Giant black bug?! Techny

[Suzanne Coleman]

So I thought I’d share this here as well since you guys are out a lot and might have some suggestions:

OK buggers! I couldn’t say that if this was England right? Lol. Anyway, I was out today by a river/prairie area in central cook county I guess and this giant black thing was I don’t even know how to describe it I use the word tagging me since it’s the slang I used as a kid. Basically it was like flying around my neck and face really close and buzzing me really loud and it would not go away and I actually had to like leave my equipment and start running away lol! And it kept following me for like I don’t know, minutes?! I’ve had this happen in the past in forests but the insect with something I never actually saw and eventually I thought it was a dragonfly or something like eating mosquitoes. But today there were no mosquitoes lol! And this thing was huge and it looked like a giant wasp and if you know me you know I like bugs and so I’m pretty familiar with all the wasps in our area that commonly occur but this was gigantic it looked like a massive potters wasp with white markings but I couldn’t be sure because it was moving so fast and I was running and moving around. It didn’t bite me though. But I do have some weird marks on my neck now and so first I started thinking what the hell is that but I think something else hopefully. Anyway I was curious if anyone has had this happen to them and if they know what it was. I think it still could be a dragonfly but why would it be buzzing around by my face? Unless maybe those were mosquitoes biting my neck and it was trying to get those? But I’ve been around a lot of other dragonflies and they don’t usually get that close or stick around me like that, when I’m moving around they back off. Thanks!

So this was Techny basin and bird sightings were an osprey and I was talking to it and waving at it to come over and it actually worked so that was exciting and also weird and also scary because I didn’t realize it was like right over my head and when I did and I was like oh shit maybe I shouldn’t of done that lol! Anyway next time I’ll try it again and keep an eye on it instead of looking away and see what happens because I don’t know what exactly it was doing over my head, I don’t look like a fish do I?

I also had a stilt Sandpiper probably the first one I’ve found and identified on my own (with thanks for confirmation from Alan A. and Al. S.). I think it’s cool sometimes how our brain works. At first it wasn’t there and then a sp was calling and flying and I wasn’t sure what it was but you know I didn’t think it was anything exciting because it usually isn’t lol and then I started walking away and I happened to look back and I was like what the hell is that?! That wasn’t there a second ago! And then I was like oh my gosh it’s a different kind of bird and at first my brain told me it’s a red knot because that was the bird I saw at Montrose w the stilt Sandpiper and I was like no that’s totally wrong so then I was like trying to figure it out and then I was like oh it must be the stilt sp and then I looked it up and I was like I think it’s right and then later I knew it was right because I watched it and the behavior was perfect, it was acting exactly like the one with the red knot, it was basically following it around and working at keeping really close with another bird, which most of the birds don’t do. Kind of like buddy behavior.

Also Cool was the Kingfisher was around and was calling and it actually perched right by me but before I got a chance to video it it took off and then it flew by low over the river which I saw one do the other day at another location which I don’t usually see so that was kind of cool.

Another cool thing happened was I saw a kingbird eating berries which I’ve never seen before and it was an immature bird which also was nice since I didn’t get to see any earlier this year but I did see one on the nest. It was the white berries from a shrub along the river so I think that’s one of the dogwoods but I’m not sure.

Oh also the other cool thing was a bald eagle flew over, it was an immature and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen one there and I don’t think I’ve had an immature one there before, only the full adults in the past.

Then I went to North and there was pretty much nothing there which was kind of funny since it’s usually (at least for other people besides me) got a lot of cool sandpipers. It does have some garbage in the river and it’s low enough now that maybe there’s somebody who knows how to safely help clean that up can do it that would be great. I think there might be a lot of muck though and I’m not sure what safe way to do that would be.

OK that’s enough! Oh OK one more cool thing I went to air station prairie first and was excited to see a hummingbird super excited actually because I don’t usually see them here, I don’t think I have ever maybe? Also I was excited because this time of year often I don’t see anything or close to anything here. And then there was a second one and then they were playing with each other and it was so cool! And they were eating ironweed which I didn’t know they ate, or maybe they were looking for bugs but they were at the ironweed. And there were several monarchs too so I looked on the trees but I didn’t see any gatherings this time, but last time it was later in the day than I was there today.

Side note: if you want to help monarchs, plant things like Joe pye weed, any Liatris species, The late or tall boneset seems to be a source as well, and I had one today on New England aster. They also like swamp milkweed, but that blooms earlier in the year.

Suzanne Coleman
Talks a lot sometimes
Cook County