Nelson Lake Park, Batavia

 On June 23, 2012, I went to Nelson Lake Park in Batavia for a birding trip with the DuPage Birding Club.  It was a nice place, with a grassland and forest together.  It was way different than Cantigny in many ways.  There was a person from DuPage Birding Club named Scott that said that he started birding when he was young like me!  We saw a lot of birds.  For this trip’s rare sighting, we saw... a Henslow’s Sparrow!  We also saw a Kestrel on a nest box.

Here are all the birds we saw:

Killdeer

Cowbird

A pair of Dickcissels in the grass.

Cedar waxwing

Wood duck

Green heron

Barn swallow

Song sparrow

Dickcissel

Northern flicker

Meadowlark

Common yellowthroat

Blue heron

Bobolink

Ring Billed Gull

Sedge wren

Northern Rough-Winged swallow

Great Egret

Henslow’s Sparrow

Turkey vulture

Bobolink

Kestrel

Indigo bunting

Cardinal

Peewee

Red-eyed vireo

Field sparrow

Goldfinch

Red-Winged Blackbird

Those are the birds we saw at Nelson Lake Park.  Bye!

IMBD '12

On May 12, I went to Willowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn for International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD).  We saw a hummingbird that was in a dead tree, a Downy Woodpecker, and an American Redstart.  It is good place to go birding, although IMBD only happens on May 12.  We heard a Common Yellowthroat that refused to come out of the bush he was in.  Though they do the IMBD bird walk, they have some injured animals (mostly birds) that you can give money to help.  Here are some pictures:

Penegrine Falcon-Eye injury

Barred Owl-Eye injury

Pratts Wayne Woods

Hello, birders!  I’m back with another Birding Adventure!  This time, I went to Pratts Wayne Woods (PWW).  At PWW, there was a small group, but there was a bunch of birds.  There was both orioles, we heard a field sparrow (the first bird call I will ever learn), and we saw a gnatcatcher.  We heard a common yellowthroat, but he refused to come out of the tree he was in.  But we saw-and I wouldn’t lie on a blog-a brown thrasher.  Yes, a brown thrasher.  It is supposed to be really rare, and it is related to the mockingbirds.  I’m not kidding.  So on that note, this is the end of my first review of PWW.  So, bye!

Backyard Birds 1

Here is a mourning dove I saw in my backyard.

Cantigny

Last week, I went birding was at Cantigny Park in Wheaton.  It’s really a nice place to go birding.  All the people there are nice, there are eastern bluebird houses everywhere if you want to see bluebirds. There is a lot of swallows (both tree and barn) everywhere.  We even saw a bald eagle!  (If you go, there might not be one because the guide said that it was a first to see an eagle at Cantigny.)  As I said, this is a really good place to go birding, for beginners and experts alike. 

My First Blog

         Hello, my name is Ryan, and welcome to Ryan’s Birding Adventures, where I keep you updated on birding trips, cool places to go birding in Illinois, and rare sightings!  The reason I am doing this blog is because I like going birding, and I hope you do also!