Nothing like a rainy day to give me some extra time for a long overdue blog post. I’ve been trying to find some fall migrants in between weather events. The only problem with seeing just a few individuals is that if they are very cooperative, I take too many photos of them. Such was the case with a few birds on September 8 at the Chicago Portage.

The first birds I saw were juvenile “regulars” – a Gray Catbird dealing with feather management, and a Song Sparrow.

There was quite a display of Chicken-of-the-Woods on a fallen log.

Then I found a couple Bay-breasted Warblers.

I later found the Cape May Warbler that is at the top of the post. It was having a fine time gleaning galls from the undersides of hackberry leaves.

I was also happy to see a Green Heron that day.

Two days later, it was overcast and I only saw a few warblers, but I didn’t get many photos usable for anything except identification purposes. But I did see two lovely juveniles: a young Indigo Bunting, an American Robin, and I’m throwing in a likely adult American Goldfinch.

Last was a Blue Jay in flight. I think the Sony excels at this with its 600mm zoom.

Seeing as how tomorrow’s forecast is much like today’s with a lot of rain, I should be back that much sooner with more warblers and other migrants. I am also getting ready for a friend coming to stay a couple weeks, so maybe the rainy weather is good timing.