Parula warbler photographed by John Cassady.
I have mentioned the Skokie Lagoon before but it is a special place for me. Up until the 1930s, it was known as the Skokie Swamp, an inter-morainal wetland that formed during the last glacial incursion. Its mollusks were studied in detail but there is not a great deal in the ornithological literature concerning its birds. The most interesting report was by a botanist who found numerous singing LeConte’s sparrows one June. Acquired by the Cook County Forest Preserve through a gift by Edith Rockefeller McCormick, most of the swamp was converted into the Skokie Lagoons by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The very northern part, from Dundee Road to Lake-Cook Road, was destroyed with the construction of the Chicago Botanic Gardens in the 1970s.
For most of the year, the lagoons are not very birdy, but during May and early fall it remains a wonderful place to observe migrating land birds. Most of my warbler lifers were seen here in the late 1960s. My parents would occasionally let me play hooky to go birding. The first time was in April 1967 when Brother David, a priest in the Passionist Order, took me to the Skokie Lagoons birding. I recall we saw a very early Wilson’s warbler. (Some issues that consume society today were simply not in the ken of most people back then.) Then I remember August 1968 when Chicago hosted the Democratic convention. I expressed some interest in going downtown to watch the proceedings (I think it was before the really violent stuff occurred) and my horrified mother responded by inviting a birding friend, Bedford Brown, over for dinner and an afternoon of birding at the lagoons. We spent some time studying a black-throated green warbler thinking it might have been a Townsends.
The Evanston North Shore Bird Club has been conducting Friday morning walks in May at the lagoons since well before I ever started birding. More than once my mom took me on a walk led by such luminaries of the day as Louise North, Bertha Huxford, and Irene Buchanon. I still try to make the walks, and it looks as if this year I will be in attendance on all of them.
Last week (May 14) I went on one of the lagoon walks led by Barbara Brown and Lynne Carpenter. There were 25 people present, which could be daunting for one or even two leaders. And high water forced us to walk on the bike path, where bikers seem not to realize that while a pedestrian would likely be harmed more than they, a collision would create consequences for both. In fact, I was almost hit by a clown zooming by. Many are pleasant though, and I would assure them that the birders would be gone in another week or two.
The warblers were not as good as they had been the week before but there was still some nice variety. A blackburnian sparked a renewal of a discussion we had last week: which warbler is more beautiful- the blackburnian or prothonotary. Lynne strongly holds to the latter, while I opt for the former. We almost came to blows, and a 25-year friendship hung in the balance, but cooler heads prevailed, and we agreed- reluctantly- to disagree.
With such a large group of people one of the challenges is trying to get everyone on a bird. And the warm April advanced the development of foliage by a week or so, thus making it even harder than usual to pick out tiny birds in the canopy. A parula and black-throated green each proved particularly difficult for some folks. Warblers being so fidgety and all, by the time I managed to articulate where it was, the bird has moved off. You just hope that you get people close enough so that when it does move, the birders will at least get a view of it in flight. At one point, while everyone was searching for warblers, I looked up and saw the most unexpected bird of the day- a young bald eagle. It was pretty easy getting people to see it: look up, see sky, and then look for huge bird circling slowly overhead. I think everybody but one person managed to see it. Now, how to get everyone on that female Cape May . . .
Evanston North Shore Bird Club field trip to Skokie Lagoons, May 2010.
Tags: parula warbler, Skokie Lagoons