Red crossbill, Nathan's lifer (Nathan Goldberg)
Cindy said, “You are too wrapped up in your passenger pigeon stuff. You need a hobby.” “Hey,” I said. “How about birding?”
Birders in northern Illinois often, for very good reason, complain about the lack of good birds that are readily accessible. Last weekend, though, offered a nice variety of exciting choices. The outstanding bird is a sage thrasher that has been at Montrose for well over a week now. Most people who have looked succeed in their quest, although the bird can be difficult, and some have missed it. It is probably only the second time in recorded history that a sage thrasher has lingered in Illinois so that most everyone who cares can add it to their list. I was fortunate- ok old enough- to have seen the first one to have blessed us with its prolonged presence: that was back in 1969-1970. Now a new generation can have the same pleasure.
Among the new generation of young birders here is high school sophomore Nathan Goldberg, whose birding prowess and temperament seem beyond his years. (Nathan, by the way, holds a distinction unique among the seven some billion Homo sapiens who currently inhabit this planet and likely all those who have ever lived before: the only person whose first observed hummingbird in Illinois was an Anna’s.) Despite the lamentations regarding nature deficit disorder (as coined by Richard Louv), there are probably as many serious young birders now as there have ever been: it is fantasy to think there were ever very many at one time. And with the internet, kids physically distant from one another can interact and forge friendships of long duration. It can be lonely and even painful being a youngster with a passion for birds, and now it is easier to know that others share your malady.
Nathan lives a bit too far away from Montrose to have made it in time to see the thrasher the day it was found. Chris Williamson, one of his three principal birding mentors (“my birding mom”), called to tell him about the sighting and when he said he had no way to get there, she picked him up and he saw it. I had seen his posts but we had not crossed paths until one of my obscure comments on Facebook prompted him to contact me and a birding trip was born. He and his mom, Lynn Remington, met me at the Skokie Lagoons. But where to go? Should we look for wigeon and greater yellowlegs which Nathan needed for his year list, or to Montrose to look for his lifer common redpoll, or to head north to Van Patton forest preserve near the Wisconsin border where another lifer, red crossbill, had been found the day before. We decided on the last option.
Lynn and Nathan at Rollins Savanna.
Our first stop was at Osprey Lake to look for widgeon. We found a leucistic coot (among hundreds), gadwall, pintail, green-winged teal, but alas not the duck we were looking for. Then a quick look at Wadsworth where I have not been all fall and though no birds, I was distressed to see duck hunters: the area is not open for hunting.
Soon we arrived at Van Patton, Parking Lot C. My rule of thumb in looking for rare birds is to look first for the birders. A license plate proclaiming “nuthatch” demonstrated that at least one group was nearby. We ran into them quickly, as they had tarried to enjoy the four red crossbills. Nathan put the scope on the birds and we had frame-filling views. Nathan not only took some lovely photos but also some neat video. Our two companions left and we continued our observations. I joked that we could not leave until we handed the birds off to the next birders. Minutes after the birds flew off to the west, two birders did show up. This allowed us to leave but we later learned that they never located the birds. (Still later in the day, other birders did succeed) A quick check of the lake that is also part of Van Patton netted a Bonaparte’s gull (great find by Lynn), a common loon, redheads, ring-necks, ruddy ducks, and a couple of horned grebes.
Bonaparte's gull giving a show (Nathan Goldberg)
Then off to Rollins Savanna to look for waterfowl. We found shovellers and a female harrier coursing over the marsh, but still no wigeon. The highlight was a pair of very tame sandhill cranes. These were birds were obviously accustomed to people as they allowed a bicycle to pass close by and even a pedestrian, ears plugged with listening a listening device. But the birds did not let us get anywhere near as close. (I suggested that they might be anti-Semitic. But more likely it was something we said.)
Lynn and Joel spook the cranes (Nathan Goldberg)
Independence Grove had been hosting a red-necked grebe for over a week as well. Nathan had already seen one this fall at Montrose but it would have been a county bird for me. We had also heard that earlier in the day, amidst all the Canada geese, was a small flock of cackling geese, which would have been new for Nathan. The former quarry was covered with geese, but try as we might, none proved to be particularly small (there were some false alarms but the runty appearance proved to be merely an artifice of the bird’s positioning). Nathan pulled out the red-necked grebe, easily hidden by its comparatively gargantuan neighbors.
And I later learned that on their way home, Lynn and Nathan stopped at Montrose and found the common redpoll. Multiple lifers all within an hour or so of home- ah, to be young again.
