To add to the confusion or maybe to clarify instead, how about a little Vireo review? I misidentified a Warbling Vireo this morning while talking to a lovely birder I met on the trail in Riverside Lawn, thinking I saw the eyeline of a Red-eyed Vireo but when I reviewed my photographs, they were all of a Warbling Vireo. Either it’s been easier to see Warbling Vireos this year, or else it’s just the luck of being out more, but I have managed to capture them on several occasions. This bird was particularly easy to photograph because it was distracted by trying to grab some webbing, and maybe I was more distracted by its behavior as well.
Depending on the light, the slight yellowish cast on the breast can appear darker.
And then in this morning’s photographs, I had what appears to be a Philadelphia Vireo, which is very easy to confuse with the Warbling but is definitely more yellow on the breast in appearance and darker above.
The Red-eyed is most commonly seen and shouldn’t be confused with anybody else. Sometimes you see the red eye for which it is named but these photos from Saturday at Columbus Park did not capture that field mark.
I had to dig a little into the archives a bit for the other two vireos. Below is a Blue-headed Vireo I saw briefly at the Portage a couple weeks ago, but the other photographs are from the exact same time of year two years ago.
And I will end with the one least-often seen but always appreciated – the beautiful Yellow-throated Vireo. I captured these individuals on two separate occasions last fall at Bemis.
I’m glad we got that out of the way. I’ll be back with lots more.
Oh yes – most importantly: vireos always have blue feet which you may be able to see in some of the closer photos.
This is the last of the fallout warblers from Tuesday morning but I have added a few more to my migration sightings, so I will have to round those up next. I suspect that after feasting most if not all the warblers I encountered on Tuesday resumed their journey to their breeding grounds, with no interruption from the weather to slow them down. And some of the Yellow Warblers will be staying.
There were only a few Black-throated Green Warblers.
Warbling Vireos are abundant but will not be so easy to see once the leaves take over.
The White-breasted Nuthatches have been noticeably quiet, so I can’t count them until I see them.
There was still enough water left in the fluddle for the two Solitary Sandpipers that were hanging out,
Scarlet Tanagers are always noticeable. I have seen them several times this season so I will be back with more captures.
Remember Palm Warblers? I think they are probably all gone but there were still several on Tuesday.
A few more of the last Palm Warblers…
Here’s the female Blackpoll Warbler that Vera identified after it snuck in with the Palms. Thanks, Vera!
A warbler I don’t see very often, a Northern Waterthrush, is a likely bird around the river.
Below is the last Pine Warbler I saw. They were earlier than other species but now are considered late. According to my Sibley app this is a likely first-year female.
Gray Catbirds have been very easy to see this spring. They’ve been quite vocal too.
Finally there’s food for flycatchers.
Eastern Phoebe
There were two Eastern Kingbirds sallying for prey from high perches over the river that day.
It was nice to see a couple Cedar Waxwings. While I once say them kiting for insects in large numbers, more likely I will see them congregating in fruiting trees later.
I’m always up for a Blue Jay if it’s sitting still.
I will be back with more warblers and other species as spring migration continues. In a way I am thankful things have slowed down a bit.
Warbler migration always seems to be defined by the appearance of “Maggies” and Redstarts. Magnolia Warblers are generally abundant in migration, and they always seem to cheerfully accept their fate as lens subjects.
The male Magnolia Warbler has that big bright white wing patch. The female Magnolias do not have the wing patch and their black streaks don’t form a “necklace” or thick black streaks.
More male Magnolias…
And some females…with one paler male snuck in below.
Just a couple more…
The American Redstarts are somewhat harder to capture. This is at least a two-year male. The first year males look a lot like the females in that they do not have the bold orange and black coloring.
These birds tend to forage more frenetically than some other species.
I think this is a first-year male. It’s sometime hard to tell, but the yellow on the breast is a bit orangey-er than the yellow on the females.
These birds may appear dull but they make up for it with their active foraging. Two days later when the leaves filled out on the trees, it was much harder to see them.
This bird lost its tail!
A few more of what I think is a first-year male American Redstart, sometimes affectionately referred to as a “yellowstart.”
There are still a few Yellow-rumped Warbers around and they have the same colors as the Magnolias, just arranged differently.
Wilson’s Warblers are among my favorites. But as of this outing they managed to hide their trademark black caps almost entirely.
If you click on the photos in the gallery below you might be able to see only a hint of a black cap in one or two of them.
