Air Station Prairie, Techny North & Itasca Wetlands Tuesday 7-23-24

[Al Stokie]

Hello Bird People,

Today I checked 3 places for shorebirds & found a few although nothing special.
At Air Station Prairie the water is mostly too high but there are a
few spots with low water but
no shorebirds are there. Had a Blue Winged Teal fly in, which I hadn't
seen here in a while.
Also saw a Swamp Sparrow which I had only heard before.

At Techny North the mudflats have magically appeared due I think to
the debris being removed
where the water flows under the dam at Willow Rd. Now the water flows
through ok.
Here I had Killdeer (37), Spotted (6), Solitary (2) & Least (1)
Sandpipers. Had an adult Cormorant & an OSPREY was hunting the area
although he didn't catch anything while I was there.

At the Itasca Wetlands part of Wood Dale Reservoir there were fewer
shorebirds than yesterday but I saw Killdeer (27), Spotted (2),
Solitary (2), Least (4) & Semipalmated (1) Sandpipers.
Yesterday's Lesser Yellowlegs was not seen today.

But it's raining again & Techny North may flood again so we'll have to
see what happens?

I saw 35 species today with Bird-Of-The-Day being the hunting Osprey
which got a lot of movement out of all the Killdeer at Techny North.
Runner-Up to the Blue Winged Teal.

Al Stokie
Mostly in Cook County today with 1 quick stop in DuPage County