Breeding bird season is in full swing and we’ve been appreciating our local nesting birds and observing their habits closely. Join us in September for Sunday Morning Bird Walks!

Scything gracefully through the dawn sky above us were a pair of birds with long wings that had a crook in them and bright, white rectangular patches beyond the crook. No other bird in our area looks anything like them. We were excited to realize we’d just seen our first Common Nighthawks of the season.

Find Spotted Sandpipers along a shore of a river, a stream, a lake, a pond, or even a small wetland. Weaver Park in Urbana as well as along the banks of the Sangamon River, McCullough Creek in Meadowbrook Park, Homer Lake, the Middle Fork River, and Point Pleasant wetland host these birds. Find enough water and you have a chance of seeing a Spotted Sandpiper, especially in late spring, and late summer to early fall, usually alone, sometimes with a partner. 

You will know that the bird you see is a wren when you see it cocking its barred tail at an angle. Listen for its bubbly, staccato, and very loud (for its size) song. Like most birds, wrens prefer to be invisible as far as non-wrens are concerned. You can use the Merlin app to help you learn this small bird’s song and, very possibly, find it moving about in dense tangles hunting for insects to eat.