Air Station Prairie, Both Techny's, Lake Opeka & More Tuesday 2-17-26

[Al Stokie]

Hello Bird People,

Yesterday's target species was European Goldfinch which I found easily.
Today's target species was Killdeer which although I looked for it at
five places I did not find.
The problem is that all Killdeer reports lately are of birds flying by
which are hard to refind. So I just covered 5 places where Killdeer
are found in season & although the habitat looks great I had none
today. As you may recall one of my yearly projects is to see a
shorebird species in all 12 months of the year. I was lucky to see the
Purple Sandpiper in January but now I need a Killdeer for February or
my shorebird quest will be over early. But I've got two more weeks to
find one.

Air Station Prairie (7:30-8:50 am)

The pond east of the Center has open water & in the water were 86
Mallards & 2 Black Ducks.
Also a Red Tailed Hawk & several singing Red Winged Blackbirds.

Techny Basin (9-10:30 am)

Highlight here was my 1st of the year BLACK CROWNED NIGHT HERON, a young one.
Also had 3 flying Great Blue Herons, Mallards & 10 Red Breasted Mergansers.
And many more singing Red Wings.

Techny North (10:35-11 am)

In with the 34 Mallards were Common (a pair) & Red Breasted (2-M) Mergansers.
Also saw 2 Red Tailed Hawks & a Kestrel & one Ring Billed Gull flew by.

I also visited Heritage Park, Beck Lake & Big Bend Lake but saw very little.

Lake Opeka (1:10-1:30 pm) (this local lake continues to have several
duck species)

Canada Goose (65) & Mallard (108)
Goldeneye (26) & Bufflehead (1-M)
Hooded (1-M & 1-F) & Red Breasted (5) Mergansers
Ring Billed (10) & Herring (22) Gulls

So 26 species for the day with no roadside additions.
Bird-Of-The-Day to the young Black Crowned Night Heron & Runners-Up
to the many singing (sort of singing) Red Winged Blackbirds. It's not
often the Red Wings
get an award.

Al Stokie
Local in Cook County today