Natures Notes - September 2011
The light rain experienced overnight and early this morning did not deter our neotropical migrants. A short walk this morning resulted in the following species:
Tennessee Warbler
Golden-winged Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Palm Warbler
American Redstart
Black-capped Chickadee
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
White-throated Sparrow
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Grey Catbird
Downy Woodpecker
Red-eyed Vireo
Northern Flicker
With the approach of a mild cold front in...
On Tuesday of last week I returned to Mayslake Forest Preserve after the Labor Day holiday to find hundreds of small, dead bluegills floating in the east end of May’s Lake.
They had been dead for a day or two, and they or possibly other...
This morning, the FullersBird Friday group found a nice-sized mixed flock of primarily warblers. We were able to sit on this flock for roughly 30 minutes, finding new birds throughout that period. Here's what we found overall:
Canada goose (6)
mallard (5)
great blue heron
spotted sandpiper
solitary sandpiper (2)
chimney swift (2)
ruby-throated hummingbird (2)
belted kingfisher
red-bellied woodpecker (2)
downy woodpecker
eastern wood-pewee
eastern phoebe
Philadelphia vireo
blue jay (2)
...This has been an interesting week for damselflies and dragonflies at Mayslake Forest Preserve. Item One: on Monday I photographed this spreadwing damselfly in the south stream corridor prairie.
Most spreadwing species show clear pale undersides. This one had two bars of darker color dividing the pale area. Two of our local damselflies show patterns like this, but one of them is much larger than this average sized individual, so it is a sweetflag spreadwing. This male still is maturing. That’s why the underbelly markings are so pale: they are fading, as a whitish pruinosity covers...
