From rboehmer at millikin.edu Sat Nov 1 11:11:57 2008 From: rboehmer at millikin.edu (Ray Boehmer) Date: Sat Nov 1 11:12:40 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] Campus peregrine In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <7.0.1.0.2.20081101111038.02256600@millikin.edu> I just saw the bird a little after 10 this morning, sitting right above a top-floor window. Most Peregrines I have seen had a much darker back than this bird. Interesting. Ray Boehmer Urbana At 10:32 AM 10/31/2008, Lynn Connor wrote: >I just walked over to the 5th and Daniel (about 10 am) and I saw a >large gray bird sitting on the North side of Illini Tower (5th and >Chalmers...falcon sitting on Chalmers side of building). I didn't >have any binoculars but I'm pretty sure that's the peregrine. That >side of Illini Tower is just ledges no windows and was keeping the >bird out of the wind. > >Very exciting to see it. Thanks for the all the earlier posts about it. >_______________________________________________ >Birdnotes mailing list >Birdnotes@lists.prairienet.org >https://mail.prairienet.org/mailman/listinfo/birdnotes > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mail.prairienet.org/pipermail/birdnotes/attachments/20081101/4c585231/attachment.htm From h-parker at uiuc.edu Sun Nov 2 09:28:22 2008 From: h-parker at uiuc.edu (Helen Parker) Date: Sun Nov 2 09:32:25 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] crane trip Message-ID: <6.0.1.1.2.20081102090748.02152968@express.cites.uiuc.edu> Our annual trip to see the sandhill cranes at Jasper-Pulaski was a flying success. 12 or 13? people set out from Urbana, drove to Willow Slough for lunch, as usual. There we saw zillions of coots (before you ask, Bob, a zillion is 10 to the umteenth power), several pi-billed grebes, at least one ruddy duck (thanks to a birder from Kankakee whose name escapes me at the moment), a bunch of blue-winged teal, and one duck that only Bob Vaiden and I saw and which neither of us could identify. Then on to J-P and the cranes, which were indeed present in abundance although fewer than some years--the board on which such thing are posted at headquarters said 8000+ rather than the 10-12000 that have been around some years. Because the water in the marsh was higher than usual we were directed to an alternate site where the ranger thought the birds might be roosting but there were no birds there and probably would not be until sunset, which was still over an h our away, so we decided that standing there waiting was not a good thing and went on our way. That is, one car returned to Urbana via a dinner stop and the rest of us went to the long walk to the main marsh. The cranes did indeed fly over us and we watched and listened until the sun went down in a blaze of glory. We finally figured out that most of the cranes were coming down to roost on the far west end of the marsh, apparently behind a levee. On the trek back to the cars an opossum appeared and was duly admired and photographed--one or two people claimed to have never seen one that close before. Then on to dinner at the USA cafe in Reynolds, which serves good food at reasonable prices, then home. All in all, an enjoyable day. From bgsloan2 at yahoo.com Wed Nov 5 12:13:29 2008 From: bgsloan2 at yahoo.com (B.G. Sloan) Date: Wed Nov 5 12:46:00 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] Meadowbrook Park, 11/4 - Very late Pewee, a dozen sparrow species Message-ID: <112170.5957.qm@web57107.mail.re3.yahoo.com> ? Made an election day visit to Meadowbrook Park. Late afternoon, sunny, temps near 70, slight breeze, very beautiful afternoon. ? It's hard to believe, but I found a trail in Meadowbrook that I'd never been on before. I usually bird on the older established trails, trails I've walked for years. Yesterday I was walking the trail that runs?near the north side of McCullough Creek, between the barns and the old footbridge that was removed a couple of years ago. I happened to notice that the trail now continues to follow the creek upstream, and at one point a branch of the trail crosses the creek and enters the prairie...there's a nice funky rustic split log bench at this point. Nice path, with good sparrow habitat. The bench looks like it would be very god spot to sit and watch birds. Kudos to the Urbana Park District! ? Some highlights: ? *?Heard and then saw a?VERY late Eastern Wood-Pewee. It was in the trees near the bridge by the rabbit sculpture. Made me wonder what the late fall record is for Pewees in central Illinois?? ? * A couple of late Eastern Phoebes. ? * Nice view of a Red-breasted Nuthatch near the rabbit bridge. ? * Several Rusty Blackbirds mixed in with some Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds. ? * A few Pine Siskins hanging out with some goldfinches. ? * 40-50 Cedar Waxwings. ? * Several hundred Robins in the trees along McCullough Creek. ? * And a big sparrow convention in the open brushy area between McCullough Creek and the Hickman Wildflower Walk.?Twelve species in all. Mostly White-throated, with a smattering of other species: White-crowned, Field, Chipping, Swamp, American Tree, Grasshopper, Fox, Song, Savannah, Vesper, Junco. ? Bernie Sloan ? ? ? ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mail.prairienet.org/pipermail/birdnotes/attachments/20081105/16bfbb7d/attachment.htm From lambeth at ad.uiuc.edu Wed Nov 5 13:02:25 2008 From: lambeth at ad.uiuc.edu (Lambeth, Gregory S) Date: Wed Nov 5 13:03:17 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] E. Wood Pewee (No new sightings) In-Reply-To: <112170.5957.qm@web57107.mail.re3.yahoo.com> References: <112170.5957.qm@web57107.mail.re3.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Bernie: I will be surprised if there are any November records for East Wood Pewee for Illinois, let alone Central Illinois. I will check Bohlen's book and get back to the list on this one. Greg Lambeth ________________________________ From: birdnotes-bounces@lists.prairienet.org [mailto:birdnotes-bounces@lists.prairienet.org] On Behalf Of B.G. Sloan Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 12:13 PM To: birdnotes@lists.prairienet.org Subject: [Birdnotes] Meadowbrook Park, 11/4 - Very late Pewee, a dozen sparrow species Made an election day visit to Meadowbrook Park. Late afternoon, sunny, temps near 70, slight breeze, very beautiful afternoon. It's hard to believe, but I found a trail in Meadowbrook that I'd never been on before. I usually bird on the older established trails, trails I've walked for years. Yesterday I was walking the trail that runs near the north side of McCullough Creek, between the barns and the old footbridge that was removed a couple of years ago. I happened to notice that the trail now continues to follow the creek upstream, and at one point a branch of the trail crosses the creek and enters the prairie...there's a nice funky rustic split log bench at this point. Nice path, with good sparrow habitat. The bench looks like it would be very god spot to sit and watch birds. Kudos to the Urbana Park District! Some highlights: * Heard and then saw a VERY late Eastern Wood-Pewee. It was in the trees near the bridge by the rabbit sculpture. Made me wonder what the late fall record is for Pewees in central Illinois?? * A couple of late Eastern Phoebes. * Nice view of a Red-breasted Nuthatch near the rabbit bridge. * Several Rusty Blackbirds mixed in with some Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds. * A few Pine Siskins hanging out with some goldfinches. * 40-50 Cedar Waxwings. * Several hundred Robins in the trees along McCullough Creek. * And a big sparrow convention in the open brushy area between McCullough Creek and the Hickman Wildflower Walk. Twelve species in all. Mostly White-throated, with a smattering of other species: White-crowned, Field, Chipping, Swamp, American Tree, Grasshopper, Fox, Song, Savannah, Vesper, Junco. Bernie Sloan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mail.prairienet.org/pipermail/birdnotes/attachments/20081105/068a3f20/attachment.htm From sdbailey at inhs.uiuc.edu Wed Nov 5 13:09:00 2008 From: sdbailey at inhs.uiuc.edu (Steve Bailey) Date: Wed Nov 5 13:09:01 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] Western Meadowlark near Homer Lake Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20081105130303.02c6ce60@mail.inhs.uiuc.edu> Mark Alessi informed me that while on some private property near the Homer Lake FP on Saturday (Nov 1), a WESTERN MEADOWLARK began singing very close to where he was at. Unless somebody knows of a pair that summered/nested near Homer Lake, this is a great record as fall migration data is very lacking for this species, since the ones that are around often just "disappear" or get passed off as Easterns if they are noted at all. Steve Bailey Rantroul From sdbailey at inhs.uiuc.edu Wed Nov 5 13:15:15 2008 From: sdbailey at inhs.uiuc.edu (Steve Bailey) Date: Wed Nov 5 13:15:16 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] Re: Meadowbrook Park, 11/4 - Very late Pewee, a dozen sparrow species Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20081105131102.02c35a60@mail.inhs.uiuc.edu> Bohlen (1989) mentions just one November record for Illinois: November 8, 1972, at Springfield. Kind of makes one wonder about a Western Wood-Pewee, although their song is different. Steve Bailey Rantoul From vaiden at isgs.illinois.edu Wed Nov 5 13:21:42 2008 From: vaiden at isgs.illinois.edu (Vaiden, Robert) Date: Wed Nov 5 13:21:53 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] Meadowbrook bridge In-Reply-To: <112170.5957.qm@web57107.mail.re3.