow Warbler photo on this same trip.
On June 28th my mom and uncle and I went to Seward Bluffs Forest Preserve. One of the cool birds we saw was a Dickcissel. We saw tons of them! The coolest bird we saw probably was the Lark Sparrow.
On Saturday June 21st I went to Deer Run Forest Preserve to do another prairie study. The first thing I noticed was that some of the prairie was mowed. Sadly I found a part of a bird nest.
Last week at the bird field trip some people found a type of knapweed that is really invasive. I think that’s why they mowed it. Where it wasn’t mowed, I found Purple Coneflowers.
Purple Coneflowers where they didn’t mow - Birdfreak
The next thing I noticed was a stack of boxes for bees. I saw bees coming in and out of the bottom. I am going to find out why they are at this forest preserve.
I didn’t see any new birds on the survey, but my uncle helped me identify a butterfly we found, a Great Spangled Fritillary. It was a wonderful day and the weather was really great.
I am a young birder in northern Illinois. These are my birding and traveling stories. I am learning photography and all photos are mine unless otherwise noted.
