A photo of 8 birders, including children, pose for a selfie in front of a field, with trees in the background. — Photo by Edward Warden.

words by Edward Warden

May 28, 2023

It’s like they know or something, because every time there’s a COS hike at Marian R. Byrnes Natural Area, there’s a Green Heron to greet us. Well, for our spring visit this year, the trend continued with a Green Heron sitting high in a dead tree, giving great looks to all. As our group entered the park form the 97th Street gate, we also encountered several Spotted Sandpipers, kingbirds, and a solo Blue-winged Teal. It was a great start for a beautiful day.

A Common Grackle, a large black bird with a long tail and yellow eye, perches in a dead tree above a Green Heron, a large bird with green-blue feathers and a long, spear-like bill. — Common Grackle and Green Heron. Photo by Alicia Obando.

The trail at Marian R. Byrnes Natural Area (formerly known as Van Vlissingen Prairie, formerly known as Calumet Cinder Flats), is unique in that it bisects the park and its primary habitat types; woods, savannah, prairie, ponds, and shallow marsh. So at any given point, you are standing in between at least two different habitats, which leads to some odd pairings of birds spotted and heard. This was noticeable as we meandered south and picked up Killdeer at the same time as catbirds, or Yellow-bellied Flycatchers with Marsh Wrens. While numbers overall seemed a bit low for this point in the migration season, it was a great day for flycatchers in general. Six-ish (7 if you count the ambiguous Empids) species were found from the biggest to the smallest and all putting on quite the show. Their antics were accompanied by numerous Tree and Rough-winged Swallows and near countless Red-winged Blackbirds.

An Eastern Kingbird, a long gray flycatcher with a white chin, breast, belly, and tail tip, perches on a branch in a field.a — Eastern Kingbird. Photo by Alicia Obando.

We ended up stopping near the halfway point of this long skinny park to hydrate, admire a very high-flying Cooper’s Hawk, and turn around to start heading back. Thankfully we were in no hurry, and this is where we snagged some excellent views of Eastern Bluebirds in their finest spring plumage. It was at this point that a singing Baltimore Oriole began to tease us. We had heard this bird earlier in the hike, but at a distance, and with no real hope of seeing him. Now the call was remarkably close. Despite this, the bird made us work for it. After a solid ten minutes of pacing back and forth to pin down where the song was coming from, we finally picked him out at the top of a tree, showing very little beyond his bright orange belly. But it was enough for us to feel a great sense of accomplishment as we wrapped up and headed out for the day. While it was a bit of a slower day for migration, it was still a good day of birding that saw us add some new species to the park’s overall species list!

Field Trip Report: Marian R. Byrnes Natural Area