This week’s highlighted shirt is a best-seller (the cheeky ones usually are!). Let’s Go Watch Some Birds features an old advertising illustration of a well-dressed woman holding a pair of small opera glasses. The caption, done in old-style movie poster style, reads “Let’s Go Watch Some Birds, Bitches!”

On Sunday we walked a newly-accessible prairie trail at Fort Sheridan with Lake-Cook Audubon. Part of the former army property is managed by the Lake County Forest Preserve District, and the land is deeded to become a golf course. Locally, there is some opposition to the development, which has been on the books for years. It’s a complicated issue, and I urge local readers to learn about what’s happening at Fort Sheridan. You can also send a comment to be added to the public record by sending an email to Fort@LCFPD.org. Following our walk yesterday, I also strongly urge local birders and naturalists to visit this property before it is too late.

About 70 people, split into 4 or 5 groups, joined the bird club on the walk.

A group of birders enjoy Fort Sheridan’s newly-opened prairie

The highlight of the morning was seeing at least 10 Red-headed Woodpeckers, both adults and juveniles – easily the most RHWOs I’ve ever seen in one place.

Red-headed Woodpeckers were everywhere!

We also had great looks at a pair of American Kestrels. They were hunting huge numbers of dragonflies and being dive-bombed by Barn Swallows – what a show!

Kestrels had this view of Lake Michigan from Fort Sheridan’s prairie

There were also screaming Red-tailed Hawks, fly-catching Eastern Kingbirds and Eastern Wood-Pewees, and plenty of grassland species like Bobolinks, Savannah Sparrows and Eastern Meadowlarks.

Eastern Meadowlark

The great birds, perfect company, sunny skies and break in the recent heat and humidity made it a fabulous morning out in the field!

Birders

During our visit to Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo earlier this month, we had a look at the bird enclosures. After viewing the penguins and seabirds, we headed to the McCormick Bird House, which is home to at least 28 species in several different exhibits.

A shorebird habitat housed a sunning American Avocet, a shy Red Knot and Piping Plover, and an extremely active Black-necked Stilt.

Separate enclosures housed more birds, including two endangered species which are part of breeding programs. The Guam Micronesia Kingfisher is extinct in the wild, with just 100 birds in zoos. The Lincoln Park zoo participates in a species survival plan in cooperation with other zoos.

The zoo also participates in a species survival plan for the critically endangered Bali Mynah, in cooperation with other zoos.

Many of the birds are housed in an open aviary, and visitors walk between the habitat with birds flying overhead or scurrying across paths.

Inca Tern

Red-capped Cardinal

We had fun watching an active Hamerkop gathering mud and debris for a humongous nest.

Before leaving the building, we stopped to peek inside the kitchen. What a complicated menu!

The fifth MAPS banding session at Rollins Savanna this season took place on Tuesday, July 13. We had 12 people working at the station – the most ever. And we had a total of 9 birds – the fewest ever. I didn’t lay hands on any birds, although I took a fair amount of data down. There was a bit of excitement came from a juvenile Common Yellowthroat who proved difficult to identify. Otherwise, there was a lot of butterfly-watching and sitting around.

Examining the wing of the Common Yellowthroat, photo by Janice Sweet

Common Buckeye, photo by blogger

Tiger Swallowtail, photo by Janice Sweet

The next session was on 22 July – notes soon!

Earlier this month, Arthur and I visited Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo. Naturally, we focused on visiting the resident birds. We passed a flock of Chilean Flamingos in the Flamingo Habitat on our way to the Blum-Kovler Penguin-Seabird House.

There are two main enclosures inside. One housed penguins: Chinstrap, King and Rockhopper. They were being fed by a zoo employee, who also looked to be recording data.

Next we stopped to look at the seabirds: Common Murre, Razorbill and Tufted Puffin. Their enclosure was being cleaned, so most birds were in the water. It was a lot of fun to watch them swimming – especially when they completely submerged, appearing to fly underwater.

Stay tuned for more birds of Lincoln Park Zoo, coming soon!

Seen in the kitchen of the McCormick Bird House at the Lincoln Park Zoo; click to embiggen.

Get Wordless!

This week’s highlighted shirt takes a Latin phrase, Alis Aquilae, and pairs it with the silhouette of a flying bird of prey. The phrase means On the wings of eagles. Shown here on the Jr. Jersey T-Shirt.

The fourth MAPS banding session at Rollins Savanna this season took place on Friday, July 2. We could not have asked for better weather! It was clear and remained relatively cool all morning, only reaching into the upper 70s just as we were finishing up.

Rollins Savanna banding station, photo by Janice Sweet

Unfortunately, we could have asked for better numbers of birds. On several net runs we came up empty or had just one or two birds. Once a single net caught 7 Song Sparrows; the rest of the day was extremely slow.

Juvenile (left) and adult Song Sparrows, photo by Janice Sweet

Cedar Waxwing reads from the Pyle guide, photo by blogger

I banded two male American Robins and one male Common Yellowthroat. Other than that, I did a lot of sitting around that morning. It certainly was a lovely day for it.

Skulling an American Robin, photo by Janice Sweet

We did have the first Blue-gray Gnatcatcher of the season, but the rest of the birds were the usual suspects.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, photo by Janice Sweet

Black-capped Chickadee release, photo by Janice Sweet

This week’s highlighted shirts are for twitchers. First up is Stalking vs. Twitching, with stylized text reading “You call it stalking I call it twitching.” Next up is Itchin’ to go Twitchin’, also using stylized text. Both designs look great on light or dark apparel and are also available on the usual selection of novelty gift items, too.

Going Wild : Adventures with Birds in the Suburban Wilderness by Robert Winkler. First published 2003.

Robert Winkler’s Going Wild is a collection of essays on the birds and wildlife found close to his Connecticut home. While the essays are well-written, I didn’t find them to be particularly interesting, especially as someone who is not familiar with Winkler’s neck of the woods. None of the essays drew me into the setting and I felt like I was reading a report of the author’s activities rather than a descriptive story about something interesting he found while exploring wild areas close to his home.

A bigger problem I had with Winkler’s book were distractions in the text that kept taking me out of the essays. For example, in an early passage, Winkler writes that anthropomorphism is “distasteful because it, too, denies animals their identity.” But throughout the book the author is guilty of anthropomorphizing birds again and again. In an essay about feeder birds, he describes a White-breasted Nuthatch as patient and deadpan, and tells of the bird’s tenderness and “romantic side” during spring courtship. Later a House Sparrow becomes entangled in one of his feeders, and as the author works to rescue the bird, he notes that “the light in [the bird's] eye told me he was uninjured, yet he was plainly terrified.” Later, Barred Owls are optimists, and “glad to be alive.”

Several times I was also distracted by shady behavior in which the author engaged. He visits nature reserves or parks outside of regular hours, offering flimsy justification. He also came to realize cats belong indoors a bit late – six years into keeping an outdoor cat. I’m glad he saw the light, but reading about his cat’s 80+ victims didn’t do much to help me empathize with the author.

I’m sure I would have enjoyed this book more had I been familiar with some of the spots where his would-be adventures took place. Unfortunately, the distractions just added to my lack of interest. I give Going Wild 2 Goldfinches out of 5.