Leading Myself

Posted on October 3, 2021 by Lisa Rest

I had been envisioning all week what it would be like, yesterday, to get out of bed at 4:00 a.m. and go through my normal routine of waking up my body, preparing and serving breakfast to my indoor flock, filling the feeders and changing water in the bird baths for the outdoor flock, and then getting ready to leave in time to arrive at Columbus Park and lead a walk that was to start at 7:00 a.m. I don’t organize the walks. I have been asked to “lead” this and other Saturday walks that alternatively go to Thatcher Woods in River Forest through the first Saturday in November. Leading basically means showing up, in case the organizer can’t make it. That will be the end of the “fall migration walks” and the same schedule will restart in April for spring migration.

I made several discoveries yesterday. Perhaps most important was the conclusion that I managed to arrive on time after the organizer had already advised me he couldn’t make it, I had a few moments to spare, which means I might be able to sleep maybe 20 more minutes before Saturday morning’s visit to Thatcher Woods.

So I arrived on time. And started talking to one of the golfers who use the same parking lot for access to the adjacent golf course. And I waited. I watched for cars with people getting out of them bearing binoculars. But all the cars arriving produced golf clubs. I soon came to the conclusion that I was the only person showing up for the walk. Below is a picture of what the sky looked like at that time. Maybe with the combination of clouds and no organizer, I was not enough of a draw.

Those little black dots in the clouds are Chimney Swifts.

I figured I may as well check out the park for birds anyway, all dressed up with my gear as I was, so I started walking across the lawn to the water where there were only a few Mallards. It was still quite cloudy and beyond my desire to compensate for the lack of light.

I confess I was a little leery of walking through the park so early alone. Although it has always been a safe place with others, I was not familiar enough with the spot to feel entirely confident. But then it started to lighten up, and I was hearing birds, and I figured well, I could see what was there. And I’m glad I did, because instead of following a group around – some “leader” I am – I now feel like I actually could lead a walk through Columbus Park.

Below is a video I took with my phone of Chimney Swifts flying over – it starts out mainly hearing them but then when I realized I could zoom in a bit you can actually see them. There’s also a Red-winged Blackbird singing in the beginning, for good measure.

https://videopress.com/v/n8mMepOk?resizeToParent=true&preloadContent=metadata

Chimney Swifts

It began to brighten up a little, which helped the photo taking situation. It was difficult capturing the Blackpoll Warbler below in the shady portion of the park, however, but I kept trying.

I agonized over the pictures below as I was sure it was a Bay-breasted Warbler but for some reason ebird insisted it was a rare sighting for this date. I submitted my photographs and so far they have not challenged me.

I wasn’t seeing a lot of birds in the water, so I looked forward to going to the native plant garden next to a portion of it where I would likely see more birds, and I did.

Palm Warblers like the one below were expected.

I haven’t seen a lot of Tennessee Warblers this year – so it was nice to find this one.

And below, a very young-looking American Goldfinch.

On the way out I managed to capture a sneaky picture of a Wood Duck drake through some tangled branches. Also saw the resident Great Blue Heron in a well-camouflaged spot.

At 8:30 a.m. I felt as if I had covered the area – even though I missed a raptor I barely saw flying over. I encountered a birder who was waiting on someone to start her walk through, and we exchanged notes. Columbus Park is her go-to spot, like the Portage is mine. She may join us at Thatcher next week. I am no longer dreading these early Saturday morning rises.

I was tired, especially after having gone swimming the night before, so I took a long nap when I got home. But I am glad I managed the early start and stayed for the birds. I’m sure I would have seen more birds if I had company, but I encountered some nice, smiling runners and walkers and felt more connected to Columbus Park, which is really a beautiful place.

A Few Fall Warblers

Posted on September 28, 2019 by Lisa Rest

I’ve been trying to get back to this page for a long time, but between busy weekends and even more hectic workdays, it’s been difficult to even imagine a blog post. Good intentions being what they may, I am resurfacing briefly here with some pictures from last Saturday morning in Columbus Park – before it rained on that day.

No less surprising, I suppose, is the fact that I cancelled my walk that was supposed to take place at Thatcher Woods this morning because it was thunderstorming off and on all night and with Thatcher Woods being in a flood plain, even though the rain has stopped, it would still be too challenging to slosh around in the soggy grass looking for bedraggled, wet migrants. Indeed the entire weekend promises to be raining or cloudy. Maybe I can get caught up with some overdue blogging, as it is definitely an indoor pursuit.

Not a warbler, but practically hiding like one.

