From Cyclops to Argus Panoptes

Whenever I bird with other, more experienced birders, it seems like we morph into a single, gigantic, distributed organism with eyes all over its body, like the Greek character Argus who had like 1000 eyes. This morning I finally found my group (after wandering the length of the park for like 1/2 hour) and they were sharp enough to catch heaps and heaps of birds I hadn't ever seen at Humboldt Park before--even though I bird there like twice a week! Kind of humbling. So here's a sampler of what we saw:
KINGFISHER, which had caught a fish, flew to a low-hanging branch and proceeded to slam the fish against the branch repeatedly until it was able to swallow it;
2 female BUFFLEHEADS
4 WOOD DUCKS
GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS
RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS
RING NECKED DUCK
6 HERMIT THRUSHES
BROWN THRASHERS
SWAMP SPARROWS
SONG SPARROWS
CHIPPING SPARROWS
FLICKERS
WOOD THRUSH
GOLDFINCH
BROWN CREEPERS
HAIRY WOODPECKER
DOWNY WOODPECKER
AMERICAN CROW
WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS
and the usual multitudes of CANADA GEESE, HOUSE SPARROWS, RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS and HERRING GULLS.

What a terrific morning in the city! Suburbanite birders on our walk complained about the amount of trash in the park; I said it was a vast improvement from early March, when you had to dodge flying McDonald's wrappers and syringes along the mini-wilderness area in the park called the Prairie River. The cleanup crews are doing their best and making improvements along the way--finally there is now a white dividing line along the whole bicycle trail, which gives the enormous chaotic park an air of civilization.

Yesterday S. and I had to drive out to drop off our new Toyota for some work at the dealership--new tires and paint protection as promised when we made the purchase--and we stopped off at the Chicago Botanic Garden for a walk and some lunch. Awesome place! The paths wind through endless cultivated gardens and flashy annuals and bulbs like narcissus and ranunculus. The smells on such a warm day were intoxicating. The only birds I had there, though, were a GOLDFINCH, millions of ROBINS and some MUTE SWANS, which I noted are so invasive and toxic for the pond/watershed habitat that no other water birds will nest near them. They just chew everything completely to bits and leave nothing for anyone else. How American of them--you'd think they were a native species, but they aren't.

Shovelers were in the puddle.

Awesome! We went for a walk yesterday and saw five NORTHERN SHOVELERS chasing each other in a large puddle at the far end of the drained lagoon in the park. They cared not a whit for the fact that two largish, full bodies of water lay within a quarter mile. They hadn't been there a couple days ago. I didn't have my field glasses so I'll have to try again today--but the spoon-shaped bills and brown and white and green markings were unmistakably those of the birds in my book--which I had memorized in case of just such a sighting. Another life list bird for me...
Also, there were some white geese which could have been ROSS' GEESE or LESSER SNOW GEESE. Not sure on the ID on this one. They seemed right at home among the Canada Geese and Coots on the lagoon.

Run, Run! No, Wait! Wait! Wait!

The title of this post comes from a dad I just witnessed trying to teach his kids how to fly a kite. The kids weren't getting it at all, and then the older sister tried to make her little brother run with the kite just to see him do it, and the dad put his foot down. This being Humboldt Park, about four older teenagers were watching from their bikes.

Also in the park just now, I saw my first-ever COMMON GALLINULE up close and personal drifting and diving in the cold lagoon. There was also a sparrow which might have been a SWAMP SPARROW, but could also have been a WHITE CROWNED SPARROW, I'm not sure--and bazillions, once again, of RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS diving for cover from the approaching helicopter. It's finally spring here--meaning fifty degrees in the sunshine--and the ice cream truck is hopefully blaring its incessant jingle which we are condemned to hear eight hundred thousand times a day for the next five months.

du du du DU DU, du du du DU DU (La Cucaracha), doot du du du du du DU...