Chicago Botanic Garden Friday 4-17-26

[Al Stokie]

Hello Bird People,

All I had time for today was a visit to the Botanic Garden where I
found fewer birds than I have been finding. Part of the reason for
that is the flooded condition of the mudflat area which means no
shorebirds or gulls. It will be a while for the water to go down.

Chicago Botanic Garden (8:20 am-12:10 pm)

Pied Billed Grebe (11)
D.C. Cormorant (8)
Great Blue Heron (1)
Canada Goose (11)
Mallard (6)
Bufflehead (1-PR)
Red Breasted Merganser (9)
OSPREY (1, sitting very low on the nest platform, very hard to see)
Killdeer (1)
Caspian Tern (3)
Mourning Dove (8)
Kingfisher (2, chasing each other)
Yellow Bellied Sapsucker (1)
Red Bellied Woodpecker (H-1)
Flicker (4)
Tree Swallow (6)
Blue Jay (H-1)
Ruby Crowned Kinglet (5)
Robin (32)
Starling (3)
Yellow Rumped Myrtle Warbler (4)
Cardinal (3)
Field Sparrow (1)
Song Sparrow (6, most were singing)
White Throated Sparrow (2)
Eastern Meadowlark (H-1)
Red Wings (12)
Grackles (10)
Cowbird (1-M & 1-F)
House Finch (3)
Goldfinch (7)
House Sparrow (12)

So 32 species for the day at the CBC plus roadside Pigeons for a day's
total of 33.
Bird-Of-The-Day to the finally seen Osprey even though I could only
see its head!
Runners-Up to the Caspian Terns & the Myrtle Warblers. No Purple
Martins have returned yet or at least I haven't seen any.

License Plate Of The Day to one from Washington D.C. seen in the lot
at the Garden.

Al Stokie
Local in Cook County today