Fall warblers look a lot less flashy in general than they do in the spring, and it can be a bit challenging to determine who’s who. Luckily I got a lot of observation time with Blackpolls a few years ago when I used to go to Lake Shore East Park so they’re kind of stamped on my brain.

Below is a little video I took with my phone on Tuesday morning, which was beautiful and sunny. I had just stepped out the front door to walk to the train when I heard, and then saw, about six Tennessee Warblers foraging in my front yard which is small but full of native vegetation. They’re not easy to see – watch for movement and then you will see the birds her and there eventually, albeit they are very small! I put this up on Facebook Tuesday but wanted to share again for those who didn’t see it there. I feel like this is a testament to my native plant experiment that seem to get better every year. It’s almost as if the warblers got out their GPS and found “Certified Wildlife Habitat”. 🙂

Spring Preview: Columbus Park

Posted on May 2, 2019 by Lisa Rest

I had planned to write a post before my departure for Big Bend but it didn’t happen. Now I am back from an amazing trip, but even though I have started processing my pictures, it will probably take me a couple of weeks given the busy schedule I am returning to, so I will see if I can manage this post for the moment.

I did a Columbus Park walk on the Saturday before I left, and it was to witness the first hint of migrating birds, but our spring has been anything but spring-like, with snow occurring the next day and from what I hear, another wet, fluffy snowfall the Saturday before my return. Yet I’m planning on putting out the hummingbird feeders tomorrow morning. C’mon, it’s May!

The big wading and diving birds were easiest to spot… It was particularly entertaining to watch the Double-Crested Cormorants drying off in the sun. Maybe the Canada Goose thought I was trying to take its picture.

We had several Wood Ducks, but this was perhaps the closest view I got of a male swimming in front of a female Mallard.

A little army of hungry Golden-Crowned Kinglets appeared on the grass in front of us at one point, reminding me of the very first time I ever saw them years ago doing the same thing on the lawn at Millennium Park.

The female Belted Kingfisher below was pretty far away but nice to see.

This Black-crowned Night-Heron flew by us before landing in a tree.

American Robins have been on their territories for weeks now and we saw many.

Swamp Sparrows outnumbered Song Sparrows (4 to 2!) but were hard to photograph.

Eastern Phoebe arrivals are always a sign of spring. The similarly-colored bird below the Eastern Phoebe is a Northern Rough-Winged Swallow.

You know the Red-Winged Blackbirds are ready for business when the girls start arriving.

Northern Flickers put on a show for us but they were hard to capture as well.

Our last “lawn” species was Killdeer.

I got caught up on my sleep last night, but I’m heading into a busy weekend. Saturday morning is the Spring Bird Count, Saturday night is the Spring Music Festival…and with any luck on Sunday, I can start cleaning up my yard, as green things, both wanted and invasive, are starting to emerge. The recommendation to not clear anything until the temperature stays above 50 degrees Fahrenheit will be difficult to adhere to… we are still dropping into the 40’s, albeit the higher 40’s, overnight. I do remember seeing a butterfly or two before I left. I hope to see some insects Sunday and maybe a better forecast.

Catching Up

Posted on December 6, 2018 by Lisa Rest

After weather and whatever have kept me inside the past couple weeks, I am looking forward to birding both mornings this weekend and then next Saturday “officially” for the Christmas Bird Count. Then I know what will likely happen: the immediate will foreshadow the past, and I’ll still never get around to what are soon to become “last year’s photographs.” So with this post I hope to catch up with a couple dangling picture portfolios… Starting with the last fall migration bird walk in Columbus Park on October 20th.

The most unusual birds we barely saw were the Rusty Blackbirds above (two out of five of them). It was too hard to tell exactly what they were until I developed my photographs. We were otherwise seeing the usual suspects …lik Yellow-Rumped Warblers, Cedar Waxwings, Fox Sparrows.

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Cedar Waxwing

Fox Sparrow

I did not expect to see a robin sharing space with a Red-Tailed Hawk.

Just barely caught this adult White-Crowned Sparrow and saw a juvenile later.

White-Crowned Sparrow

Two more of the Red-Tailed Hawk.

Red-Tailed Hawk

As I’m hard-pressed for anything colorful around here lately, I’m sharing a few photos from the Missouri Botanical Garden, visited last month when the choir went to St. Louis. Not many birds made themselves available that afternoon but the garden is lovely.

Thanks to all readers, followers and commenters for checking out my blog and tolerating my state of flux. Gotta go now, but winter’s just getting started!

