Falcon on the 46th Floor

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Lisa Rest

Meet “Mbres360.” I’m not sure how to pronounce his name or what it stands for, but he paid the office a visit yesterday afternoon by landing on the ledge outside the conference room, and I am still savoring the opportunity, seeing one of these birds up close.

I did not want to startle him by going through the conference room doors. Luckily Kim was in her office which also has a view of the ledge, and when I told her the bird was right outside her window, she invited me in to take pictures. I ran to get the camera, afraid I might miss the opportunity because I had put it away, but I guess the bird was as curious as we were, because he waited for me to get my act together and I took a few shots.

Then I went looking on the Internet for where to report him and see if maybe he could be identified. In less than a minute I found Stephanie Ware’s wonderful Chicago Peregrine Falcon Blog. I followed her instructions and sent her pictures and a closeup of the bands which I read as Red N and Green 53.

Stephanie graciously wrote me back to tell me the bird was was a male chick “from this year’s river nest” and then she identified him by name.

I’m always looking out the windows to see who is flying by, which is probably why I’ll never get an office with a window. I have seen Peregrines on several occasions, but I never dreamed one would visit like this. Considering the Chicago Peregrines are born and raised in an urban environment, with nests on top of skyscrapers, I guess it’s not that unlikely. But this felt very special. The sighting made my week, for sure. And led me to Stephanie’s wonderful blog, so I can learn more about these beautiful birds.

After I had taken maybe five pictures, he decided he’d had enough and with a little shriek, he literally disappeared into thin air. I guess that is the magic of the entire encounter. Once these birds fledge they start honing their incredible speed which makes them such formidable predators. It’s hard to think of Mbres360 as a tough guy just yet.

Great Blues

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Lisa Rest

Great Blue Heron

It’s taking me much longer than I expected to go through my photos from last Sunday, so I have decided to post some Great Blue Heron pictures for now and get around to everyone else who obliged my lens, including a few singers, a bit later.

On the recommendation of a coworker, I ventured to Middlefork Savanna in Lake County. I had heard of it, perhaps on the IBET listserve, but because it’s a long drive, Middlefork and much of Lake County remain mysterious to me. It didn’t matter that it was early Sunday morning, it still took me almost an hour to get there. But I think I will have to make more trips north, if they promise to be as worthwhile as this one. I need to go back to see the rest of Middlefork, too. What a very special place it is.

The tract of land is home to a unique ecosystem, with tallgrass prairie, wetlands, woods and one of the best remaining oak savannas in the country. A gravel path that runs the length of the property and is used by bike riders and runners, but it’s wide enough to walk without getting run over. Also, the property is not in a flight path and not close to major highways, like most of Cook County, so it was very quiet, except for an occasional freight train. Not far from the visitor’s center at adjacent Elawa Farm is a mown grass trail that is off-limits to bike-riders. That’s where I went first.

The preserve is named after the Middle Fork of the North Branch of the Chicago River, which runs through it.

Click on any photo for a larger view.

More to come from Middlefork Savanna.

Brief Warbler Interruption #2

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Lisa Rest

Kentucky Warbler

Please pardon this Brief Warbler Interruption.

Yesterday, after coming down early in the morning and hunting around for migrants in Grant Park before the temporary heat took hold, I decided to try a different route on my lunch break, which was pretty late in the afternoon. I went down the stairs to the Riverwalk, which yielded very little except for a Lincoln’s Sparrow. It was my third Lincoln’s of the day. I’ll revisit Lincoln in another post.

I passed an opening to an underpass that led to something park-like, so I decided to walk back to work that way. What I found was a little park adjacent to the Four Seasons Hotel and some other buildings I don’t know, which I will have to map and give a name, if it doesn’t have one already, so I can use it as an ebird location (mission accomplished, see the end of this post). It confirms the common knowledge that this time of year is magical: you never know what you will find where.

I didn’t have much time left on my lunch, of course, when I spotted something warbler-like darting around in the lilies.

Kentucky Warbler IMG_7587_1

Kentucky Warbler IMG_7586_1

Kentucky Warbler IMG_7606_1

Kentucky Warbler IMG_7602_1

It wasn’t until I developed my pictures late last night after swimming…that I realized I recognized something about this bird. Actually it was the yellow spectacles in the top photo that finally triggered the correct response in my brain. Kentucky Warblers are rare up here and I had seen one only once before, last year on the trip to southern Illinois, after searching to find one even down there for a long time: they are skulkers.

