little year

After yesterday's expedition, we were inspired to add the last local swallow to this year's list. So we headed off to the Chicago Botanic Garden where we saw PURPLE MARTINS frolicking in their aptly named purple-martin houses. We only made the trip because we knew there was a p.m. house development there. We also saw some frog-mouthed p.m. babies mooching for food, and oddly, a house sparrow who had taken up residence in one of the apartments. Damned invasives.

A miserably hot day for both of us as well as for a panting robin we saw walking in the shade. Once we got back to my neighborhood, we stopped at a park where we noticed -- for the first time -- a purple martin house with a you-know-what sitting on the porch. So we could have saved ourselves the long trip north and just made a surgical strike from my air-conditioned lair. Damned p.m. houses at the damned Chicago Botanic Garden.

posted by Scrubb at 06:43 PM | permalink | stuck under LIST

Today was the first time we've gone birding in a couple of weeks. The reasons are mosquitoes, ticks, and the heat. So I guess I'm the kind of guy who lets arthropods run his life. This time of summer is also a drag because of post-migration depression. Most of the avian celebrities have left, and though the local birds are old friends, it's kind of like you're stuck hanging around with your relatives. Anyway, we decided to head out to Glacial Park, where we had spotted the short-eared owl back in March. We figured we'd see lots of waterfowl.

Except we didn't. The small lake that was full of them last time was totally dried up. And it wasn't just a dry bed. It was full of prairie grass, so you wouldn't even know there'd been water there. No owls, either.

However, we did manage to see lots of BANK SWALLOWS. There were dozens of them sitting on wires, so we had a long time to make the ID. It turned out they were a lifer for me, and I didn't even know it. Sprinkled among these birds were a couple of CLIFF SWALLOWS, so that knocked another bird off the list.

posted by Scrubb at 11:22 PM | permalink | stuck under LIST + lifers