Columbus Park Add-On

Posted on October 14, 2018 by Lisa Rest

Song Sparrow, Columbus Park

In my haste to publish my last post, as I never know when the opportunity to put one together will present itself…I forgot to process other photographs from that day, so here they are.

Northern Flicker, a/k/a “Yellow-Shafted,” showing off those yellow shafts and matching the color of the leaves left on the tree

Not all that easy to see, but the camera found the Black-Throated Green Warbler below…

And very early on we had a solitary back-lit Downy Woodpecker trying to preen in the wind…Then here are a couple more birds from 311 South Wacker … a Hermit Thrush, finally! They inevitably seem to engage with me, as if to say, “May I help you find something?”

And a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet…

I think this is the last time I saw a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker downtown. They seem to have come and gone really fast.

Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

Song Sparrow

Now that I’m finished with last week (!), yesterday turned out to be a great morning at Thatcher Woods and then the Chicago Portage. I will try to report back soon, but the rest of today is already over-scheduled!

Last Saturday at Columbus Park

Posted on October 12, 2018 by Lisa Rest

Great Blue Heron with prey

Columbus Day has come and gone for another year. Even after suggestions that we rename it Native American Annihilation Day, it would be cumbersome to re-label everything presently Columbus. Columbus Park has been around for a long time. According to the Chicago Park District, it is considered the finest example of landscape architect Jens Jensen’s output and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003.

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

I’ve been too busy looking for birds to photograph the landscaping but I’ll try to keep it in mind since I have one more planned visit next Saturday. After that I will be free to go anywhere or not. The morning started out cloudy and wet but improved. We park in the golfers parking lot, where there were many intrepid golfers by the time I arrived. Early on, the birds were not easy to spot last Saturday. They were either too far away to see clearly and/or tangled in dense multicolored foliage. Above is a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet. Below is a photograph that may or may not have a bird in it, to give you an example…

And then when I did eventually find a bird and tried to enlarge the photograph enough for identification purposes…

Baypoll Warbler Columbus Park 10-6-18-1955

This is a Bay-Breasted Warbler. Even after ebird insists nobody can tell a Bay-Breasted from a Blackpoll this time of year, the configuration of the wing bars, the faint rosy wash on the flank and the facial pattern all tell me it’s a Bay-Breasted.

This is a Pine Warbler that we actually glimpsed better naked eye than with the camera.

For one thing I have been able to exercise my desire to see a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker the last week or so. Below is one from Columbus Park…

and a couple days earlier, from the park at 311 South Wacker, a block away from my office. Notice all the sap-holes in the bark!

Even though Red-Winged Blackbirds don’t migrate far, I think we’ve seen the last of them in these parts until they return to nest in the spring.

Another off-site but maybe not off-topic bird is the Ovenbird below. One or two of these have been hanging out at 311 South Wacker. I think I had eight of them at one time in the spring.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include a Nashville Warbler…

And the large pond that attracts so much waterfowl…

Then I was intrigued by the fungus that had adopted a tree stump.

We saw the Great Blue Heron early on and then later when it was trying to negotiate a slippery fish.

Our last bird was perhaps the nicest surprise. A Cooper’s Hawk perched directly overhead.

I am going to Thatcher Woods tomorrow morning for the last walk there, and I have absolutely no idea what to expect. We are currently experiencing cold, cloudy weather. The forecast for tomorrow is sunny and moderately cool. I plan to get in as much birding as possible before I tend to my weekend chores because Sunday is going to be challenging. The choir sings in the morning, and in the afternoon I’m attending a “Soul Connections” group I joined several months ago, then directly after that, my first attendance at a writer’s workshop, led by one of the SC group’s participants – an activity I haven’t attempted in many, many years. I think I’ve come to the conclusion that we have to connect with each other on multiple levels if we’re going to get through this. 🙂

Fall Frustrations

Posted on September 23, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Nashville Warbler, Columbus Park

The days are getting shorter, there are still fall migrants coming through, the weather has been beautiful the last day or two and I feel like I’m running around in circles just trying to get normal things accomplished, and then I’m out of time for everything. Everything being the moment to sit still, observe, reflect, be…

Magnolia Warbler, Columbus Park

Palm Warbler

Northern Waterthrush

Black-and-White Warbler

Tennessee Warbler

Truth be told I did not stay in last Sunday because the rain was threatening but not really materializing, so I managed to visit the Portage and almost envisioned doing a post about what surprises were there, but I keep succumbing to that temptation (“What’s your favorite photograph?” “The one I just took”) and then I never get back to documenting previous outings. So while I have been recalcitrant catching up with other bloggers I am going to try at least to catch up a bit with myself.

