Today we made the year’s first trip to Indiana. We went to Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife Area, which is an old favorite, though we haven’t been there for over a year. It’s a 80-mile drive south of Chicago, through miles and miles of flat cornfields. Very dull. Very Midwest. In the past, we had luck at the area’s Salisbury Rookery, a large marsh that was often full of ducks. But when we drove by today, all the water had gone: the rookery had become a soybean field.
Category Archives: LIST
finally, the owl [79 – 80]
Once again, we decided to search for the short-eared owl at Glacial Park. But our first stop today was the Chicago Botanic Garden in north-suburban Glencoe. We don’t come here much anymore, but we did a lot of our early birding here. Today we just stopped by so I could renew my membership. But in the pond next to the parking lot we did see a pair of TRUMPETER SWANS. They were only about ten feet away, so it was no problem distinguishing them from the similar tundra swan. We then continued north and made a brief stop at the Wadsworth Wetlands Demonstration Project, which is in north-suburban — you guessed it — Wadsworth. We didn’t see any birds, but we did identify what we think was a Nazi.
saved by ducks [65 – 78]
The Illinois bird list said there were some short-eared owls at Rollins Savannah, so we decided to give it a try. The savanna is a new preserve located in a northern Chicago suburb called Grayslake. An ugly, mall-filled suburb. Unfortunately, since the savanna is flat, you always know you’re in the middle of an ugly mall-filled suburb. We only saw a few birds and left after half an hour. Jesus, Mary, and St. Patrick, do I hate birding ugly places. Does that make me a bad birder?
sick + overworked = 3 birds [62 – 64]
Pole has been sick. And I’ve been traveling and working 12-hour days.
Not that I’m complaining, mind you. It’s the birds I’m worried about. The birds that never got the chance to cross our paths and be immortalized by a check mark in our little American Birding Association (ABA) booklet. So here’s what we’ve got: Pole saw an AMERICAN ROBIN when she ran an errand one day (March 1). My limited efforts were much more fruitful.
cold white geese [60 – 61]
Pole frozen solid off Lake Shore Drive
Today there were some posts on the lists about Snow and Ross’s Geese on the Chicago lakefront. Though we got a late start (Pole’s fault), we decided to check them out. We went to Chicago’s Montrose Harbor, which is the location of the Magic Hedge, probably the best place to bird within 100 miles, though we haven’t been there yet this year. We saw some white geese from Lake Shore Drive as we drove in from the south, so we parked near the entrance and make a trek to their location.