Spring Count Preview – Harris’s Sparrow

While scouting for our upcoming Spring Bird Count (Sat, May 10) we checked out a cool area that we’ve never been – Rockton Bog. This “bog” is actually a sedge meadow but it was plenty wet, yet a bit devoid of birds.

Cool fern at the Rockton Bog

We checked out a few other areas to get our bearings for tomorrow’s big day before heading to a local gem, Severson Dells Forest Preserve, where there were reports of Harris’s Sparrow and Summer Tanager (both rather rare in our area).

There was no sign of a Summer Tanager but the Harris’s Sparrow showed up immediately!

This was through a window so the quality wasn’t so great

This is a lifer for Birdfreak and will hopefully stick around for tomorrow’s count (although this is actually not in our counting area so hopefully someone else finds it).

We plan on being thoroughly exhausted after tomorrow but hopefully will have tons of birds to report (although perhaps not many photos since we will be “extreme” birding).

Tagged as: Harris's Sparrow