Summer Recap

OK, summer may be “officially” over but we are supposed to be getting some 80 degree weather and the upcoming week looks nice and warm (70s & 80s). So we thought we’d do a quick recap of some of the highlights of the past summer before going outside to enjoy a mini summer rebirth.

Blue-headed Vireo making us wish summer would never end

June

• We rediscovered a gem of a birding hotspot in our county, Deer Run Forest Preserve. Here we found numerous Henslow’s, Grasshopper, Savannah, Lark, Vesper, Song, Chipping, and Field Sparrows, including a couple of videos.

July

• Birdfreak had the chance to bird with some Birding Pals from out-of-state: San Diego, CA and Boulder, CO
• We visited Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin, a combination State Wildlife Area and National Wildlife Refuge (supported by Duck Stamps of course). We found a lot of big birds as well as some really nice small birds.

August

• We gave you ten reasons to bird in Illinois, although there are many more!
• We also hosted I and the Bird for the first time
• Some major storms brought a lot of rain and some serious flooding
• Veery spent some time birding in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.
• Arizona, our new Doberman, went camping for the first time

September

• We attended the Midwest Birding Symposium, Dakota got a lot of life birds, and we went on some amazing bird-filled hikes.
• The highlight of the summer, we got to go birding with Kenn Kaufman
• We saw the Green-breasted Mango just over the border into Wisconsin