72-Hour Birding Event – Day Two
May 19, 2007
Article in: Bird Conservation
Eastern Kingbird
On day two of our 72-hour Birding craze, we added 22 more species.
Early this morning, the Birdfreak Team headed out to Nygren Wetlands to find Soras and Sandhill Cranes (success!). We missed the Marsh Wren and Orchard Oriole that had been spotted there earlier in the week, but plan to go back tomorrow. As a bonus we saw Bobolinks.
After the wetland walk, we headed on to Rockford Park District’s BioBlitz at Anna Page Conservation Forest in Rockford Illinois. We added a few new species to our growing list: Broadwing Hawk and Hairy Woodpecker and also saw another Yellow-breasted Chat.
Fellow birder Jack Armstrong spotted a Kentucky Warbler and Mourning Warbler. After a rather long afternoon break (we were feeling a little ill from ultra-birding), we traveled back to Deer Run Forest Preserve (one of our stops yesterday) and headed to the big field.
Sparrow Jackpot!
Grasshopper Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Savanna Sparrow
We also saw Henslow’s, Field, Swamp, Song, White-crowned, and Lark Sparrows.
Socks patiently waiting for the sparrow fiesta to end
Our total list is growing!
72-Hour Birding Event – Day One
May 18, 2007
Article in: Bird Conservation
In the wee hours of the morning began the Birdfreak’s 72-hour Birding Weekend. We are entering Winnebago County, Illinois in America’s Birdiest City/County contest. As far as we know, this is the first time our county has been entered.
One of our highlights was a Cerulean Warbler.
Why are we doing this? Our main reason is to promote the “birdiness” of Winnebago County. Our other main reason is to find habitat types that are missing within the county, and then do something about it. We have noticed that shorebird habitat is one of these areas that we don’t have much of.
Olive-sided Flycatcher was another highlight.
So far we are up to 84 species with a lot of area left to cover. Some of our favorites of the day were Yellow-breasted Chats, Yellow-throated Warblers, a Chestnut-sided Warbler and a Canada Warbler. Two more days to go and plenty more to find….we are still a ways from our goal of 150 species.
We were lucky to find plenty of Baltimore Orioles!
Our total list is growing!
