words by David Hoyt

April 22, 2023

In the month since Chicago Ornithological Society’s last Humboldt Park bird walk, spring has arrived, although the weather was just a bit better in late April than it had been in March. Nonetheless, the electric colors of new growth confirmed the change of seasons, as did the volume of bird activity, both of which were enough to distract from the varieties of wintery mix that blew through at intervals, consisting of precipitation for which quirky Northern European names have yet to be invented.

A Red-tailed Hawk, a hawk with a brown head, white breast, and brown chest streaks, perches with wings spread on a budding branch. — Red-tailed Hawk. Photo by David Hoyt.

The main lagoon was the scene of a veritable air and water show, with Mallard and Wood Duck traffic to rival rush hour at O’Hare, while the reedy pond edges so plentiful in the park presented newly-arrived female Red-winged Blackbirds in all their densely-patterned, understated, and vocally distinct glory. A Green Heron announced our arrival in bird world, a Double-crested Cormorant made a cameo flyover, and a pair of Red-tailed Hawks sought refuge from nagging blackbird in two understory trees ahead of the group.

A Kestrel made a dramatic sweep over the pond, and was later spotted perched atop a tree more or less where it was seen last month. A fellow birder and I flushed a Wilson’s Snipe from the reeds, which shot off like a rocket across the water, and then taunted us to overcome its insanely effective camouflage and spot it on the far shore.

Birds wanted to be in Humboldt Park today, and it was hard to keep up with the sightings all around. Kinglets were especially plentiful – one Ruby-crowned Kinglet coming so close to my binoculars that my field of view was literally consumed by the fiery orange-red of the bird’s cap. Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, which I have a hard time scaring up in my patch, all wanted to be here for Earth Day. The Northern Flicker that I usually see sweeping up from a log and into a branch of the forest edge in my patch was here feasting on ants from a crack in the sidewalk.

A Swamp Sparrow, a sparrow with rusty wings, brown and gray streaky breast, gray face, and rusty crown stripe, sits in the crook of a bare branch. — Swamp Sparrow. Photo by David Hoyt.

If there was a theme to today’s walk, it was all about Sparrows and Thrushes, with Swamp Sparrows and Brown Thrashers taking center stage. I saw enough of both birds in one hour to leave with a good sense of what to look for in each, though the Brown Thrashers kept a bit further away, and I was not lucky enough to hear the mimetic call that was reported by our leader. Hermit Thrushes were also present, and a Savannah Sparrow was spotted. Warblers were less abundant, but very near the start a pair of Orange-crowned Warblers were seen in plain view, which was a highlight for this birder and an amazing bird to spot in the middle of Chicago.

The group, happy to end the walk with 46 species, dispersed to make way for an energetic Earth Day clean-up effort.

Field Trip Report: Humboldt Park