Yesterday we went out with the Evanston North Shore Bird Club again. This time the leader was a young man named Sulli and he brought us into Valley Lo Country Club, a spot normally off-limits to non-members. Sulli is a monitor for the Techny Basin Conservation Area with the Bird Conservation Network and has special permission to bird on the club’s property.
Sulli lead our group of 12 participants around the golf course of the club and around Techny Basin as well as Lake Glenview and Air Station Prairie, a prairie habitat set aside from the old Glenview Naval Air Station. Here is part of our group at the golf course:
One of the highlights was very good looks at a Palm Warbler at Techny Basin. During the trip I mentioned to Joel, a birder we had met on the Looney Trip, that we hadn’t seen warblers before, but I was so wrong, oops! We’ve seen the Palm Warbler in non-breeding plumage in Florida in 2006, as well as a surprise non-breeding Yellow-rumped Warbler in Deerfield last year. It would be true to say we’ve not seen any warblers in their full breeding glory, though!
We saw lots of great birds on this outing, but unfortunately I did not get lots of great photos. Highlights were: Common Loons (still here!); a flying Green Heron; a flying Merlin; the Palm Warbler; Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers; courting Red-breasted Mergansers; Northern Flicker; Cedar Waxwings; roosting Black-crowned Night-herons; and a flying Sora which was flushed by Sulli and Joel. Several of these were lifers for us.
We did have very good looks at the Red-tailed Hawk on the golf course. It wasn’t bothered by us at all and even did a little preening with us watching.
I had a hard time getting on the Black-crowned Night-heron but Sulli was very patient and helped me get a good look at at least four of them (I think he saw more!). Boy, they were hiding! Here’s one:
It was another great outing with Evanston North Shore Bird Club on a beautiful Saturday. The forecast for the next few days is bleak with lots of rain and colder temperatures. I’m glad we could get out while the weather was so fine!
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