Rose-breasted Grosbeak
To complete our 72 hour birding event we hit up one of our favorite birding locations, Sugar River Forest Preserve. This is a great location for warblers, flycatchers, and a nice variety of wonderful birds. We added a Blackburian Warbler, Acadian Flycatcher, and Red-shouldered Hawk. We struck out on Hooded Warbler and any other empidonax flycatchers (Least, Yellow-bellied, & Willow).
Lupine at Colored Sands
After Sugar River we moved on to Colored Sands to check out what birds had been banded at the Sand Bluff Bird Observatory. They had a few birds to add to our list including a Wilson’s Warbler, a bird we would later find at Nygren Wetlands. Up on the hill we heard a Black-billed Cuckoo calling! We hiked aways back to hear it better but could not sight it.
We headed to Nygren Wetlands to try and find a nesting Orchard Oriole (success) and also found a Black-throated Green and Blackpoll Warbler.
Pending any further sightings from area birders, our total list for the birding bonanza stands at 123 species.
123…I know you said in another post that your list may of been limited because you were ill, but a great list none the less. I don’t know if I’m ready for a 72 hour extravaganza yet, but partly because of yours I’m feeling a “Big Day” coming on.
Vern
123 seems pretty good to me but what do I know.-Looks like you saw some nice birds.
O my goodness, 123 species! BRAVO!
Thanks all! We are plenty happy with 123. We’ll see how it ranks with other counties in the inland county category. We’ll try again next year and hopefully top 130!!