I had my mom doing the driving as I planned to scan the fields as we went, and I couldn't do that if I had to pay attention to the road. I also decided that the correct approach would be to pull over occasionally and step out of the truck to scan in great detail. The first time we did this, another couple of birders pulled up, it was Andrew A. again and Scott C. was accompanying him in the search for the Snowy Owl. They had already scanned the area well, but were planning on staying longer to keep trying to find the owl. I had not found it yet either, so we exchanged numbers and they went back out to Dauberman Road, while mom and I continued east on Scott Road after an unsuccessful original scan.
We pulled over just past a house on the south side of the road, and in front of a red barn on the north side of the road. Here I got out and once again scanned the fencerow that was out in the corn field about 300 yards away. Something out there seemed peculiar, so I stayed on it for another moment or two. What is that? It's a grayish lump... Next to a fencepost... Could it be? I pulled out my camera to take some distant photographs so I could zoom in on the viewfinder to pick up more detail. YES!! That grayish blob next to the fencepost was the owl!! Here are two shots, the first one shows how distant it was and where it was at, and the second is a heavily cropped, but still distant photo.
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| Way out there is where the Snowy Owl lies. |
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| The Snowy Owl is to the right of the right fencepost. |
Well, that took no time at all! Just a couple minutes after exchanging phone numbers, I happily called Andrew to let him know I had the owl. They pulled up five minutes later, and set up the scope. They had scanned this area for nearly 10 minutes earlier, but to no avail. Glad I could help!! These looks were very distant, which is frustrating for most, but it was enough to count Snowy Owl on my list (#49)!
Now the question was, where do I go from here? I hadn't made any plans to go anywhere else, as I thought I would have to dedicate nearly all my time to find this owl. But it took all of 40 minutes for driving, and another 10 minutes or so of scanning. So, from there I decided to take Main Street east into Batavia to check the Batavia Dam for a Great-Blue Heron and possibly some recently absent gull species. However, the gulls continued to elude me. It seems that for the past week, even Ring-Billed Gulls have been scarce on the Fox River.
When we first pulled up, I noticed a Bald Eagle in a dead tree along the river south of the dam, and then the waterfowl down below. Hoping desperately for a Bufflehead or an American Black Duck, I scanned every bit of the water there, and found no such thing. My scanning did not go without a reward however, as a female Red-Breasted Merganser caught my attention amongst a group of Common Mergansers! Here is a photo showing the Red-Breasted Merganser with a female Common Merganser. Note the differences.
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| Red-Breasted (front) and Common Mergansers |
As you can see, Red-Breasted Mergansers are obviously smaller than Common Mergansers, and have no white on the chest and throat. Also, the female Red-Breasted Merganser's head is not as rich of a brown color. This is a good bird for Kane County, and now the second one I'd seen in two days! I felt good about that find, and walked the path to the dam to find the top completely frozen over. I turned back, and saw my mom trying to get my attention. She pointed at something, and I looked in time to notice a Great-Blue Heron flying up-river at eye-level (#50)! It then turned around and sat on a branch, then took off again and landed on the ice.
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| Great-Blue Heron Grabs my Attention |
That was good, another target acquired! We ended up seeing another four Bald Eagles as well. After a quick stop at the McDonald's drive-thru, it was off to South Elgin, where I wanted to check the dam, and then go to Jon Duerr FP to try my hand at finding both species of Kinglets.
The dam was inactive, only Common Goldeneyes there, still no gulls to pick through. A few Bald Eagles again, but I decided to climb down from the berm and head back to the parking lot. I noticed someone walking our way, and I knew that I recognized this person. It was nice to see Vic B. out checking the dam for eagles no doubt! We had a short exchange, and I wondered how he had done looking for the Rough-Legged Hawks I had told him about. It sounded like he had some decent success and a very nice photo of one in flight proved that to be true later on that night! Always cool to see familiar faces while out and about!
From there, we went back south to walk back along the railroad tracks at Jon Duerr Forest Preserve. It felt weird knowing that this was the place a rarity had been since early November, and I WASN'T there to see it! The Townsend's Solitaire was one of the earliest birds on my list, and so I thought I wouldn't really even mind if it wasn't to be found. Walking back, another birder was coming from that direction, I asked just to see what his answer was. He had heard the bird, and the person who had gone before him had seen and heard it. He was also kind enough to give exact directions to the spot of the Kinglets. I walked back, slowly, just scanning everywhere and listening for the smallest of chips. Nothing, and I could see a couple of birders up ahead. I went up there to see if maybe they had found what they were looking for, and they hadn't yet.
I caught their names, Sherman and Mary. Sherman I knew from the Illinois Birders' Forum. He wanted to see the Solitaire that day, so I told him exactly where I had seen it the last few times, and we walked in that direction a short ways, all the while exchanging stories and having a pleasant conversation about birds and photography. Suddenly, a bird popped up out of the Juniper grove, and into a tall dead tree quite a ways from where we were. The size, the shape, and the flight pattern all confirmed before I had even seen it in my binoculars, no doubt it was the Townsend's Solitaire! Here's a shot showing how bad viewing really was.
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| Townsend's Solitaire |
Eventually, it flew directly over us and into some thick cover, not to be seen again by us. Sherman and Mary departed, excited by their success, and we continued on down the tracks, but failed to find Kinglets of any sort, although a Brown Creeper was a nice consolation (#51)!
After Sunday, I only had a couple of somewhat limited windows to add some more birds to my list. I spent some time on Monday getting acquainted with a more local preserve, Hampshire Forest Preserve. I walked about 75% of the trails, and at least came up with a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers (#52). Wednesday I took an afternoon trip to the Fox River, up to the Carpentersville Dam where I came across 3 American Black Ducks (#53) amongst a bevvy of other ducks.
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| Three American Black Ducks (right) amongst Mallards and Common Goldeneyes. |
I decided then to check on another local rarity, a Harlequin Duck that had showed up in Elgin on the 11th. I was pleased to find it still there, but not so pleased that I had to look directly into the sun to check the rest of the river. I spoke to a fellow photographer, Jeff C. for a while, and watched as a Bald Eagle approached from the south. It passed by up at a reasonable height at first, but then circled back over the dam down lower. It was so close, I couldn't even fit it in the frame! Take a look for yourself, but the shots aren't the greatest, they are backlit.
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| Bald Eagle Passes Directly Overhead |
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| Bald Eagle Flies Too Close! |
And so we are now all caught up! I am currently at 53 species for my Kane County big year, and have 12 more to go to reach my goal of 65 for the month. The agenda calls for more owls and raptors, as well as some stubborn songbirds and wiley waterfowl, stay tuned!
Brendon Lake
Kane County Big Year- 53 Species
Illinois- 53 Species
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