So there are a few more warblers I have yet to cover – not as many photos of each species (whew!) – and some other birds seen as well, and then plenty more migration madness to continue. I am convinced the male Northern Cardinals are enjoying being basically ignored by us warbler-hungry photographers.
I am very tired from going out to hear a friend perform last night and then getting up early to do the spring migration walk in Columbus Park, so I may not have much to say for a little while. But I will be back with the review of Tuesday’s birds, and there are so many more I have seen since then.
Few warblers are as exciting to observe as the male Blackburnian Warbler in springtime. I keep asking myself why I took so many pictures of at least three individuals on Tuesday, but the only answer I can come up with is “because I could.”
I mean, this is truly a good reason to give in to obsession.
And with so many opportunities, I kept taking them…
Another beautiful bird is the Bay-breasted Warbler. If you remember my fall posts at all, I had several of these birds represented and they looked almost nothing like they do now.
The thing that made it so relatively easy to keep clicking away was the combination of hungry birds in numbers. I really think the birds were less concerned about me than they were with fueling up for their flights north. Also, the leaves were just starting to appear, so it was easier to see the birds than even a day or two later.
A few more of the Bay-breasted…
If you have made it this far, let’s go for a third species.
Black-and-white Warblers I had already seen and photographed this spring, but it’s always a challenge to get a good image.
Just to let you know I did not ignore the Robins…
I will be back with yet more warblers from Tuesday and other birds observed. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Suddenly the weather is summer, and with the heat after a long, rainy prelude, the trees are leafing out and spring migration is in full force. I was contemplating two other posts of recent outings but Tuesday’s visit to Riverside and Riverside Lawn demands attention first. I didn’t go out yesterday because I was helping a friend, but it’s just as well as I needed some extra time to process nearly 1,000 photos to begin this series.
There was a tremendous fallout of warblers along the Des Plaines River. While I anticipated as much – this was the kind of thing I dreamt about previous years while stuck sitting in front of a computer at work – I just didn’t expect the magnitude of this fallout. I literally saw so many individuals of several species, it was almost maddening. It took me 3 hours to cover a little over a mile, which up until now has taken me two hours tops. I was moving slowly anyway, as the morning grew hotter, but I just kept seeing more and more birds. I counted 16 warbler species. They will not all be represented here, but I have even more species and photographs to come from the day before at the Chicago Portage. So hang on, here we go. (I have decided to split this up into three or more installments or it will never happen.)
I started seeing Chestnut-sided Warblers right off the bat, which made me happy because I had not yet seen them this year.
They ran the gamut, from brightly-colored individuals…
To drab birds…
And somewhere in between…
If I accomplish nothing else in this first of many installments, I must pay tribute to the beautiful Prothonotary Warbler that is at the top of this post and appears in more photos below.
Seeing the Prothonotary so well and having the opportunity to photograph it was breathtaking.
I would like to continue but it’s late and I have to get up early to beat the heat tomorrow morning, so I will be back as soon as possible with some more birds from my big warbler day. Because I have to make room for even more birds seen since then!
Even if the temperature doesn’t seem springlike lately, the trees are starting to leaf out, the birds are returning, and there is every other indication that spring is here. And now that the Spring Music Festival is over, I wonder if I will stop having occasional ancient dreams about performing because I have actually done so. It was good to be “back in the saddle again” to quote from our minister Emily’s opening monologue as she was the perfect emcee for the event. She actually played guitar and sang her own version of “Back in the Saddle Again” to reflect the novelty of a return to this tradition after a three-year pandemic-induced delay.
For the moment, we are experiencing a lot of rain, the complete antithesis to last year’s drought. I managed to visit Riverside Lawn yesterday but it’s likely I will not return immediately. In the back of my mind I anticipated flooding would happen eventually. Below is a portion of the trail I encountered.
Beyond that it’s been cloudy and chilly, so lack of light has been an issue especially focusing the camera with my old eyes. And I still manage to take too many photographs. This is a combined post of photos from yesterday and my visit on 4/29.
The most beautiful sight was at least 50 Chimney Swifts circling around the bend in the river. If you click on the photos below you might be able to see some of them – it was impossible to capture them all as they moved about quickly and then dispersed. I thought there were more than 50 but ebird pushed back on “60” and since I couldn’t possible count them individually for as quickly as they moved I settled on an acceptable number.
Green Herons have also returned to the area. I have seen two at the Chicago Portage in the last week but haven’t been able to photograph them well yet. With all this water I am confident I will see them again in sunnier and greener conditions. These photos are from the 29th.
