Dickcissel Dial (815) 200-8650: Tuesday, August 30, 2022

[Jarod Hitchings]

Welcome to the Dickcissel Dial the Central Illinois Birding hotline sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited in Springfield. Today is Tuesday, August 30, 2022. The Limpkin and Swallow-tailed Kite are still present this week. There was a Greater White-fronted Goose and a Hudsonian Godwit at Vance Township in Vermilion county. Trumpeter Swan in Peoria. Mississippi Kite in Monroe and Randolph counties. Black-bellied Whistling Duck in Monroe and St. Clair. Black-throated Blue Warbler in Knox county. 

Shorebirds in Champaign include Black-necked Stilt, Baird's Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, and a juvenile Stilt Sandpiper. Dewitt county had juvenile Little Blue Heron and Common Tern. Wayne County near Little Wabash River had a Piping Plover and White-faced Ibis. Juvenile Red Knot at the Meredosia NWR. Putnam County had a Yellow-headed Blackbird, Least Bittern, Black-bellied Plover, Common Gallinule, and Long-billed Dowitcher.

The Illinois Ornithological Society held its annual Shorebird weekend in Fulton and Mason counties where highlights included the following sandpipers White-rumped, Buff-breasted, and Western along with Willet, Wilson's & Red-necked Phalarope, and Least Tern. 

Now for this week's trivia question: which bird species has the ability to fly backwards? Remember the Eurasian Collared-Dove says "koo-KOO-kook" they came to Florida from the Bahamas in the 1960s making their first Illinois appearance in 1998. Please leave trivia answers and sightings after the message. Enjoy the outdoors!

The Hitchings Family

Sherman, Illinois