It has been a busy week. Last Saturday, I got up early to participate in Loonapaloonza 2024, led by my birding friend and mentor David J. for the Illinois Ornithological Society. I had been to two or three of these treks around the Chain of Lakes years ago but had not managed to participate again until this year. Although the focus is on finding numbers of Common Loons, there are invariably lots of American White Pelicans and ducks to see. Unfortunately, I had to leave early for an extra choir rehearsal in the afternoon. If I had stuck around to the end with Dave I would have seen a number of Wilson’s Snipe, which would have been awesome, but I am glad I made the rehearsal as it was a good drill for our upcoming choir Sunday on April 14th. No matter how sophisticated our technology, we will never really be able satisfy any desire to be in two places at once.

It was a bright, sunny, chilly day with Thursday’s snowfall still on the ground. The first birds we saw were two Bald Eagles overhead. I could not resist capturing images.

Then we saw a few Common Loons quite distant, but eventually we managed to see some a little closer. They were spread out over Diamond Lake. The distance and backlighting made decent captures difficult. But the lake is huge and we went to several spots to get better views. Next time I do this trip I will have to pay more attention to where we are going. Because I had to leave early, I was unable to carpool.

I persisted and managed to get a few closer.

American White Pelicans were in abundance.

The majority of the pelicans were gathered sitting on an island across the lake. I also managed to capture a group spread out on a sandbar.

There were gulls here and there but nothing out of the ordinary . Still, I was still tempted by a Ring-billed Gull flying overhead.

A huge number of ducks were suddenly in the air. Most of them were Greater and Lesser Scaup. We were looking for a Long-tailed Duck that Dave had seen the day before, but we didn’t see it.

I did manage to find a pair of Bufflehead closer.

And a Common Merganser flew by.

If you click on the photos below you might be able to see they are of Red-breasted Mergansers.

Then there were the Greater and Lesser Scaup. At this distance, they are more easily discernible in flight, the Greater having more white on the wing.

We may have been at Channel Lake when we were briefly visited by a few American Crows. I could not resist.

And now for the ongoing story. My friend Linda (we go back to junior high school) has been in town for five weeks from California, to be with her mother Eleanor who was in hospital. To be close to her, Linda was staying in Eleanor’s apartment at an assisted living facility. After several complications, Eleanor was put in hospice last week. She died on March 20 at the age of 102. Her next birthday would have been in June.

Linda has been staying with me since Monday when we moved her out of her mother’s apartment. The funeral was yesterday. The service was a beautiful tribute to an amazing woman. Mourning continues in the form of shiva which began after the internment and extends this afternoon and on Saturday after sundown.

It will be a while before I am birding in the mornings but things will settle down and I will be back as spring migration unfolds.