Birthdays & Birding at Wood Dale Reservoir & More Thursday 3-27-25

[Al Stokie]

Hello Bird People,

Well I have always prided myself on answering every email that I get
even if it's one asking for directions to somewhere that I have given
the same directions over & over again. But today I received 37 emails,
4 text messages & 2 phone calls all wishing me Happy Birthday, good
birding & even good luck with license plates. And the emails are still
coming in. Also I am told that there are birthday messages for me on
Facebook which, unfortunately, I can't see as I am not on Facebook. So
rather than stay up for hours saying thank you to everyone I will just
say here that it was very nice of everyone to send me birthday
greetings! And this is not just any birthday but it is my 80th
birthday so it's a milestone of sorts. I guess I go from being the
"old retired guy" to being the "even older retired guy". I never knew
there were so many folks who read my reports but it seems like there
are quite a few which surprises me somewhat as I seldom report
anything special. So I will try & keep up the reports in spite of all
of my walking, standing & hand shaking problems, at least for a little
longer although the reports may be diminishing in the future.
Here's my results for my 80th birthday:

Wood Dale Reservoir (7:45-10:25 a.m.) (With, as usual, Luis M)

Reservoir

P.B. Grebe (4)
D.C. Cormorant (1)
Great Blue Heron (2)
Canada Goose (9) & Mallard (9)
CANVASBACK (2-M)
Ring Necked Duck (1-F) & Lesser Scaup (9)
Common (1-M) & Red Breasted (301) Mergansers
Killdeer (2) & Snipe (1)
Ring Billed (11) & Herring (2) Gulls
Tree Swallow (~10)

Middle Pond

Great Blue Heron (1)
D.C. Cormorant (3)
Canada Goose (4) & Mallard (4)
AMERICAN WOODCOCK (1, flushed one while walking)
Kestrel (1-M)

Itasca/Western Wetlands

Great Blue Heron (1)
Mallard (7) & Green Winged Teal (1-PR)
Killdeer (11)
(While here Luis saw 2 Common Loons heading west but I missed them in flight)

Land Birds

Mourning Dove (5)
Red Bellied (2) & Downy (2-3) Woodpeckers & Flicker (2)
Blue Jay (3)
Robin (17) & Starling (2)
Cardinal (4)
Song Sparrow (8) & Junco (4)
Red Wings (34), Grackle (8) & Cowbird (1)
RUSTY BLACKBIRD (2-M)
House Sparrow (2)
(Strange but we had no Finches of any kind today)

Also stopped at the Bensenville Ditch where we added a nice adult Bald
Eagle & a pair of Bufflehead. Had 363 more Red Breasted Mergansers as
well. After lunch & radiation therapy I checked out Axehead Lake &
Lake Opeka but didn't see much there. Opeka had 1 P.B. Grebe & 3
Horned Grebes & Axehead had 6 more Lesser Scaup.

So 38 species for my birthday & Bird-Of-The-Day will be the Woodcock
which was a new site bird for me. Runners-Up will be the Rusty
Blackbirds, the adult Bald Eagle & the 2 male Canvasback ducks.

Al Stokie
Mostly in DuPage County today having a pretty good day