Sun 20 Jul 2008
Barbara and I checked various flooded spots this morning. No special highlights, but I thought that a general report on what birds were where might be of interest in case you were thinking about going out yourself. At the intersection of Roscoe/Gleasman Road, there were about 7-8 peeps, with 2 being Semipalmated Sandpipers.
Moody/Blodgett had the best mixture, but the birds were quite a distance east of the cul-de-sac at the eatern terminus of Moody (don't go past the mail box on to the private drive). You will need a scope. There were approximately 30 Lesser Yellowlegs, 3 Greater Yellowlegs, and 3 Short-billed Dowitchers. Some peeps were visible, but they were so far away that I couldn't make any definite identification, except the ones I could see had the color and behavior of Least Sandpipers. A Pied-billed Grebe, a pair of Sandhill Cranes, 10 Ring-billed Gulls and 74 Great Blue Herons rounded out the show at the watery areas.
The pond ne of the Meridian/IL75 intersection was empty. More gulls were further up the road nearer to the bridge over the river, but way out on the west side.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:40 am
Anyone seen any sandhill crane chicks in county? Also any waterfowl chicks? what does our local survival rate appear to be?
Doug Goodman, rrstar is looking for birding stories this summer. He says migritory for fall hunting looks good. but i planted my local concernsin his ear.
d