Chapters Two & Three of Where's That Mountain Bluebird? Monday 4-21-25

[Al Stokie]

Hello Bird People,

This will be a shorter report of a long day of birding.
I was very surprised to hear that Peter T found a Mt Bluebird this
morning at Winnemac Park in Chicago thinking it was the same one seen
yesterday at Humboldt Park. But I guess the word is that it was a
different bird. Either way after missing the one yesterday I wanted to
try for today's bird. Arrived at about 8 a.m. & found others already
looking. Must have been about 20 Bluebird hunters. But we looked in
vain as Peter's 7 a.m. Bluebird was not to be found later in the a.m.
We were not helped by the hard winds which made looking almost impossible.
This was Mt Bluebird strike two if you're counting with strike 1 being
yesterday.

Then off to not 1 but 2 doctors appointments which I finished by 3
p.m. Then at about 4 p.m. I noticed on Discord that Scott J had found
another Mt Bluebird, or one of the 2 previously seen birds, this time
at Loyola Park on the lakefront. So the question was did I want to
fight the rush hour traffic to make a 3rd attempt at seeing a Mountain
Bluebird? Well no I didn't but I went anyway.

The Bluebird was being seen at the end of Morse in Loyola Park. And at
about 4:45 p.m. I parked there even though it was a permit only
parking area. There was no other choice if I wanted to park on Morse.
Just took my cane as I didn't want to waste time dragging the
wheelchair/walker out of the car. That was a big mistake as I soon
learned that the bird was no longer at Morse but had relocated down to
the end of Pratt Ave. Walked down to Pratt, or nobbled to Pratt, &
found a group of birders looking at the MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD way up in a
tree. With some help from Jeff S & Debby I soon had good looks
especially when the bird flew down where the lighting was much better.
So I avoided strike 3 after all.

Never give up! And I guess the "the 3rd time's the charm" was true today.

This Mountain Bluebird was the 4th one I've seen in Illinois & my 1st
in Cook County & that was the reason I was so persistent. You probably
know what the Bird-Of-The-Day was.

Al Stokie
In Cook County today exploring Chicago parks