Field Notes: Havana Field Trip Recap
Black-necked Stilt. Photo by Jeff Bryant.
By Colin Dobson, CCAS President
Colin and several other CCAS birders birded for most of the day Saturday, Sep. 3rd, around Havana seeing over 115 species throughout the day, including 21 species of shorebirds! The group started at Sand Ridge State Forest and had a great start to the day, seeing Red-breasted Nuthatches, 10 species of warbler, Baltimore Orioles, a Summer Tanager, and many Rose-breasted Grosbeaks! We then made it to the Crossdike at Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge and were greeted with thousands of ducks and shorebirds, along with many gulls, Black Terns, Pelicans, and egrets! We saw plenty of Black-necked Stilts, American Avocets, Semipalmated Plovers, Wilson’s Phalaropes, a couple Golden-Plovers, and Western Sandpipers! We also saw our first Northern Shovelers, Herring Gulls, Little Blue Herons, and Bobolinks!
At Chautauqua and the next stop, Colin quickly picked out three Hudsonian Godwits! There were many more Stilt Sandpipers and Dowitchers, and our first Sanderling for the day as well! The group grabbed lunch in Havana and had a beautiful picnic lunch at Dickson Mounds! Then it was onto Emiquon! We first stopped at the Globe Tracts, where we saw many new species for the day, including Snow Geese, Northern Pintail, American Coot, Baird’s Sandpiper, and Snowy Egrets. Also, we saw more Black-necked Stilts, American Golden-Plovers, and Dowitchers as well along with some great views studying the shorebirds!
We made a quick stop at the observation platform and saw our first Forster’s Terns of the day, along with many more gulls, pelicans, and cormorants!
Our last stop was at Sanganois, just south of Havana, where we got our last shorebird-full of the day. A crowd favorite were the nine Red-necked Phalaropes spinning around and feeding in a small puddle of water! Also of note were more Western Sandpipers, Snowy Egrets, Eurasian Tree Sparrows, and plenty of more gulls and ducks! We also saw a Green Heron and a few Bald Eagles as we were leaving!
It was a fun day and we look forward to seeing people on the next field trip! Stay tuned for more!