Today, we planned to bird in the morning, do some shopping
and be home by lunch. We started at the Helen & Betty Bremer Wildlife
Sanctuary, which is an Audubon Society site. What a little slice of heaven!
There were so many birds you didn’t know where to look first. There were a lot
of trails that were mowed areas, some were regular trails and then there was
the sticky muddy areas. My hiking shoes were so heavy with mud I could hardly
lift my feet.
There are areas for forest, savanna, and grassland birds.
The sanctuary is primarily upland oak-hickory forest, which provides habitat
for a variety of breeding birds. Old crop fields are being restored to prairie
and savanna. Forty acres of grassland has attracted a breeding population of
Henslow’s Sparrow. (which we didn’t see)
We did see a new Chickadee today. We have previously only
seen the Carolina Chickadee and these were Black-capped Chickadees. There were
tons of Indigo Buntings, Red-winged Blackbirds, American Goldfinches,
Bluebirds, Robins, three kinds of woodpeckers and we heard a Great Horned Owl
screeching at another bird that was screaming back at it.
We ended up spending the whole morning there and never made
it to the Shoal Creek Conservation Area.
cute bathroom
House Wren
Greg on the trail
Eastern Bluebird & young one
House Wren
Black-capped Chickadee
American Tree Sparrow?
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
chipmunk
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Common Yellowthroat
Indigo Bunting
mushrooms
Goldfinch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Downey Woodpecker
Red-headed Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
as I was taking this photo, this butterfly flew in
Eastern Phoebe
we passed through the town of Hillsboro
Hillsboro Courthouse & Lincoln Square
Then it was time to get ready to move to our next
destination, which is a quick 2 day - 3 night stay in Amboy, Illinois which is
our last stop before the Wisconsin Dells.
No comments:
Post a Comment