Techny Basin in the Wind!

[Al Stokie]

Hello Bird People,

Tried to look at all the ducks in the lower reservoir at the south end
of Techny Basin but the wind was so hard I had a hard time holding the
bino's steady. This plus temps in the middle 30's made for a difficult
day! After such a start I just did a couple of small lakes as I could
view stuff from inside the car.

Techny Basin (9:30-10:10 am)

Canada Goose (4)
Mallard (8)
Shoveler (22)
Green Winged Teal (4)
Blue Winged Teal (6)
Lesser Scaup (3-4)
Ring Necked Duck (~30)
Bufflehead (1-F)
Common Merganser (2-M & 1-F)
Red Breasted Merganser (2-M)
Coots (2)
Yellow Bellied Sapsucker (H-1) & Flicker (H-1)
Robin (4), Song Sparrow (2) & Red Wings (2)

Heritage Park in Wheeling (11:40-11:55 am)

Horned Grebe (1)
Canada Goose (6), Mallard (8) & Red Breasted Merganser (1-PR)
Ring Billed (26) & Herring (2) Gulls
Robins (6)

Beck Lake (12:10-12:30 pm)

Common Loon (1) & Pied Billed Grebe (1)
Canada Goose (~35) & Mallard (1-PR)
Killdeer (2)
Ring Billed Gull (3)
Eastern Phoebe (1)
Tree Swallows (~30-35)

I stopped at Big Bend Lake where I could see many Mergansers & 2 Loons
from the car but didn't try the long walk to get to where you could
see the whole lake due to the wind.

So 24 species for the day with 9 species of ducks plus 3 roadside
additions to total 27 species.
Bird-Of-The-Day to the Eastern Phoebe who was fighting the wind while
trying to catch bugs.
Runners-Up to the Loons & all the ducks.

Al Stokie
Local in Cook County today making the best of bad conditions