The Hollows, Veteran's Acres & Bakers Lake Sunday 6-8-25

[Al Stokie]

Hello Bird People,

Today I have reverted from my recent reports on breeding birds & have
gone back to looking for target species. And my targets today were
Lark Sparrow & Cerulean Warbler both of which have been seen in
McHenry County so that's where I went.

The Hollows is in the Crystal Lake area just off of Rt14. There's a
campground area with sandy soil which is perfect for Lark Sparrows but
it's a long walk in to get there. I had been told that I wouldn't have
to go all the way to the campground as the Sparrows had been singing
from the open area just before the campground. But as I walked in
there was a stream of cars leaving as a boy scout group had stayed the
night So nothing was to be found in the open area before the
campground.

Had to change my plan & cover the actual campground but that proved to
be difficult as the place was crawling with boy scouts & the noise
level was high. Took almost an hour but I did find two Lark Sparrows
together & a bit later I saw a 3rd. This took much longer than I
expected but I was glad I was finally successful.

I was now behind schedule but went next to Veterans Acres which is, I
think, a park district place also in Crystal Lake. Looking from the
main parking lot off Walkup Road I could see a baseball field to the
north. But the warbler was supposed to be near a scoreboard & I didn't
see any such scoreboard?. I spent about 35 min checking the nearby
woods but did not hear any Cerulean Warblers. This was because I was
at the wrong place & there's another baseball field to the south by
the main parking area & that field DID have a scoreboard. I was afraid
it was too late in the day for the warbler to be singing but right
behind the scoreboard was a singing Cerulean Warbler even if it was 11
a.m. Also there was Casey W who had the Cerulean in view & soon I also
had it in view. Fifteen min later it was still singing although it had
moved farther west & out of sight.
So although I had to battle traffic & loud boy scouts at The Hollows &
being at the wrong baseball field at Veterans Acres I finally got to
see both of today's targets. All's well ends well!

After lunch I stopped at the Baker's Lake northern overlook & much to
my surprise there were 44 White Pelicans besides all the nesting
Cormorants & Egrets. June is kind of late for such large numbers of
Pelicans in our area.

So it turned out to be a very interesting day. Bird-Of-The-Day to the
Cerulean Warbler & Runner-Up to the Lark Sparrows & all those
Pelicans.

Al Stokie
Mostly in McHenry County today with one stop in Cook County







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