Thursday, March 27, 2014

Birdlog #8 - 3-27-14: Birding at a lek during migration...

... Rocks.

You're probably wondering what a lek is (unless you're an obsessive bird nerd who knows every obscure term ever used anywhere). A lek is where adult male birds can do courtship displays, and females will come and watch. I think they're only used by plovers, grouse and some birds-of-paradise.


Anyway, here's the list:



  • 5 Canada Geese
  • 2 Mallards
  • 1 Turkey Vulture
  • 3 Bald Eagles
  • 1 Red-tailed Hawk
  • 20-30 Sandhill Cranes - The first I've seen in Illinois!
  • 11 Killdeer
  • 1 Peregrine Falcon
  • 1 Blue Jay
  • 2 American Robins
  • 1 European Starling
  • 1 Cedar Waxwing - possible
  • 3 House Sparrows
The species that really stick out to me are: Bald Eagle, Sandhill Crane and Peregrine Falcon. The Killdeer were the only ones actually using the lek, but there were other birds around. Here's the really crazy part: We saw all of those birds in twenty minutes!

And once again, I didn't have my camera with me - It's outta battery, anyway.

End.

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