Muirhead Springs & Techny North Sunday 5-17-26

[Al Stokie]

Hello Bird People,

I have been looking for land birds lately so today I decided to look
for shorebirds & not worry about adding "year birds". Started at
Muirhead Springs where I saw 8 species of shorebirds but nothing new.
The problem here is that the only place for shorebirds is in the
flooded fields near the East Pond but it's almost impossible to see
there due to the vegetation which blocks your view. I thought I had 10
shorebirds total but then they flew & I saw about 35 where I had
thought I had 10. Back to the drawing board!

Muirhead Springs (7:20-10:30 am)

East Pond & Flooded Fields

Great Egret (1)
Canada Goose (5)
Mallard (5) & Blue Winged Teal (3-M)
Killdeer (2)
Lesser Yellowlegs (5)
Spotted (2), Least (5) & Pectoral (1) Sandpipers
Dunlin (5)
Short Billed Dowitcher (15-20, seen when they all flew)
Wilson's Phalarope (1, only seen in flight)
Sora (H-3) & Virginia Rail (H-1)
Tree (2) & Rough Winged (1) Swallows

West Pond

P.B. Grebe (2)
D.C. Cormorant (1)
Great Blue Heron (2) & Great Egret (1)
Canada Goose (4-AD & 6 young)
Mallard (1-PR) & Blue Winged Teal (9)
Sora (H-1)
Coots (5)
Rough Winged (1) & Barn (3) Swallows

Land Birds

Some of the more interesting were Heard Only Brown Thrasher & House
Wren. Also Great Crested Flycatcher & Eastern Kingbird. Had 5 Eastern
Meadowlarks & 6 Bobolinks including 1 female which I almost never see.
The only Sparrows were Song & Savannah.

After lunch I made a stop at Techny North where the shorebirds seen
were Killdeer (4),
Semi-Plover (2), Spotted (4), Least (~20), Semipalmated (3), Pectoral
(1), Dunlin (1) &
Short Billed Dowitcher (4). But the best shorebird was WHITE RUMPED
SANDPIPER of which I saw two. That was my only new "year bird" for the
day.

So about 44 species for the day & Bird-Of-The-Day will be the White
Rumped Sandpipers & Runners-Up will be the Dunlin & all those Short
Billed Dowitchers.

Al Stokie
In Kane & Cook Co's today