(Late Report) Wood Dale Reservoir & 10 Palos Area Locations Friday 3-20-26

[Al Stokie]

Hello Bird People,

Started at Wood Dale Reservoir & finally saw Common Loon (3) for my
1st site record for that species. Then off to the Palos Area to try
one more big duck species day, which by the way. will be my last
attempt for this project this year.

Maple Lake (8-8:10 am)

Duck species #1 was Hooded Merganser (2-PR) & I also saw one Mute Swan
& 2 Common Loons. Not much going on here.

Crawdad Slough (8:15-8:20 am)

The only duck species here was Shoveler (3) which was duck species #2.

But across the road was Long John Slough & here I started to get rolling.
1st I saw Common Merganser (27), then Wood Duck (10), Gadwall (4),
Wigeon (3), Ring Necked Duck (45), Lesser Scaup (1-PR) & Bufflehead
(12). Now up to 9 duck species.

Nothing much at Joe's Pond so off to Saganashkee Slough from 8;45 to 9:30 am.

Here I saw all 3 Mergansers with Red Breasted being #10. I also added
Ruddy Duck (10) for duck species #11. Other highlights here were WHITE
PELICAN (37), Common Loon (2) and both Horned (4) & Pied Billed (1)
Grebes.

Nothing at Horsetail Lake so on to Papoose Lake (9:40-9:55 am)

Along with many Lesser Scaup & Ring Necked Ducks I finally had some
Mallards, duck species #12, & then my 1st of the year Blue Winged Teal
(3) for duck species #13.

Next to McGinnis Slough where there were so many ducks I had to resort
to estimates rather than exact counts at least for some of the ducks.
There were Mallards, Gadwall (~20), Shovelers (~25), Ring Necked Duck
(~300) & Lesser Scaup (~100). New here were Green Winged Teal (4),
species #14, & 2 lonely male Canvasbacks for species # 15.
Also there was one Trumpeter Swan, 2 Great Blue Herons, 2 Killdeer & I
heard a flock of Sandhill Cranes but could not see them through the
trees.

Later I tried several other locations but was unable to add to my duck
species total.
At Bergman Slough I added another Trumpeter Swan & saw the early
returning OSPREY.

But I thought I could add to my total of ducks at Lake Opeka as 3 more
species had been there lately. And I did add Goldeneye & Greater Scaup
for species # 's 16 & 17 but my Redheads let me down by not still
being there although I looked for a very long time. Tried Axehead Lake
but only had repeats. Had I seen the expected Redheads I would have
checked Techny North for Black Ducks but I did not bother. It was a
very long, tiring day.

So 17 duck species for the day missing Redhead, Black Duck & the one I
almost always miss, Pintail. I doubt I will be doing these duck
species big days next year as it's getting too hard to drag my
wheelchair/walker to all the places I need to go. But I have had a lot
of fun playing the game.

So 45 species for the day, additions included. Bird-Of-The-Day will be
all those Pelicans & Runner-Up will be the many Common Loons & the
early Osprey.

Al Stokie
A brief stop in DuPage County & then the rest of the long day in Cook County