Champaign County Audubon Society

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Upcoming Field Trips
Elaine Regehr


Every Sunday 7:30-9 AM. Busey Woods/Crystal Lake Park walks. Spring birds are returning and the woods will soon green up. All ages, all levels of experience welcome.

May 3, Saturday 7 AM. Lodge Park. Anita Purves Nature Center parking lot. Return around noon. A great place to see spring warblers. Leader Greg Lambeth.

May 10, Saturday, Spring Bird Count. Put it on your calendar and call Beth Chato, 344-6803 to help.

May 11-17. Audubon Birdathon Week

May 24, Saturday 6:30 AM. Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve. Anita Purves Nature Center parking lot. Return around noon. It is nearby and a great spring birding place. Leader, Helen Parker.

Questions: 367-5787



Field Trip Reports


May 3, Saturday 7 AM. Lodge Park
We had 9 participants for the Lodge Park field trip and we had a nice day, especially in the early morning before the front passed and it became cloudy and windy. Beth Chato and I started out at 6:00am at (where else) Crystal Lake Park near the Lake House. And, it was a great start to the day with tons of activity on the hillside, including a male and female Hooded and a Kentucky Warbler. We birded the area until 7:00am when we met up with the rest of the participants at Anita Purves and talked them into spending a little time at Crystal Lake Park before heading out to Lodge Park. We ran into Leslie and Dave Thomas who were also birding the area. We had many of the birds on Leslie's list plus a Summer Tanager first thing in the morning. The male Hooded, Blackburnian and Yellow-throated were real treats along with a very cooperative Yellow-throated Vireo.

We headed out to Lodge Park around 8:00am and met Rob Kanter out there who had already located a very early Yellow-breasted Chat along with Blue-winged Warbler and a nice flock of Indigo Buntings and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. We found a juvenile Blackpoll Warbler in with this flock as well as a few Nashville Warblers. The best birding was at Buck's pond where we walked through a beautiful wooded area that had a few small flocks of birds. We had a female Blue Grosbeak in a flock of Indigo Buntings along with our 3rd Hooded Warbler for the day. We also had nice looks at a Warbling Vireo that looked quite a bit like a Philadelphia Vireo (check out Sibley's Eastern Guide to see how similar these birds can be).

Other highlights for the day included Baltimore Oriole, Scarlet Tanager, Lincoln's Sparrow, a very cooperative Ovenbird, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Purple Finch, Red-breasted Nuthatch and Prothonotary Warbler. Our species total for the morning was 88.

Greg Lambeth

Champaign County Audubon Society - P.O. Box 882 - Urbana, Illinois - 61803-0882 - (217) 367-6766

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Photos courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
©2004 Champaign County (Illinois) Audubon Society • A chapter of the National Audubon Society