Sunday, July 1, 2018

Amboy Marsh Nature Preserve & Gremel Wildlife Sanctuary - Amboy, Illinois


June 26 

Well, the weather report that said it was going to pour buckets starting at 4:00 in the morning was wrong. It didn’t rain until afternoon. We planned to stay home, but we could have done some birding. Instead, we drove to a fairly close Walmart to sit in the parking lot to use our phone data. Greg needed to research our next route as a couple of the sources said the route had us going under a bridge that wasn’t tall enough and he wanted to look at it on Google Maps. The RV has a navigator and he uses RV Trip Wizard to work out our routes and stops. Turned out it was just confused, we were driving over the bridge not under it. I used the time to update the St. Louis blog post. (you’re welcome) We grabbed a few groceries and headed home to wait for the rain.

Oddly, it was raining all around our area, but we actually got very little rain. There were terrible floods all around us. 
June 27
Today we got up early and drove the very short distance to Amboy Marsh Nature Preserve. Another wonderful spot with the sounds of birds everywhere. Just a beautiful day. 

 Tree Swallow




 Red-headed Woodpecker
 House Finch
 White-breasted Nuthatch
 Common Yellowthroat - juvenile
 female or immature Blue-winged Warbler
 female or immature Blue-winged Warbler
 cool looking tree 
 Goldfinch

 Tree Swallow
 Great-Crested Flycatcher

 Red-winged Blackbird


 Green Heron
 Gray Catbird


 American Robin


 Gray Catbird


 Brown Thrasher


 Yellow Warbler













 Greg in front of me on the trail



Chipping Sparrow

 Chipping Sparrow
 Chipping Sparrow
 Chipping Sparrow
 Just a weird shot up through the trees
 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
 Indigo Bunting





they had a lot of bird feeders near their office
 female Goldfinch
 White-breasted Nuthatch

 Goldfinches


Brown-headed Cowbirds
We also checked out Gremel Wildlife Sanctuary, but the trails were not well marked and the one we tried dead-ended. 

 Tree Swallow feeding a young one


 Eastern Phoebe
 we passed the Pumpkin farm on the way home for lunch



We drove home for lunch and then went back to Amboy and walked the other side of the area. Just another beautiful spot. We have seen Dickcissel before in Panama, but never in breeding colors. So, it was quite a treat to see the large number of breeding males and females on the prairie. 
 Dickcissel


 Red-winged Blackbird

 Song Sparrow
 female Red-winged Blackbird
female Dickcissel
 Dickcissel





 American Robin



Eastern Phoebe

 Tree Swallows
 Green Heron
 Green Heron

Field Sparrow
 Song Sparrow
female Red-winged Blackbird

Orchard Oriole 
female Red-winged Blackbird
 Scarlet Tanager


 Dickcissel
  female Dickcissel
 Red-winged Blackbird
 Dickcissel
Dickcissel
There was a guy working there that noticed us when we came back after lunch and asked “didn’t I see you this morning and then at Gremel?” We said he did. He said you guys have been busy. It’s a great spot; made even better by the fact that we were the only people there. 

Tomorrow, we move to Wisconsin Dells. 

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