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <2DBE7AB0488C0443A1E1C20EA692D90703E90396@zinc.isgs.uiuc.edu> That bridge was built last summer by a Catholic youth group from Wisconsin:-) It's in a nice spot... I planted a number of Short's Aster around there. In case y'all haven't noticed... The east end of Meadowbrook went up in flames Tuesday morning (smell any smoke, Bernie?) Bob Vaiden :-) ________________________________ From: birdnotes-bounces@lists.prairienet.org [mailto:birdnotes-bounces@lists.prairienet.org] On Behalf Of B.G. Sloan Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 12:13 PM To: birdnotes@lists.prairienet.org Subject: [Birdnotes] Meadowbrook Park, 11/4 - Very late Pewee,a dozen sparrow species Made an election day visit to Meadowbrook Park. Late afternoon, sunny, temps near 70, slight breeze, very beautiful afternoon. It's hard to believe, but I found a trail in Meadowbrook that I'd never been on before. I usually bird on the older established trails, trails I've walked for years. Yesterday I was walking the trail that runs near the north side of McCullough Creek, between the barns and the old footbridge that was removed a couple of years ago. I happened to notice that the trail now continues to follow the creek upstream, and at one point a branch of the trail crosses the creek and enters the prairie...there's a nice funky rustic split log bench at this point. Nice path, with good sparrow habitat. The bench looks like it would be very god spot to sit and watch birds. Kudos to the Urbana Park District! Some highlights: * Heard and then saw a VERY late Eastern Wood-Pewee. It was in the trees near the bridge by the rabbit sculpture. Made me wonder what the late fall record is for Pewees in central Illinois?? * A couple of late Eastern Phoebes. * Nice view of a Red-breasted Nuthatch near the rabbit bridge. * Several Rusty Blackbirds mixed in with some Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds. * A few Pine Siskins hanging out with some goldfinches. * 40-50 Cedar Waxwings. * Several hundred Robins in the trees along McCullough Creek. * And a big sparrow convention in the open brushy area between McCullough Creek and the Hickman Wildflower Walk. Twelve species in all. Mostly White-throated, with a smattering of other species: White-crowned, Field, Chipping, Swamp, American Tree, Grasshopper, Fox, Song, Savannah, Vesper, Junco. Bernie Sloan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mail.prairienet.org/pipermail/birdnotes/attachments/20081105/eb1ba532/attachment-0001.htm From bgsloan2 at yahoo.com Wed Nov 5 13:58:45 2008 From: bgsloan2 at yahoo.com (B.G. Sloan) Date: Wed Nov 5 14:06:13 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] E. Wood Pewee (No new sightings) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <136484.3037.qm@web57104.mail.re3.yahoo.com> ? I don't have Bolen handy, but Brock's Birds of Indiana?has a record of November 7 for central Indiana. --- On Wed, 11/5/08, Lambeth, Gregory S wrote: From: Lambeth, Gregory S Subject: [Birdnotes] E. Wood Pewee (No new sightings) To: "birdnotes@lists.prairienet.org" Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2008, 2:02 PM Bernie: I will be surprised if there are any November records for East Wood Pewee for Illinois , let alone Central Illinois .? I will check Bohlen?s book and get back to the list on this one. ? Greg Lambeth ? ? From: birdnotes-bounces@lists.prairienet.org [mailto:birdnotes-bounces@lists.prairienet.org] On Behalf Of B.G. Sloan Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 12:13 PM To: birdnotes@lists.prairienet.org Subject: [Birdnotes] Meadowbrook Park , 11/4 - Very late Pewee, a dozen sparrow species ? ? Made an election day visit to Meadowbrook Park . Late afternoon, sunny, temps near 70, slight breeze, very beautiful afternoon. ? It's hard to believe, but I found a trail in Meadowbrook that I'd never been on before. I usually bird on the older established trails, trails I've walked for years. Yesterday I was walking the trail that runs?near the north side of McCullough Creek, between the barns and the old footbridge that was removed a couple of years ago. I happened to notice that the trail now continues to follow the creek upstream, and at one point a branch of