Chicago Lakefront Birding Magic

Today's trip of choice was again the Chicago lakefront. Recent reports of Snowy Owls had me hoping that I would be able to lay eyes on one of these beautiful creatures before the day's end. That didn't work out, but I had several other targets that I wanted to get too, so that's what I went for. The day started at Montrose, followed by Loyola Beach, and finished up at Fermilab in Batavia Illinois. The weather was great from the start, and the birds even better!

As soon as I arrived at Montrose, I wanted to head to the harbor to try to find the long-staying Eared Grebe that I had failed to locate on my last attempt. Today was immediately a different story, as the Eared Grebe was in full view, and allowed great looks and decent photo ops. Another birder, Howard, was already enjoying the Grebe when I arrived. We talked and watched the grebe, and were eventually joined by another birder.

What happened next surprised all of us, as we watched the grebe and talked, a large white bird came flying in and landed in the harbor less than 50 feet from where we were. It was a Trumpeter Swan, something that doesn't usually land in the harbors of Lake Michigan!

The swan stayed for about 5-10 minutes, and then took off out over the lake.

After that wonderful encounter, it was time to walk back to the pier, where one of the other birders had seen a Black Scoter, which would have been a lifer for me. While walking alongside the pier on the sand, a gull flew over that seemed peculiar. It was the adult Glaucous Gull that had been seen around the area lately. This was lifer #272 for me! The Black Scoter was still present right in the middle of the hook-shaped end of the pier, lifer #273! After that, I came across a birder who was birding Montrose for the first time. What amazing timing this guy had for sure! As we spoke about what was being seen, a Northern Harrier flew in off of the lake and right past us.

I finished up with 21 species at Montrose, of which I would call four of them high quality. The Trumpeter Swan, Black Scoter, Glaucous Gull and Eared Grebe were all great birds!

Next stop I decided would be Loyola Beach to find the Harlequin Duck, and it was easy to find! It also allowed for some great shots!

Not much else was here, but that didn't matter to me. Finally, I finished up at Fermilab back on my way home, where I met fellow birder Colin Dobson. Hopefully he was successful in locating the Northern Shrike there, as that was the last bird on his target list that he needed to get. He had already gotten Townsend's Solitaire, all the birds I got at Montrose, Snowy Owl and the Harlequin Duck in this day! Fermilab's highlight was a minimum of 29 Greater White-Fronted Geese in the bison pasture.

All in all, beautiful weather and excellent birding came together to make a November day I will surely never forget!

Brendon Lake