Peoria Audubon Society is a local affiliate of both:
National Audubon Society & Illinois Audubon Society
Birding the Illinois River: Emiquon
Field Trip: Sat. Aug. 14, 2010 Page 1 2 Next
Photo Gallery:
While at the The Nature Conservancy's Emiquon wetland restoration, we got to watch several great egrets fly in and forage for food.
Great Egret at Emiquon
Great Egrets Landing
One of the egrets flew up onto a rock at Emiquon. Whether factual or not, it appeared to fly up for a better veiw.
Great Egret Standing on Rock for View
Watching the Birds with Spotting Scopes
With all the bird activity, and the panoramic view of the Emiquon restoration, we spent quite a bit of time in this one location. With the distances, the spotting scopes came in quite handy.
Tree Swallows and Barn Swallows
At Emiquon, as well as at a number of other locations, the swallows were gathering in flocks for the migration south. In the above image, barn and tree swallows were perching in a few old willows along the shore of Emiquon.
Black-necked Stilts in Sand Lake near Havana, IL
Driving southeast from Havana, just outside of town, the flooded waters of Sand Lake were creating numerous shallow pools of water. It was in these "fluddles" that we found black-necked stilts. These images of stilts were taken from parking alongside the main road.
Black-necked Stilts
Notice the long, pink legs of the stilts. According to ibird.com, this species has, "the second-longest legs in proportion to their bodies of any bird, exceeded only by flamingos.
Great Egret at Sand Lake
Diving around the side roads surrounding Sand Lake, there were numerous "lightly flooded" fields where the birds were wading - as the great egret above.
Hot, but Happy, Birders large image 1500x937
Even with the high temperatures, everyone returned in great spirits; as we were able to view a large number of birds during their fall migration.
Birding the Illinois River - Group Shot #2 large image 1500x939
The Peoria Audubon Society wishes to thank the management and employees of the Peoria Park District for working with us to organize and provide the resources for our trip.
In particular, we wish to thank Maury Brucker for scouting out the locations and being our guide to explain what we were seeing. We wish to thank Mike Miller, Susie Grana, and Mike Ingram of the Peoria Park District to serve not only as our drivers, but to help supply the warmth and caring that makes for an enjoyable field trip.