On both days I saw a few Solitary Sandpipers in the fluddle close to the paved path in Riverside.
I know I said I was not going to bother with photographing Palm Warblers but with not much else standing out in the gloom, if they were close and still they became irresistible.
Great Blue Herons always manage to blend in, whatever the light conditions.
But then sometimes they take flight.
All this gray made paying attention to a lovely Yellow Warbler that much more attractive.
A few more soggy scenes from yesterday’s Riverside Lawn trail.
Ruby-crowned Kinglets are still present. With barely a hint at a ruby crown.
Blue-gray Gnatcatchers abound.
On the 29th, not far from the Hofmann Tower in Lyons, I spotted a Peregrine Falcon. At first it had its back toward me but then it turned around. I speculated later than the Hofmann Tower would be a perfect nesting spot with built-in pigeons to feed the chicks. But this could also explain why I haven’t seen a lot of pigeons up there lately.
It was time for a stretch before it took off.
After the Peregrine Falcon nothing seemed too exciting but I am out there to observe whoever shows up. Like a White-breasted Nuthatch.
Blue Jays rarely sit still, so when this one did…
I barely captured what appeared to be a bedraggled Swamp Sparrow.
A Chipping Sparrow also in hiding.
This Northern Cardinal needs no introduction.
The last time I saw the pair of Red-breasted Mergansers that have been in the river at this point was on the 29th.
I haven’t seen a House Sparrow scaling a wall in a while.
This Robin had a beautiful song. And yes, if you listen, there are some Canada Geese in the background.
American Robin singing
A Black-and-White Warbler was foraging low.
There are gong to be a lot of Red-winged Blackbirds if these females stick around.
All the rain has produced some interesting fungusThere’s still a pair of Blue-winged Teal.Male American Goldfinch
Apologies for the Long Post but I anticipate so many more photos to come – and I still have quite a few left from other recent outings – and what better way to spend part of a too rainy day? I hope to be back soon,
I saw some birds this week – in between practicing for the Spring Music Festival which will occur tonight. We had a rehearsal/run through last night and I survived. At least people like the song, so I guess that’s a good indication of something.
We canceled our scheduled walk at Columbus Park this morning because the weather was potentially threatening with the possibility of thunderstorms. We will more than likely have that kind of weather later tonight as we warm up to 70 degrees. But the overnight lows are still predicted to be in the 40’s for the coming week, which delays the yard cleanup even further.
These photos are from Monday at the Chicago Portage. I warn you, there are Way Too Many of them. The warm wave from the two days before brought migrants into the area. It was cooler on Monday so a lot of birds were foraging for food on the ground, like this Pine Warbler sampling seeds on the asphalt path.
Believe it or not these photos are of two separate individuals. I couldn’t capture them close enough to each other for a group photo.
The one Pine Warbler in the trees at first was not recognizable to me, but it turned out to be a Pine, albeit a drab one. The photo of the undertail helped me identify it.
A few more of this bird. Either way, it blends right in with the wood.
Palm Warblers have been all over the place in great numbers. it has gotten so that after taking all these pictures I haven’t bothered much with any of them the rest of the week.
I barely managed a few fuzzy photographs of the Black-and-White Warbler below.
it was delightful to see the return of a Yellow Warbler. One or two always stays the summer at the Portage so I expect to see this species again.
Warblers were not the only thing going on. There were lots of Chipping Sparrows, albeit most of them on the ugly asphalt.
There were a few group photo opportunities.
Palm Warbler and Chipping SparrowsChipping Sparrow and Field Sparrow
There were one or two Field Sparrows and then quite a number of White-throated Sparrows through the break in the fence.
Field SparrowWhite-throated Sparrow
I saw my first Baltimore Oriole of the year. My feeder will go up tomorrow. As you can see he wasn’t moving much.
Vocally and actively, the Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers are back. The lack of light emphasized the the Gray half of their name.
Here’s what the sky looked like that morning.
I had a cooperative White-breasted Nuthatch doing his thing.
Male Northern Cardinals are a little easier to photograph these days as they advertise their territories.
But the lack of light kept everything pretty cool-looking.
In her elusive stage, I managed half of a Red-bellied Woodpecker.
My volunteer American Robin. They are all over the Portage now.
The Yellow-rumped Warblers were the first to show up, but now their numbers are diminishing.
The return of water this year is making the place attractive to waterfowl again.