the trail crosses the creek and enters the prairie...there's a nice funky rustic split log bench at this point. Nice path, with good sparrow habitat. The bench looks like it would be very god spot to sit and watch birds. Kudos to the Urbana Park District! ? Some highlights: ? *?Heard and then saw a?VERY late Eastern Wood-Pewee. It was in the trees near the bridge by the rabbit sculpture. Made me wonder what the late fall record is for Pewees in central Illinois ?? ? * A couple of late Eastern Phoebes. ? * Nice view of a Red-breasted Nuthatch near the rabbit bridge. ? * Several Rusty Blackbirds mixed in with some Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds. ? * A few Pine Siskins hanging out with some goldfinches. ? * 40-50 Cedar Waxwings. ? * Several hundred Robins in the trees along McCullough Creek. ? * And a big sparrow convention in the open brushy area between McCullough Creek and the Hickman Wildflower Walk.?Twelve species in all. Mostly White-throated, with a smattering of other species: White-crowned, Field, Chipping, Swamp, American Tree, Grasshopper, Fox, Song, Savannah , Vesper, Junco. ? Bernie Sloan ? ? ? ? ?_______________________________________________ Birdnotes mailing list Birdnotes@lists.prairienet.org https://mail.prairienet.org/mailman/listinfo/birdnotes -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mail.prairienet.org/pipermail/birdnotes/attachments/20081105/6dfa8e07/attachment.htm From bgsloan2 at yahoo.com Wed Nov 5 14:06:23 2008 From: bgsloan2 at yahoo.com (B.G. Sloan) Date: Wed Nov 5 14:07:20 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] Re: Meadowbrook Park, 11/4 - Very late Pewee, a dozen sparrow species In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.2.20081105131102.02c35a60@mail.inhs.uiuc.edu> Message-ID: <853506.17291.qm@web57106.mail.re3.yahoo.com> ? It definitely sounded like an Eastern, and not a Western. ? Bernie Sloan --- On Wed, 11/5/08, Steve Bailey wrote: From: Steve Bailey Subject: [Birdnotes] Re: Meadowbrook Park, 11/4 - Very late Pewee, a dozen sparrow species To: "Birdnotes" Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2008, 2:15 PM Bohlen (1989) mentions just one November record for Illinois: November 8, 1972, at Springfield. Kind of makes one wonder about a Western Wood-Pewee, although their song is different. Steve Bailey Rantoul _______________________________________________ Birdnotes mailing list Birdnotes@lists.prairienet.org https://mail.prairienet.org/mailman/listinfo/birdnotes -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mail.prairienet.org/pipermail/birdnotes/attachments/20081105/52465585/attachment.htm From lambeth at ad.uiuc.edu Thu Nov 6 06:55:27 2008 From: lambeth at ad.uiuc.edu (Lambeth, Gregory S) Date: Thu Nov 6 06:56:11 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] Listserve "migration" (No sightings) Message-ID: As some of you already know, Prairienet will no longer be hosting any listserves effective January 1st. This means that Birdnotes needs to find a new host sometime in the next 7 weeks. I am wanting to see if anyone on the list has experience managing a listserve and would be willing to provide assistance with this task. I'm not sure exactly what this may entail -- it may be as simple as pointing me in the right direction or it may involve doing a little research into options. I am also interested in saving/moving the archives -- I will definitely need some help with this. If you have the time, interest and expertise -- please email me off-list at Lambeth@uiuc.edu. Thanks, Greg Lambeth Listserve Administrator From lambeth at ad.uiuc.edu Thu Nov 6 12:25:51 2008 From: lambeth at ad.uiuc.edu (Lambeth, Gregory S) Date: Thu Nov 6 12:26:17 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] Listserve Migration In-Reply-To: <136484.3037.qm@web57104.mail.re3.yahoo.com> References: <136484.3037.qm@web57104.mail.re3.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Thanks to those of you who have responded with suggestions about moving Birdnotes to a new location. I've been in contact with Dan Olson who co-administrates the list and we are considering the various options. We hope to have a solution in the next several weeks that includes some method for archiving the history. Greg Lambeth -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mail.prairienet.org/pipermail/birdnotes/attachments/20081106/e8c51873/attachment.htm From sdbailey at inhs.uiuc.edu Thu Nov 6 13:54:43 2008 From: sdbailey at inhs.uiuc.edu (Steve Bailey) Date: Thu Nov 6 13:55:22 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] Snow Goose at Swine