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altivoSpent the entire day, from 7 am to 7:45 pm, counting birds. We saw parts of McHenry County that I didn't even know existed, and bird species I'd never seen (or in some cases, heard of) before. We had a special permission to enter conservation district land that is normally closed to the public, which gave me a chance to see some beautiful settings that were utterly unfamiliar to me.
The species list was pretty impressive. The focus in the spring count here is warblers, since they are always migrating through at this time of year. They don't come to feeders, and you have to go out in the field to see and count them. We saw a bunch of them, including yellow warbler, yellow rumped warbler, palm warbler, blue winged warbler, black and white warbler, blackburnian warbler, black throated green warbler, black throated blue warbler, chestnut sided warbler, and magnolia warbler. Other bird species counted included hooded merganser, Canada goose, rough-winged swallow, Cooper's hawk, red tailed hawk, cedar waxwing, scarlet tanager, great crested flycatcher, gnatcatcher, redstart, ruby throated hummingbird, and many more common species. Heard but not seen: wood thrush, oriole, common yellowthroat, ovenbird, and kingfisher.
Non-avian wildlife we observed included two beavers, a painted turtle, a snapping turtle, lots of toads and frogs including a huge bullfrog who stared at us as hard as we were staring at the birds.
My feet hurt, my back is sore, and tomorrow I'm going to be very stiff. It was still fun.
The species list was pretty impressive. The focus in the spring count here is warblers, since they are always migrating through at this time of year. They don't come to feeders, and you have to go out in the field to see and count them. We saw a bunch of them, including yellow warbler, yellow rumped warbler, palm warbler, blue winged warbler, black and white warbler, blackburnian warbler, black throated green warbler, black throated blue warbler, chestnut sided warbler, and magnolia warbler. Other bird species counted included hooded merganser, Canada goose, rough-winged swallow, Cooper's hawk, red tailed hawk, cedar waxwing, scarlet tanager, great crested flycatcher, gnatcatcher, redstart, ruby throated hummingbird, and many more common species. Heard but not seen: wood thrush, oriole, common yellowthroat, ovenbird, and kingfisher.
Non-avian wildlife we observed included two beavers, a painted turtle, a snapping turtle, lots of toads and frogs including a huge bullfrog who stared at us as hard as we were staring at the birds.
My feet hurt, my back is sore, and tomorrow I'm going to be very stiff. It was still fun.