To top off this Brief Warbler Interruption I would like to share a picture of a Common Yellowthroat, a more likely park species, who was also trying to evade my lens in the same location.

Common Yellowthroat

As an update: I found out the name of the park. It is officially The Park at Lakeshore East. I have added it to my ebird locations.

Red-Breasted Extravaganser

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Lisa Rest

Red-Breasted Merganser

I went a different route at lunch yesterday, after realizing halfway to the park I’d forgotten the peanuts (can’t go out empty-handed). So after walking back to work to fetch my bag and start out again, I decided to try the Chicago River riverwalk to see how it’s faring, because Millennium Park soon will be too crowded and too crazy to visit every day, come warmer weather and passerine migration.

Not a lot to see yet on the way out to the lakefront, save the tile artwork inside the underpass that goes beneath Lake Shore Drive,

Chicago River underpass art IMG_3574_1 Chicago River underpass IMG_3576_1

but when I got down to the harbor, there were Red-Breasted Mergansers everywhere.

RB Mergs 'IMG_3589_1

There may have been a couple Coots, but it was otherwise Red-Breasted Merganserland. Except for people walking in the other direction which sometimes spooked the Mergansers,

RB Mergs IMG_3671_1

I got close enough for some nice shots which is always lucky with the smaller lens and the 40D (my workday gear).

RB Mergs IMG_3621_1

The female Red-Breasted Merganser below struggled quite a bit with her catch, until finally it was down the hatch.

RB Merg IMG_3655_1

RB Merg IMG_3656_1

RB Merg IMG_3658_1

RB Merg IMG_3660_1

RB Merg IMG_3668_1

On the way back, past Millennium’s north sculpture garden, I got a preview of the new exhibit. Colorful. Don’t know how the migrants will like it…

Sculpture Garden IMG_3702_1

but it should attract a lot of people.

An Abundance of Swainson’s Thrushes

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Lisa Rest

Swainson’s Thrush, LaBagh Woods

Every migration season is different, and if one species dominates this fall migration in Chicago, it has been Swainson’s Thrushes – I have seen them everywhere, almost every day, and this has been going on the entire month of September.

In the forest preserves I have counted so many they have sometimes seemed to outnumber the Robins. The second most numerous species in the preserves has perhaps been Northern Waterthrushes. But I have seen Swainson’s even in downtown Chicago.

155 N. Wacker

It has gotten to the point where I have stopped taking pictures of the Swainson’s Thrushes because it’s unnecessary just to document their presence. But then every once in a while there have been models that were hard to resist.

Today at LaBagh Woods, the Robins and the Swainson’s Thrushes were foraging from rocky shoals in the Chicago River.

Thrushes in the Chicago River

Unexpected City Visitors

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Lisa Rest

My encounters with birds in the city have been few and far between lately. But I have at least learned to carry my camera with me, after missing a couple opportunities to document something last year, and this year it has paid off.

Black-Crowned Night Heron

A couple weeks ago I saw this Black-Crowned Night Heron hanging out on the Chicago River just outside the train station. Last year I had one in the same vicinity but all I had with me at the time was my cell phone and although I was able to get closer, the picture wasn’t worth the effort. This year there has been a lot of construction on the bridges and streets so I could not get closer to the bird, but thanks to the super zoom feature on my point-and-shoot, I at least captured his essence.

And then on Tuesday I got out to Daley Bicentennial Plaza in the afternoon. I had goldfinches singing and juvenile crows. and a lot of huge dragonflies that refused to pose, but I wasn’t really expecting to see anything unusual, although vagrants and early migrants have started popping up at Montrose Beach which is a much birdier location. As I walked slowly through the park after feeding the crows a woodpecker flew into an ash tree right in front of me, quickly tucking itself around the backside of the tree. My first thought was Downy given the time of year, but in a couple seconds after it reappeared I realized it was a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker. That seemed pretty unusual to me, and as it turns out it was unusual enough to have my ebird report challenged. Luckily I was able to take pictures, even if the lighting and my lens left much to be desired. Confirmed early sighting of a female Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker.

Female Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

Goldbird Variations

Why Birds Sing in Key with Music, or how I finally put perfect pitch to use.

Tag Archives: Chicago River