Blue-winged Teal and Canada Geese
It would have been nice to see the rest of the bird below, but I think after going back and forth between Hermit Thrush and Swainson’s Thrush, it’s the latter.
Northern Flickers are determined to not be seen and this one wasn’t any different.
The Great Egret stopped by to see if conditions were conducive to fishing. I can only assume the sight of me changed its mind. But it was back the next day, on the bank of the stream.
I can only imagine what these Mourning Doves were up to. If that’s the male on the right, his neck feathers are iridescent…
I think these are flowers of a Box-elder Maple Tree. I found them attractive.
So thanks to the canceled bird walk and my nap, I was able to finish this offering. If you made it all the way to the end of this post you are a rock star! I must go back to my chores and prepare for this evening’s performance. I hope to be back again sooner after all this. Thanks for checking in and Happy Spring!
We are rainy and still warm today so perhaps these photographs from Wednesday won’t look out of place. The forecast was similar to today’s, albeit almost twenty degrees cooler, but it didn’t rain while I was out. I nearly dashed out this morning when the sun broke through the clouds because spring migration is picking up, but I am not interested in playing chicken today with the forecast, and with predicted rain and storms there is wind that will eventually drive the temperatures back down to where they were when these pictures were taken.
The first thing I noticed looking over the river from the Lyons side was swallows. They were mostly Tree Swallows.
Except for a Northern Rough-winged Swallow I managed to capture, albeit blending in with the cloudy sky reflected by the water, which was moving rather briskly. I later tried to capture the “rapids” in the photo below the swallow.
For what it’s worth, there was also a Ring-billed Gull over the river at Lyons.
There were Yellow-rumped Warblers at the riverbank at Riverside, bugging in the mud.
Distantly perched, I barely managed to capture a Belted Kingfisher, a male this time.
Showing up for the count, so to speak, a female Brown-headed Cowbird was foraging in the lawn.
Over on the Riverside Lawn side of the Des Plaines things picked up a bit. There were numerous Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Ruby-crowned Kinglets are slightly larger than Golden-crowneds, which makes them appear huge by comparison when you are dealing with birds this size altogether.
“No, I am NOT going to show you my Ruby Crown”
There were plenty of Golden-crowned Kinglets as well, with these giving me some nice looks.
At one point while I stood wondering where the birds were, a Song Sparrow came and sat right in front of me for the longest time. Here’s only a few of perhaps 20 photographs. He wasn’t singing, he was pretty silent, but he wanted me to notice him. Maybe this is the same bird that gave me a recital weeks ago. The third photograph shows his feathers ruffled up a bit by a wind gust. I don’t think the temperature had reached 50 degrees yet.
This Northern Cardinal looks a bit chilly as well.
It’s always hard to tell whether you are seeing the same birds that were on the other side of the river because they tend to fly back and forth, but I suspect these Yellow-rumped Warblers were different individuals from the mud bunch.
And then out of the blue, so to speak, I saw the flash of a Northern Parula. This was a bird I had seen on the weekend before at Columbus Park – and I will try to be back shortly with that report as I managed to get better images in much better light. This warbler has been showing up in various locations around the Chicagoland area the past week and it was still early on Wednesday. I was about finished with my walk when I noticed the bird was working along the riverbank and I followed it until I managed to barely grab these images. This bird seemed to prefer foraging in old logs.
I am always good for a quick White-breasted Nuthatch.
Blue Jays are starting to show up again. I have heard them on occasion all winter but now I am just beginning to see them.
Beyond that, a couple Mallard drakes for good measure.
And one more of the Northern Parula.
I will try to be back soon as I try to keep space on the old hard drive free for inevitably more photographs. It’s going to be a rather busy week as I keep practicing for the Spring Music Festival so I am not making any promises, but a rainy morning forecast helps the blog efforts.
I would also like to dedicate this post to the memory of my former first-alto Alice Muciek who was a force for nature and music, in whose memorial service I will be singing with the Unity Temple Choir this afternoon.
On this first day of a four-day warm up not to be missed, I visited the Chicago Portage. I have been there several times in the past few weeks, alternating between the Portage and Riverside, but have not had a chance to do another post for over a week and I apologize. Things have just suddenly gotten so busy I have gone out in the morning when the weather has been tolerable, but have not been able to catch up with my photographs. I apologize for my temporary abandonment of this blog, but this is just a short post before I have to re-immerse myself into figuring out how to play and sing a somewhat complicated arrangement of a song for the Spring Music Festival next week. I spent hours and hours writing out the score just so I could identify where and what chord changes occur. It’s been about 40 years since I last did this sort of thing…
It started out a bit cloudy and cool but the sun emerged and with its warmth came the beautiful bright blue sky which I could not ignore.
