Every year on the anniversary of Wookie’s passing Joe takes the day off work and we go birding because that’s what we did after leaving the vet without her on that horrible day. We couldn’t bare to go home to an empty house so we went to our happy place, the arboretum. This year because it landed on a Thursday Joe took Friday off too.
Since Thursday (05/07) was rather cold, we opted to do a Costco run around 11 am thinking it would be nice and calm. Boy were we wrong! It was pretty crowded, but we got what we came for and then stopped in the food court on the way out to get hot dogs. They also added chicken fingers to their menu and a caramel churro sundae so we decided to try those too. The chicken fingers were pretty good, as was the very generous container of dipping sauce that seemed like a cross between Raising Cane’s and Chick-fil-a sauce.
That sundae, though, wow!
I’m not big on churros or caramel but it was delicious.
Later in the afternoon we ran out to a nearby park to do a little birding before heading back home to wait for the Xfinity tech to work on the ongoing upload issues we’ve been having.
Friday (05/08) we decided to check out the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center, formerly known as Willowbrook Wildlife Center. The new building is huge and you can peek in on some of the animal rehabilitation going on in there, including surgery, if you’re lucky. I miss when they had different birds, reptiles, and amphibians on display. Now it’s just very cold and lifeless with some educational materials which is rather sad. Sure, the former building was small and old but this big building doesn’t offer much to visitors and despite following them on Facebook I didn’t even know it finally opened in January after years of being under construction because they didn’t post about it.
The trail behind the building is still there but gone are the birds, foxes, and mammals that used to be on display. And I get it – that was probably stressful for them, so they have been moved away from the public eye. But did they have to take out the butterfly garden and koi pond too? The trail still offers something worth exploring, and it’s quiet back there, but I miss the old site.
Oh, and inside the building by the restrooms there is a box with a suggested donation of $5 per person. I thought about it while using the bathroom and decided against it since my property taxes, which have now exceeded $8000 annually, paid for that entire site. If we didn’t live in the same county then I would have left a donation.
Saturday (05/09) we finally visited Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary during spring migration!
We wanted to go during the week but the weather wasn’t cooperating. The nice thing about going into the city on the weekend is traffic is better.
We arrived at 6 am and headed to the pier by Montrose Beach first to see if we could spot a Piping Plover since they’re back for the season. To our delight, there was one running around the beach within camera range. They are so small and cute!
The lack of bands suggest she’s new to the area.
We could see a row of people on the opposite end of the cordoned off area probably trying to get a glimpse of the plovers as well but based on the fact that no one was taking any photos I don’t think they were in sight for them so we didn’t go over to that area. (We did end up over there right before we left the sanctuary a few hours later though to look for the burrowing owl that has been spotted in the grassy hill nearby but didn’t see it).
Once we headed into the sanctuary we could see it was busy. It only got more crowded as the morning went on! That being said, everyone was very quiet and respectful. We even had a nice conversation with one of our fellow birders while watching various warblers flit around the tree canopy by the magic hedge area.
Had we visited on a weekday, our next stop would have been the zoo, but we decided to skip it. We knew it would be packed on a Saturday, especially with how beautiful the weather was.
We stopped at Trailside Museum for a short walk around the nature center building to look at the bird feeders and see if there were any nearby places to grab lunch that weren’t as chaotic as the Cava I had bookmarked, but we didn’t find anything so we headed home where I made some crispy tacos instead.
Montrose Point Statistics
Photos taken: 662
Photos immediately deleted: 416
Lifers: 3 (piping plover, backburnian warbler, dunlin)
Species seen, with photos (12)
American redstart
Black and white warbler
Blackburnian warbler
Black-capped chickadee
Black-throated green warbler
Blue-gray gnatcatcher
Common Grackle
Dunlin
Piping Plover
Ruby crowned kinglet
Warbling vireo
White-crowed sparrow
Yellow-rumped warbler
Without photos (8)
American goldfinch
American robin
Common Yellowthroat
Gulls
Flycatcher – exact unknown (technically got very bad photos)
Killdeer
Northern cardinal
Palm warbler
Spotted sandpiper
Yellow Warbler
Dis-honorable mentions, just because I dislike these birds (2)
Canada goose
Red-winged blackbird
Sunday (05/10) after grabbing groceries from Aldi we stopped at ActiviTea so I could try their cookie butter iced latte.
I have to say, wasn’t impressed. 7 Brew is much better, and the cost is pretty comparable.
Update: I later learned ActiviTea uses Monin syrups. 7 Brew uses a combination of Torani syrups to achieve the cookie butter flavor, which I wish I had known before ordering the cookie butter from Monin because it sucks. I usually like all the flavors I order from them but that one is awful.
Later in the day we went to Lincoln Marsh.