To kick off the month of May and all its glorious migrating birds I birded Saturday morning (May 1st) with Tim Young, my closest friend since 2nd grade. We hit up two forest preserves in Winnebago County and were pleased to find several great birds.
The biggest highlights for photography purposes were a Blue-winged Warbler (who “bee-bzzzed” at us and was curious of my pishing) and a fantastic Red-headed Woodpecker.
Blue-winged Warbler
Red-headed Woodpecker
We heard or saw several other warbler species including Prothonotary and Yellow-throated but those were too hard to photograph. We also found a pair of Hooded Mergansers but no young. Two years ago on the Spring Bird Count (which is next Saturday) Tim found a pair of Hoodeds with several chicks.
Hooded Mergansers
Wood Ducks
We also found several shorebirds including two Solitary Sandpipers. As I set to take a few shots of these birds a Common Grackle crash-landed in front of them, stealing the shot.
Migration is here and we love it! And in a few days we’ll be at Magee Marsh for the first time, hopefully inundated with warblers and all sorts of migrant birds!!
This is so exciting! I’ve now been a birder since, let’s see, last Tuesday, and I saw some of those warblers. Any chance I’ll remember them in another week? I’ll work on it.
Murr – Awesome!! Birding definitely gets easier over time by just looking and learning all the time. And to me the learning part is probably the most fun. That and getting unbelievable looks of wicked cool birds 🙂
Awesome photos, love the Blue Winged Warbler and the Redheaded Woodie is gorgeous. Great sightings. I must be having trouble posting comments here, I hope this comment doesn’t disappear.
Awesome captures Eddie! The Blue-winged Warbler is exquisite and I love the shots of the Redhead, especially the “escape” shot. The Hoodies are always fun to watch and the Wood Ducks in opposition is a cool photo but … the Grackle flying in, in all his glory, iridescent colors ablaze, upstaging the Sandpipers, that kind of luck is priceless!
Have a great time at Magee Marsh. I am so jealous.
Larry – Thanks for the wonderful remarks! The Grackle was definitely luck. I am stoked about Magee Marsh. Will be my first time ever there!
Eileen – Thanks much! . . . I think your comments had been caught in the SPAM filter erroneously but should be going through just fine now. (It catches a lot of SPAM but sometimes grabs the good stuff too.)
I migrated to West Virginia for the New River festival, but I’m not sure I count.