Somewhat surprisingly, there was not a lot of new bird activity this morning. I heard far more birds than I saw. But we had some rain yesterday and there are likely storms ahead tomorrow, which just might encourage more birds to visit. I was most thrilled to see a Great Egret at the far end of the stream as I was walking in its direction. I proceeded as slowly as possible but knew that I would eventually be closer than it could tolerate, especially on such a quiet morning this early in the season. But this is the first Great Egret I have seen this year, which makes it likely to expect numbers of them on the Des Plaines River at Riverside where I have been looking out for them. And it’s so special to have a heron on the water at the Portage after last year’s drought made them so scarce. I am hoping for Green Herons to return.
As can be expected, Red-winged Blackbirds were going about their business.
Also on the water, there have been Blue-winged Teal for the past couple weeks. I counted 14 on April 19. Today there were two pair. I didn’t get great photos through the vegetation but at least this couple perched conveniently on a log. I promise more Blue-winged Teal photos when I start getting caught up with previous visits.
In the sparrow department I heard Song Sparrows but didn’t get on them with the camera. I did manage to record a couple Fox Sparrows though.
The Northern Flickers are doing everything they can right now to avoid my lens. It should be easier to capture them later.
With the sunshine, turtles emerged.
For what it’s worth I found some interesting white foliose lichen growing on a dead log.
For the most part there were a heck of a lot of American Robins. Everywhere. So I have to give them some credit, even if none of it is terribly interesting.
American Robin in flight
So, that’s it for my short post today. I hope to be back sooner than I think I can make it. If it rains as predicted tomorrow, maybe I can catch up a bit with some photos from other locations as some warblers are starting to arrive. Indeed I was a bit surprised I didn’t have any warblers this morning as I had several individuals yesterday in Riverside. So I guess I know what my next post should be!
I’ve been trying to write this post since last Tuesday. Spring migration has begun, and at this rate I will not be able to get caught up until next spring. On my visit the morning of April 5 to Riverside, one species stood out, albeit the smallest: Golden-crowned Kinglet. I first encountered several by the paved path in Riverside, but on the Riverside Lawn side of the river, there could easily have been more than the 50 I reported. They were slightly outnumbered by Red-winged Blackbirds that I did not bother to photograph in cloudy light, but I did record them because some of their vocalizations reminded me a bit of other blackbirds I have heard and you can hear the beautiful cacophony in the second recording below. The first recording has the sound of the Kinglets – that little tiny tinker bell sound on top of the blackbird chorus.
Golden-crowned KingletsRed-winged Blackbirds
I took way too many pictures of the Kinglets because they were practically at eye level or on the ground…
Here’s how the Des Plaines River looks these days from the paved path in Riverside.
On the other side of the paved path, the flood plain was flooded a bit, providing enough water for a group of Blue-winged Teal along with Mallards and Canada Geese. As for the geese, I have been seeing 68B a lot lately.
In addition to all the Golden-crowned Kinglets I saw my first Ruby-crowned Kinglet of the season.
Here’s how the river looked that morning from the Lyons side by the Hofmann Tower.
When I came back to the bridge on Joliet Avenue I could just barely see a Belted Kingfisher perched far away in this tree. I had followed her in flight from another location. I have usually seen a male at this location so it was nice to see her with her rufous breast band.
There were still some Red-breasted Mergansers in the river, although they were pretty far away.
I always have room for a perching Northern Cardinal. Here are my two volunteers from that morning.
With the available light on and off, I thought these Mallards looked rather content in the fluddle.
The perched Song Sparrow sat and talked to me, he didn’t sing this time. The one on the ground looks to be a different individual.
Brown Creepers never really disappeared but they seem to be making a comeback for spring anyway.
I wasn’t able to capture a Great Blue Heron by the river that morning but I sort of managed to commemorate these two flying over.
Here are two more of my favorite Golden-crowned Kinglet photos.
I will try to get back sooner. I have been alternating visits to Riverside with the Chicago Portage and every day I have gone out, I have seen something new.
I also have been spending time visiting with my flute-playing friend Linda who very unfortunately broke her femur a week and a half ago. She is recuperating well from a successful surgery which put her back together, and she is now in rehab. I will miss playing with her in this year’s Spring Music Festival but pray for her complete recovery and making music together again.