Ponds Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20081106134022.02c1f648@mail.inhs.uiuc.edu> Coming into work late this morning, as I was driving down St. Mary's Rd in Urbana, along with the many CROWS that were flying fairly low over the road, a large white bird flew over heading south. Driving south to the road entering the road which gives you access to the old U of I swine research area, I finally noted the black wingtips of a SNOW GOOSE, which continued to fly back and forth near the ponds, before landing somewhere to the south of the main pond in the grass. Marl Alessi joined me shortly as he had also spotted the goose. Also on the ponds were at least 40 GREEN-WINGED TEAL, 2-3 AMERICAN WIGEON and 2 female type plumaged RUDDY DUCKS, as well as good flocks of MALLARDS. There may have been other ducks and other birds present, but I only had time for a quick stop. Todays strong cold front could possibly bring some much more interesting birds into these ponds, so if you have a few minutes to drive by and look it may be worthwhile. Good birding! Steve Bailey Rantoul From lambeth at ad.uiuc.edu Sun Nov 9 07:57:00 2008 From: lambeth at ad.uiuc.edu (Lambeth, Gregory S) Date: Sun Nov 9 07:57:22 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] Clinton Lake 11/08 Message-ID: Rob Kanter and I spent much of the day at Clinton Lake yesterday. There was relatively little waterfowl on the lake itself and the strong winds made birding a challenge at times. We did have a Mute Swan at Parnell. There was a lone Common Loon at the West Side Access area. Rob flushed a sparrow in the wet prairie below the dam that was likely at LeConte's Sparrow, but we were unable to relocate it. We had 15 Franklin's Gulls -- 10 were in a field with a large group of Ring-billed Gulls and 5 were at the Overlook. We had somewhere around 150 Bonaparte's Gulls. We also had 2 Northern Harriers, 2 Turkey Vultures, Field Sparrow, Pied-billed Grebes, several Yellow-rumped Warblers, Lapland Longspur and a late Tree Swallow. We flushed 2 Woodcock while searching for Saw-whet Owls (a no for that species). The best bird of the day turns out to just be a maybe. We had a possible Red-throated Loon at the Overlook, but never saw it well enough for a positive ID. The bird was about a mile off in poor lighting. It was diving repeatedly and would spend only about 15 seconds on the surface before diving again. It would then spend about a minute and a half under. I only saw the bird 4 times and then a boat came through and I never relocated it. I have no idea where it went. The bird appeared to be relatively small, slender and thin-billed -- but, again, I never got a great look at it. The waterfowl we did have included about 100 Mallards, 125 Shovellers, 25 Gadwall and 14 Lesser Scaup. Greg From jwhoyt at prairienet.org Sun Nov 9 12:34:53 2008 From: jwhoyt at prairienet.org (James Hoyt) Date: Sun Nov 9 12:34:55 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] Screach Owl at Allerton Park in Piatt County (late report) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Birdnoters and Owl devotees. Friday evening, around dusk, I was walking around the pond at the Allerton Mansion and heard the distinctive whinny of a screach owl. It seemed to be somewhere along the treeline along the south border of the large meadow. Earlier I saw a large Red Tailed Hawk sailing along just above the crop stubble on th north side of the state highway west of Montecello Illinois. Please be aware that the park gates around the sun singer close sometime around 5:30PM. Good birding, Jim :) -- James Hoyt "The Prairie Ant" Champaign Co. Audubon Illinois Audubon Society Co-steward Parkland College Prairies. Volunteer Monitor; Urbana Park District Natural Areas. Champaign County Master Gardener East Central Illinois Master Naturalist Grand Prairie Friends Allerton Allies Prairie Rivers Network The Xerces Society The Illinois Chapter of the Nature Conservancy =============================================================================== "The way to keep a trail alive is to walk on it". Author unknown =============================================================================== ******************************************************************************* ******************************************************************************* "The human culture is considered to be a 'geologic force' and with good reason. But if we are at a stage where our actions are to decide the world's future, then surely we have reached a level where we can be held acountable for the world's future." Durward L. Allen "Our Wildlife