Piping Plovers in Chicago

http://www.wrex.com/Global/story.asp?S=10889018
This link is about the hatching of piping plovers from a nest on lake Michigan north of Chicago, in Illinois. The first in 30 years.

A Great Birding Weekend

This past weekend, August 8th and 9th, I had extra shifts to cover at work because of co-workers taking vacation time. But one reward for me was some cool birding observations I was able to have because of work. It started on Saturday morning as I was heading home from work. First was a trio of Wild Turkeys hanging out on the access road. It is not unusual to find them on this road, but it had been a long time for me because of my work schedule hours. Yet it got better as I arrived at the stop sign on Airport-Haul Road at Alico Road. To my left was a flock of about a hundred Brown-Headed Cowbirds gleaning seed from a freshly mowed patch of weeds and grass. I thought that it was cool see such a large flock of these birds in August, but then it hit me to survey the flock closely for any Shiny Cowbirds. I hit on two suspects and was able to get a great look at one of them and yes, it was a male shiny cowbird. A lifer for me. Seems that the shiny cowbirds are still very uncommon , but that they are becoming more evident. You would usually need to look for them more closely around the Keys, or around the everglades and even around Naples, Florida. So finding them here in Lee County is a good find. This flock of cowbirds were located at the same spot and at the same time for three days in a row, and the shiny cowbird was relocated on that third sighting of the flock. Cool.
On my way home I planned on squeezing in a very quick trip to Bunche Beach as I needed to get some sleep due to a quite run-around to get back to work by 7 PM. I made a fast stop at Domestic Ave to check out the Burrowing Owls. I was also able to add Purple Martins and Barn Swallows, plus Mottled Ducks and Eastern Meadowlarks, but no Common Nighthawks this time.
At Bunche Beach I was able to add Black Skimmers, Black Terns, Forsters Tern, Royal Terns, Sandwich Terns, Least Terns and Laughing Gulls. Also on hand were Reddish Egrets, Common Egrets, Snowy Egrets, White Ibis, Little Blue Herons, Spoonbills, Brown Pelicans, Double-Crested Cormorants, Anhinga ( on the drive over), Ospreys, a Yellow-Crowned Nightheron, Black-bellied Plover, Wilson’s Plover, Semipalmated Plovers, a single Piping Plover, lots of sander lings, western Sandpipers, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Least Sandpipers, Marbled Godwits, Willets, Ruddy Turnstones and Short-Billed Dowitchers. Pretty good for twenty minutes. Missed out on the Long-Billed Curlew.
On the way back to work later in the day, found the trio of turkeys hanging out on the road. Had a visitation at work by our Barred Owl, plus the small herd of white-tailed deer were found in their usual location near the plant. A trio of wild hogs were to show up as well.
On Sunday at about 7:30PM a kettle of around 30 plus, Swallow-Tailed Kites were seen over the woods to our east, at work in a location called Wild Turkey Strand Preserve. I reported this big staging of kites to The Center for Birds of Prey (http://www.thecenterforbirdsofprey.org/swallowtail/swallowtail.html) as they are collecting data on the movements of these birds. I had not seen such a large concentration of kites before. The most That I could recall were about eight birds.
Earlier on Sunday, I made a quick drive out toward the Collier County line looking for White-Winged Doves. Did not find the doves but did find Eastern Towhees at the Crew Marsh area and had a pair of Crested Caracaras and a trio of Sandhill Cranes on the way back toward home
So considering my heavy work schedule over the week I managed to also have a great birding weekend.

A Visit to Bunche Beach

Because I had to missed yesturdays Bird Patrol visit to Bunche Beach, I headed out there right from work at about 7:30 am. The tide was falling and many migrants have arrived. A good variety of shore birds. Found some of my goals including the reported Long-Billed Curlew, a Forster's Tern and a Piping Plover. Did find the following 41 species -----

Brown Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Reddish Egret, Green Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, White Ibis,Roseate Spoonbill, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Black-bellied Plover, Wilson's Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Piping Plover, American Oystercatcher, Spotted Sandpiper, Willet, Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Laughing Gull, Least Tern, Common Tern, Forster's Tern, Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern, Black Skimmer, Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, White-eyed Vireo,Northern Cardinal

Was suprised to find a calling White-Eyed Vireo in the bushes back of the beach and recieved some help from another birder I met at the beach in id'ing the peeps, which is always the challenge. All-in-all a good days birding at the beach. Other good sightings for the day include the Barred Owl at work and the Burrowing Owls, Bobwhite, Eastern Meadowlark, Common Nighthawks and Purple Martins at Domestic Avenue in San Carlos Park.

Birding in Gladys County

Today, being a day off from work, elected to do some early morning birding. Started at home were I observed that some birds are starting to flock, namely Grackles and Fish Crows. My plan was to head up to Route 29 north of LaBelle, Florida. My targets were Sandhill Cranes, American Crows, Florida Scrub Jays and Crested Caracara.
Begin the trip with a quick stop at Domestic Ave, off of Alico Road here is south Lee County. Found the Burrowing Owls, Eastern Meadowlarks, Mourning Doves, Ground Doves and Purple Martins. No sign of the bobwhite or common nighthawks.
Next stop was just west of Alva, Florida. A Red-Headed Woodpeckers nest is found in a pasture along Parkinson Road, just off of North River Road. The birds were easily located within seconds as one woodpecker came to the hole to be greeted by another. Red-Headed Woodpeckers are very uncommon in South Florida. They prefer an environment with large oaks, which is also prime Florida real estate for developers. The pasture also contained a family of Sandhill Cranes and several Eastern Meadowlarks.

