Joe decided to take Friday (09/20) off from work so we could join the DuPage County Forest Preserve’s bird walk at Herrick Lake in Wheaton. We’ve been to this location several times over the years, but the path we took after the lake portion was new to us. Clearly we weren’t big explorers in the past, sticking to the simple trails, but going on all these bird walks have really opened our eyes to so many more possibilities.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to photograph any warblers, although they were there, but Joe did spot a sleeping racoon which was an unusual sight.
We also saw a dead shrew on the trail. I didn’t know shrews were in Illinois much less how tiny they are.
After our walk we stopped to get some coffee before heading to the arboretum where I came up empty-handed on the warbler front, but did see two coyotes just outside the arboretum as we were leaving.
We stopped at Trader Joe’s on the way home, visited the library, and went to Aldi & Costco which were not overly crowded on a weekday afternoon.
Saturday (09/21) we visited the Trailside Museum of Natural History in River Forest for a bird walk. It was led by a man named John who I later learned used to work at Sandridge Nature Center in South Holland back when my mom took us there fairly regularly. They had a talking crow in a cage outside the entrance that I loved to visit. John told me he used to take care of that crow from 1976 until the early nineties, so he was definitely there at the time we were which is cool. He said he was responsible for bringing the crow out to the viewing cage in the morning and back inside before the nature center closed. I thought that bird actually lived in that small cage 24/7 and I was relieved that was not the case (and felt silly for believing that, even as a kid).
I was able to add a new warbler to my life list during our hike – a chestnut-sided warbler!
Isn’t it cute?
John was full of knowledge, not just about birds themselves, but the best way to spot and identify them. It seems so obvious now, but he taught us that when spotting a bird not to look down at our binoculars when raising them to our eyes, because we’ll lose sight of the bird. I can use this tip for my camera as well because I do look down and then can’t locate the bird again. It’s going to take practice to break that bad habit.
The walk ended up running far over the allotted one hour time frame but we didn’t mind at all. John said he didn’t have anything else going on and invited the group to continue further on the trail if they wanted, but by the end Joe and I had him to ourselves after everyone else in our group had to leave for other commitments.
Once our tour was over, we spent some time outside the museum building watching the birds at the feeders, and then went inside for a short time to look at the exhibits.
The funny thing is we visited this same place 11 years ago and hated it. But I don’t think we explored any of the trails because we weren’t into birding like we are now.
There were no shortage of warblers in those woods; in addition to the Chestnut-sided Warbler we saw a Northern Waterthrush, and there were others that were just too fast for me to capture. We will definitely be visiting that place again this fall and during spring migration next year as well.
On the way home we stopped at Menards for some suet so I can put up the feeder soon. I miss my chickadees! We got a big box of twenty suet cakes, 10 berry & 10 peanut. Also bought purple mums for $5.
All we did on Sunday (09/22) was grocery shopping due to the rain, which makes me extra glad Joe decided to take Friday off so we still had two days of birding together.
