Townsend's Solitaire
Kate was feeling better so we decided to chase a couple of birds
that were on the Chicago hotline. Lyon's Woods in Waukegan was
the spot for some neat stuff in the last couple of weeks
including Townsend's Solitaire, Evening Grosbeak, Shrikes, etc.
So I held a gun to Kate's head and forced her out of bed at o
dark hundred and we drove the hour and a half to Waukegan. (BTW,
I used Delorme's CD to refine the Chicago hotline directions.
Lyon's Woods is north of Greenwood and south of Illinois Beach
State Park on the west side of the road). We found at least
six
other cars in the parking lot. Obviously, a few other birders
had a little chasing in mind as well. We walked to the appointed
spot but there were no birds, except for the usual Chickadees and
Red-breasted Nuthatches.
We continued on one of the trails and ran into a pair of birders
inspecting some Waxwings trying to turn one of them into a
Bohemian. No such luck. However, at that instant, a Northern
Shrike appeared and gave us remarkably good looks. He tried for
a Waxwing breakfast but was not lucky. Our trail mates had just
seen a couple of Evening Grosbeaks further down the path so we
headed off in search of big yellow birds.
We ran into another group and they joined our quest. With five
pairs of eyes inspecting every Robin and Waxwing along the trail,
if there were Grosbeaks, they were hiding. We stomped around for
a while, crashing through the brush and avoiding muddy spots on
the trail. We found some houses on the edge of the park and
checked their feeders. We abandoned that quickly since none of
these people had filled their feeders that day. We also were
nervous about police investigations of a bunch of nattily clad
peeping toms.
We circled back to the starting point and the folks we ran into
started back to their cars. Since the Grosbeak would be a lifer
for Kate and me, we felt we needed to make at least one more
circuit. As we came out into a scrubby field, Kate suddenly
raised her bins and said, "Townsend's Solitaire." We both got
a
nice look at a remarkably dull gray bird. Knowing that the
others really wanted this bird, I loudly bellowed the
announcement back toward the woods they had disappeared into. We
heard a faint "ok" and a few moments later they came running and
skidding (still some ice on the trail) up to us.
Kate got credit for finding the bird and I got credit for my
superb shouting ability. Actually, when you think about it, if
you're going to go around roaring the names of birds, "Townsend's
Solitaire" is an excellent choice. It really rolls off the
tongue. Let's see. We encourage people to do their Barred
Owl
imitations. Maybe we should have contests to see how well they
shout bird names. I think I've found a new skill! Besides,
my
Barred Owl sucks.
BTW, the Townsend's was not a lifer for us. It was one of the
first "good" birds we saw in our BP birding days (Before
Psychotic as opposed to Post Psychotic). We had been at the
Morton Arboretum on a field trip when the trip leader heard about
this bird from another staffer. We went to the appointed
location and it was right there. However, this bird was a county
bird, a "PP" bird and it cleared a BVD. So we enjoyed it
immensely.
We were still greedy though and continued an ultimately fruitless
search for the Grosbeaks. We gave up and headed down to the
Chicago Botanic Garden for lunch and a search for some reported
Redpolls. No joy here, but we did have a pleasant walk and Kate
accomplished some Christmas shopping.
Our final stop was the Arboretum. There are currently three or
four Townsend's Solitaires being seen in the Chicago area right
now. Fisher field was where we saw the Solitaire (excuse me
while I pop up Avisys) 13 years ago. So I figured that it was
worth a shot to "just check it out." Kate was starting to drag a
little...her inactivity from the flu was taking its toll...but
she was game.
On our way out, we walked through "the dump." This is an area
set aside for gigantic piles of wood chips and logs. There we
found another very cooperative Shrike, flying from small tree to
small tree. Again, Kate spotted it first. Great! Now I had
some
content that ~we~ found for my hotline.
We continued into Fisher Field but found no Solitaires; not for
want of inspecting the top of every tree in the field, however.
On our way back to the car, we did find a Rough-Legged hawk, a
year bird.
So, it wasn't a day to measure up to cruising in the Atlantic,
but we did have beautiful weather, a county bird, a decade bird,
two year birds, two site birds, a PP bird AND we didn't have to
get up at 4am or take massive amounts of medication.
Jim Frazier
12/2/95 |
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