Ran up the road to check out the Caloosahatchee River State Park were I had hits on White-Eyed Vireo and Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers. Added Red-Bellied Woodpecker and Cardinal, but did not stay long as I still had a ways to go. However, I had to pause along N River Road again as I was passing the Red-Headed Woodpeckers pasture as three of these birds were dashing around a dead oak right next to the road. My guess is it was a territorial issue. Either a new stranger on the block or a juvenile needing to move along.

Proceeded up Route 80 to LaBelle and then northeast on Route 29. If you want to search for Crested Caracaras, this stretch of road is a good place to start. I got this advise from personnel at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary many years ago. Actually only came up with a couple of sandhill cranes, several American Crows (Only Fish Crows are found in my neighborhood) and lots of Black and Turkey Vultures were present.

No luck on the caracaras, so turned west onto Route 78. In Gladys County now, which is cattle country in this area. Got a hit on a Florida Scrub Jay sitting up on top of a scrub oak tree. Further down on the right is a family of Wild Turkeys. At Route 731 turned north looking for white-winged doves. No doves so turned back for home.

Back onto 78 found more wild turkeys included an extremely large family group standing in the road. Finally located a Crested Caracara on the ground on the east side of the road and located a second bird sitting on a fence post near the roadkill carcass of a small alligator. With the addition of these hits, my month count for July is up to 87. Need 13 more to hit goal.

Babcock-Webb

Arrived just at sunrise at Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area in Charlotte County, with the intention of locating the endemic Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers. Babcock-Webb contains a population of these endangered birds which are best found around their nest holes either at sunrise or sunset. These nest hole trees are well labeled with white rings painted on the tree trunks as well as the nest colonies being mapped out for those seeking this rare bird. My last four trips to Babcock-Webb had been fruitful in locating multiple RCW sightings. I have to thank Jeff Bouton for his informative emails on how best to find the birds. First step is to be at the nest sight at sunrise and then to listen closely for the squeaky voice of the emerging birds.

Upon arrival at BW the bird life was already vocal and active. Least Terns were seen harassing Sandhill Cranes on an island in Webb Lake and Common Nighthawks, Bachman's Sparrows, Eastern Towhees, Pine Warblers, Bobwhites and Eastern Meadowlarks and be heard as I drove to the nearest RCW colony site, which had been so fruitful for me. However, today I was not able to locate any of the woodpeckers. Thought that I could hear, very faintly, a RCW vocalize, but was not able to find the bird.

Other good sightings at BW today were several Bald Eagles (adults and juveniles), a Greater Yellowlegs on Webb Lake and a couple of Brown-Headed Nuthatches. Besides missing the RCW, I also had the eastern kingbird and Florida kestrel on my wish list for this visit, but did not have any sightings.

My count at BW today was 36:

Species List: Northern Bobwhite, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Sandhill Crane, Killdeer, Greater Yellowlegs, Least Tern, Mourning Dove, Common Ground-Dove, Common Nighthawk, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Great Crested Flycatcher, Loggerhead Shrike, Blue Jay, Purple Martin, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Eastern Bluebird,

Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, Pine Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Eastern Towhee, Bachman's Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Eastern Meadowlark, Common Grackle andBoat-tailed Grackle

Location:
Full-screen Babcock Webb WMA, Charlotte County, Flor Latitude = 26.828819 Longitude = -81.964230

Snowy Plover Adopting Least Tern Chick

Found this today on the IBET (IL Birders Exchanging Thoughts) message board concerning a baby least tern being adopted by a snowy plover.

Here is the site: http://birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=40445

The IBET posting is at ILbirds@yahoogroups.com. May need to enroll to the list for access. It is very informative on Illinois birding. I used a lot of information from watching this to locate
knowledgeable birders and the best locations for my visit to the Chicago area. Good grassland species to be found. I had around 20 lifers on my visit.

Earliest Fall Arrival Dates

Was reviewing some of my records as to when I first located various Fall Arrivals to Lee County, Florida. The following is a short chart of some species arrivals. These species general remain local through the winter and are not necessarilly migrating through. These dates are from my own personal observation.



Western Sandpipers -July 11, 2008

Piping Plovers - July 11, 2008

Least Sandpipers - July 24, 2008

Yellow-Throated Warblers - August 27, 2008

Belted Kingfisher - September 08, 2008

House Wrens - September 22, 2008

Gray Catbirds - September 27, 2008

American Kestral - September 27, 2008

Palm Warbler - October 04, 2008

Yellow-Rumped - Warbler October 14, 2008

Eastern Phoebe - October 20, 2008

Blue-Winged Teal - October 26, 2008

Northern Harrier - November 16, 2008

Savanna Sparrow - November 17, 2008