Wood Dale Reservoir & Techny North Sunday 7-12-26

[Al Stokie]

Hello Bird People,

Not many Year Birds left to chase so for the next few days I'll just
look for shorebirds & today I did that at Wood Dale Reservoir & Techny
North. The water is still high at Wood Dale but the Itasca Wetlands
has mudflats & at Techny North there are lots of good mudflats & also
lots of friendly Ticks!

Wood Dale (7-9:15 am)

Reservoir

D.C. Cormorant (11)
Great Blue Heron (5)
Great Egret (4)
Green Heron (1)
Canada Goose (15) & Mallard (8-AD & 2 young)
BALD EAGLE (1-IM)
Killdeer (6) & Spotted Sandpiper (3)
Ring Billed Gull (2)
Caspian Tern (5)

Middle Pond

Great Blue Heron (2), Great Egret (1) & Green Heron (1)
Kingfisher (1)

Itasca Wetlands

Great Blue Heron (2) & Great Egret (1)
Wood Duck (2-AD & 4 young)
Killdeer (9)
Solitary (1), Spotted (2) & Least (4) Sandpipers
Caspian Terns (18-AD & 4 immatures including an all brown one)

Landbirds

Mostly just common expected species but of some interest were Eastern
Kingbird, House Wrens, Indigo Bunting & Baltimore Oriole.

Techny North (10:30-11:40 am)

Wanted to see Owen's Baird's Sandpiper from yesterday but I could not
find it today.
But several Ticks found me although I caught them before they attached
themselves to me.

D.C.Cormorant (1), Great Blue Heron (1) & Great Egret (2)
Mallard (7-AD & 15 babies)
OSPREY (1, hunting)
Killdeer (27)
Solitary (1), Spotted (10) & Least (24) Sandpipers
SHORT BILLED DOWITCHER (2)
Caspian Tern (5-AD & 1-IM)
Tree (1), Cliff (2) & Barn (2) Swallows
And some common landbirds

So 41 species at my 2 locations plus roadside Pigeons for a day's total of 42.
Bird-Of-The-Day will be the very young all brown Caspian Tern as I
have never seen one before. Runners-Up to the Short Billed Dowitchers,
the Bald Eagle & the Osprey.

License Plate Of The Day was an important one as it was from Wyoming
which was number 51 for my Run #1 thereby finishing that Run for me.
Guess I need to start working on Run #2 which I have not been doing so
far. Got a tip from my friend Leslie B that I should look on Diversey
Ave for the Wyoming plate & was surprised that it was still there.
Sometimes things work like they should!

Al Stokie
In DuPage & Cook Co's today