Legacy" ******************************************************************************* ******************************************************************************* From aormerod at cyrus.psych.uiuc.edu Sun Nov 9 16:40:40 2008 From: aormerod at cyrus.psych.uiuc.edu (aormerod@cyrus.psych.uiuc.edu) Date: Sun Nov 9 16:40:45 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] bird in bank parking lot In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20081109164040.oyq5mp6yeoskg4s8@www.psych.uiuc.edu> In case any of you are able to do bird rescue, there is a very cold looking bird with a long beak (shore bird?) sitting in the parking lot of the bank at the corner of Randolph and University, near the drive-through area. I walked downtown and don't have a car available. From threlkster at gmail.com Sun Nov 9 19:15:18 2008 From: threlkster at gmail.com (Brian Threlkeld) Date: Sun Nov 9 19:17:11 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] Backyard junco Message-ID: <30ec30250811091715p4c6d4f9x9db56d9a902ae872@mail.gmail.com> Saw my fos DARK-EYED JUNCO out back today -- 12:40 p.m. Sun., 9 Nov. 2008. Energetically scratching the ground under the feeders. Seems to have come in with the blast of cold weather (I know others have been seeing them around her for a couple weeks, at least). In 2007, I recorded my first fall junco much earlier -- October 12. Last weekend, when riding my bike through Meadowbrook at dusk, I spooked what appeared to be a couple WOODCOCKS. The light wasn't good, but the silhouettes seemed distinctive. (I was riding west along the path as it approached the bridge, just east of the nude statue.) Think I also saw a GREAT BLUE HERON (again, judging from the silhouette) flying west by southwest above the trees about that time, south of the prairie or savanna restoration project. ___________________ Brian Threlkeld 107 E Michigan Ave Urbana IL 61801-5027 217-384-5164 abt5@columbia.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mail.prairienet.org/pipermail/birdnotes/attachments/20081109/ccb580f6/attachment.htm From jwhoyt at prairienet.org Mon Nov 10 01:35:06 2008 From: jwhoyt at prairienet.org (James Hoyt) Date: Mon Nov 10 01:35:08 2008 Subject: [Birdnotes] bird in bank parking lot (personal hypothosis) In-Reply-To: <20081109193136.BMD48158@expms1.cites.uiuc.edu> References: <20081109193136.BMD48158@expms1.cites.uiuc.edu> Message-ID: Birdnoters, Thanks to Ms. Owens I think that we can safely say that the American Woodcock [Scolopax minor] does indeed travel through the downtown areas of Champaign and possibly Urbana. I was not able to confirm the bird since I did not read this until after getting home from work. But my first glance of this elflike gnome in the photo is unmistakable. As many of you may recall Steve Bailey actually took the time to check the body parts of birds that had been eaten by a Peregrin Falcon at Sherman Hall a few days ago. Upon finding that there was a wing and head/bill of a Woodcock there was speculation about how far the raptor had to fly in order to find one. I am begining to feel that the tall buildings a other influences such as light and possibly fires can cause this migrating bird to become disoriented. Maybe a Kendiegh recipient could begin to look at the problems that the urbanization of Chambana is having on migrants. And let's face facts the study could be done on bicycle, or scooter, with out much need for petrochemicals. Thanks again for the photo. Jim :) -- James Hoyt "The Prairie Ant" Champaign Co. Audubon Illinois Audubon Society Co-steward Parkland College Prairies. Volunteer Monitor; Urbana Park District Natural Areas. Champaign County Master Gardener East Central Illinois Master Naturalist Grand Prairie Friends Allerton Allies Prairie Rivers Network The Xerces Society The Illinois Chapter of the Nature Conservancy =============================================================================== "The way to keep a trail alive is to walk on it". Author unknown =============================================================================== ******************************************************************************* ******************************************************************************* "The human culture is considered to be a 'geologic force' and with good reason. But if we are at a stage where our actions are to decide the world's future, then surely we have reached a level where we can be held acountable for the world's future." Durward L. Allen "Our Wildlife Legacy" ******************************************************************************* *******************************************************************************