The Oak Park Bird Walk group met twice this past week at Thatcher Woods and I took way too many photos on both days. We were there Monday morning and again on Saturday morning. Though fall warblers were our focus, we had some good looks at other birds. The warblers are quite challenging here as they can be too far away even for my long lens, so I often have to piece together some not-quite-in-focus parts of birds for identification.

Below is a case-in-point for a bird barely seen on Monday. It was a Northern Parula. You can click on the photos to get a better idea of where the bird is in the leaves.

I caught a glimpse of a Red-tailed Hawk moving through the woods.

We went out to the field and saw some deer running across it.

There were distant, backlit woodpeckers. Below, a Northern Flicker, a Red-headed Woodpecker and a Northern Flicker flying past a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

And then, capturing our attention for quite a while, a Merlin arrived and perched likely in the same tree, and may even be the same individual we saw last year.

White-breasted Nuthatches are more often heard than seen.

The same could be said for a Red-eyed Vireo except that they’re not singing in fall migration. We managed to see this one briefly.

Eastern Bluebirds were abundant that day.

Below, an Eastern Wood-Pewee, and then the same bird with a White-breasted Nuthatch to its right.

It was delightful to see a couple Chipping Sparrows.

Just when we had about given up on warblers, we started to see some more.

There was a Bay-breasted Warbler that wouldn’t stop posing.

I was going to attempt to do Saturday’s visit as well in this post, but it’s already long enough, so I’ll be back with Saturday’s photos right away, and then a subsequent visit to Riverside the same day. It’s hard to keep up, all of a sudden!

I will be back with more confusing fall warblers. These two are often mind-boggling to separate.

For comparison purposes, a Blackpoll below.