Chain O’Lakes State Park, Lake County, Illinois – May 20 – 22.

Illinois is, to be blunt, a bad place to live for a nature lover. Only about 3% of the land in Illinois remains in its natural state. The only state of the fifty states which is worse in this regard is my native state of Iowa, where less than 2% of the land remains in its natural state. Still, even in Illinois one can find some nice green spots to enjoy, even if they aren’t exactly pristine.

The Big Guy and I spent the weekend in such a pleasant green spot. Chain O’Lakes State Park is not exactly a wilderness. It is small and the land and water were roughly used before it became a state park about sixty years ago. In fact the water is still roughly used by sports fisherman and speed boats. Still, it was a happy weekend.

We loaded up the car and left home late in the afternoon on Friday. The park is about an hour’s drive from our home, and we were there by about 5:30.

One of my goals for the weekend was to find a Sedge Wren, which, according to the birding guides I read, usually nests at the south end of Turner Lake near the campground where we had reservations. So after we set up camp, we went to the lake to have a look for the first of several times. Unfortunately, the Sedge Wrens either weren’t present this year, or chose to keep still whenever I was around. We heard lots of Yellowthroats, Yellow Warblers, and Redwing Blackbirds, but no Sedge Wrens.

After that, we went to the park concession to check prices on rental canoes. We birded around the boat launch area and tried to find a place where we could see the Sand Hill Cranes which we kept hearing. It was clear that we were a symbiotic team when we birded. The Big Guy had the sharp eyes of youth and often saw birds first, and I had the experience to know what they were.

In the evening at our campsite we saw some raccoons, no doubt checking to see if we had dropped anything edible on the ground.

The next morning was mostly dedicated to canoeing, one of the Big Guy’s favorite activities. We paddled a few miles up the Fox River, which flows through the park, and then back down for about three and a half hours. The weather was beautiful for this activity. The sky was clear except for a slight haze and the air was calm. Marsh Wrens, Yellowthroats, and Willow Flycatchers sang along the river banks, Barn Swallows, Tree Swallows, and Rough-winged Swallows skimmed the river for insects, and Foster’s Terns dove for fish. At one point we saw a beaver swimming in the river, and at another we saw a Sand Hill Crane carrying a round, white object (a duck eggs, perhaps?) in its bill, while a brave little Redwing squawked and attacked its rump, to no apparent effect.

We went back to our camp site for lunch. An American Redstart was singing in the trees near our camp site as we prepared lunch, and he stayed around for the rest of the weekend, but, try as we might, we never saw this beautiful bird.

After lunch, we went for a leisurely hike of about five miles and saw lots of birds. I don’t think I have ever seen so many Baltimore Orioles, or Bluegrey Gnatcatchers, or Indigo Buntings as I saw that afternoon. At one place, we found the nest of a pair of Bluegrey Gnatcatchers, high in a tree near a picnic area. The parents seemed to be displeased that we were staring at their nest, so we left as soon as we had seen what there was to see.

Rarer finds included a Cerulean Warbler, a Philadelphia Vireo, and an Olive-sided Flycatcher. The latter bird was one I had never seen before – my first life-list bird in Illinois in almost eight years.

When we went back to the campground, we found it much more crowded and noisy than it had been the previous night, and there seemed to be a frat-house party atmosphere among some of the campers. But fortunately everyone respected the official quiet hours, and by ten o’clock we were able to enjoy the night noises for a short time before we went to sleep.

We got some rain the following morning (Sunday). We had planned to go canoeing again that morning, but the rain and a forecast of possible thunderstorms made us change our plans. We packed up our camping things and got ready to return home. But by the time we were finished packing the rain had stopped, so we spent a couple of hours hiking one of the trails we didn’t do the previous day. Again, we had good luck finding birds. Finds of the day included a Kingfisher, a Great Egret, a Least Flycatcher, and a Yellow-throated Vireo. We also found a Warbling Vireo sitting on a nest, again looking unhappy that her nesting site was discovered.

We didn’t stay long on Sunday. The Big Guy had a school project to do, so we left around 11 AM.