Yellow-Rumped Warbler at Chicago Portage
And continues and continues and…I have been so busy birding every weekend it’s taking even longer to process the pictures. These are from last week – October 13 – Thatcher Woods and the Chicago Portage.
White-Throated Sparrow at Thatcher Woods
The birds blend in more and more with their surroundings, but I find it so intriguing. Although it does take almost twice as much effort to get the camera to focus on the bird.
Lincoln’s Sparrow, Thatcher Woods
I was very pleased to find a Winter Wren hanging out with the sparrows and remaining warblers at Thatcher Woods. I always think of Don Kroodsma and The Singing Life of Birds when I see a Winter Wren, even if it’s not singing.
Much like two weeks earlier, there were still a lot of Palm Warblers and Yellow-Rumped Warblers at Thatcher Woods.
Here’s what the Portage looked like when I got there.
The Yellow-Rumpeds were foraging in the duckweed.
It was a pleasure to see several Hermit Thrushes. And nice to see them somewhere other than hopping around on park lawns downtown.
Hermit Thrush, Portage
I got a brief, lucky look at a Belted Kingfisher flying over the pond.
Belted Kingfisher
Some Song Sparrows are already practicing singing for next spring, which might explain why I have heard more than I have seen.
Song Sparrow
Out on the road overlooking the compost piles that now decorate the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District property, I saw this Red-Shouldered Hawk land in the tree and sit for a long period of time.
Red-Shouldered Hawk
Other raptors flew overhead, including the Sharp-Shinned Hawk below.
Sharp-Shinned Hawk
It took me a while to realize that the birds below are Purple Finches. There seem to be quite a lot of them at the Portage this fall.
Purple Finch
Not to be confused – much – with House Finches…
House Finch
Ruby-Crowned Kinglets are still abundant. But the bird below right is a Golden-Crowned Kinglet. It was perched about a foot and a half in front of me and we bonded for a while, but it was much too close to get a picture of it then!
Still seeing Eastern Phoebes, although I expect fly catching is becoming more difficult as temperatures drop.
Eastern Phoebe
My last two photos are of Hermit Thrushes. The second one is for the russet color of its back in the sun…
I’ll be on a mission to get through my photos from this past weekend… Our weather seems to have calmed down a bit and we are in a crisp but sunny period. I love fall, maybe for its nostalgia…!
That’s a healthy amount of birds Lisa! You’re getting variety species there. Here I get the usual suspects only, no new ones.
On Monday we had frosted grass in the morning, temperature at night dropped to 32ºF. just like being in winter, today was in the low 40’s 🙂
Thanks, HJ! I think we hit freezing for an hour or two a couple nights ago but we seem to be staying above for a while. That’s really cold for you though!
You did well to catch a kingfisher in flight.
Totally by accident. It was flushed by Steve and Mike, the two photographer guys I sometimes run into, who were across the pond. I rarely get this lucky but for some unknown reason I seemed to be focused enough.
A kingfisher – how cool! Have you seen any juncos yet?
The Kingfisher was a delightful surprise. Yes, I’ve seen quite a few Juncos but none posing for pictures much. Might be one in my next post. Sadly I picked up a dead one yesterday afternoon, building strike. Made me appreciate how large they are by comparison to warblers…