American Redstart

Whatever my obsession to try to hold on to the last experience, these pictures are more from the 13th trip to Columbus Park, which is a park on the west side of Chicago, making it barely a stone’s throw away. There’s a nice water feature going on at the park, and perhaps the star was a juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron contemplating how to make a living.

Black-Crowned Night Heron

Columbus Park

Also present, a Pied-Billed Grebe and a Great Blue Heron. I don’t recall if I realized the Blue-Winged Teal was eating a crabapple when I took the picture but it seems a little odd.

Pied-Billed Grebe

Great Blue Heron

Blue-Winged Teal eating crabapple

There were two young Cooper’s Hawks present.

Cooper’s Hawk

A fellow participant pointed out the caterpillar to me. I did not have my macro lens handy so it’s not a great picture, but I think it looks like a sphinx moth. I confess to being very lazy and I have not tried to look it up.

Caterpillar

I must leave this page, it’s getting late and I have to get up and go to work. I hope to return in a better mood. Tomorrow night is the first rehearsal for the choir I have signed up for. I have received the first email from Bill Hilton about November’s Costa Rica trip. There’s room for more participants: he didn’t say how many we were but the optimum number is 12. Time for me to start thinking about this trip. I’m looking forward to contributing to Bill’s research for a week.

One Species at a Time

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Blackpoll Warbler, Columbus Park

I have been trying to catch up with my blog and everyone else’s to no avail, so this is a quick one-species-post offering in the meantime. Over the weekend I attended the Chicago Ornithological Society walk through Columbus Park on Saturday and then went to LaBagh Woods on Sunday. Two bird species outnumbered all the others. In the warbler category, the most prominent was the Blackpoll.

Blackpoll Warbler, LaBagh Woods

This is the time of year when Blackpoll Warblers don’t look like Blackpoll Warblers do in the springtime. They are often confused with Bay-Breasted Warblers. Sadly I don’t have any recent Bay-Breasted photographs to compare these with. Overall, they appear more yellow than they do black and white (as in spring).

BPWA LaBagh Woods

B{WA Columbus Park

BPWA Columbus Park

The cool thing about going through so many shots in different settings is that I learn more about the “gizz” of the species through the constant review. So that next time I see a Blackpoll Warbler walking down the street in a crowd I will be able to pick it out immediately!

BPWA Columbus Park

I will be back as soon as possible with photos of the Most Prominent Species (not a warbler) from last weekend.

A South American flycatcher’s Earth Day in Chicago

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Lisa Rest

Elaenia Species

This little bird has attracted a lot of attention in Chicago recently. It’s about 7,000 miles away from home. It’s part of the Elaenia genus, that much we know. Elaenias are flycatchers from South America; or at least this one is most likely from that far away. There has been a lot of discussion as far as trying to determine which Elaenia it is. The bird has likely been observed by over 100 people, maybe it’s more like 200 by now, as people are flying in from out of state. I don’t make a habit of chasing birds, but I live maybe 20 minutes away from the park where it is being seen.

I contacted my friend Lesa (by now we felt like the only two birders on the planet that had not gone to see the Elaenia, with work, other commitments and the need to get a good night’s sleep getting in the way) and we went to Douglas Park on the west side of Chicago to look for the bird and see some other, more expected migrants.

Hermit Thrush

I got pictures of some of the more predictable species. There were several Hermit Thrushes. There was a Swainson’s Thrush right at the beginning of our walk but I did not manage to capture him.

another Hermit Thrush

Pied-Billed Grebe

There’s a water feature which had some Blue-Winged Teal, this Pied-Billed Grebe and several species of swallow. I managed to get on a Northern Rough-Winged Swallow.

Northern Rough-Winged Swallow

The Elaenia was likely catching some of the same bugs with several Ruby-Crowned Kinglets, so it was perhaps inevitable I would manage to get a picture of one of them.

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

After walking around the perimeter of Douglas Park, trying to stay warm on a chilly if sunny day, we went to Columbus Park, another beautiful park on the west side of Chicago, and here is where my memory blurs on what birds we saw where. I think I got most of the next photographs here.

Palm Warbler

Palm Warblers are in town. I usually see them on the ground foraging, pumping their tails as they poke around, but this one was in the trees until he flew.

Palm Warbler

At one point we came upon a convention of Chipping Sparrows, there must have been at least 20 of them. But I couldn’t get close enough to take a group shot of such small birds so you’ll have to settle for one of many.