On Saturday, Oct 6th, nearly fifty people attended the third annual Illinois Young Birders Symposium to enjoy a day of birding, presentations by young birders and professionals, and art at the Edward L. Ryerson Conservation Area in Riverwoods, Illinois. The day began with a field trip on the grounds of Ryerson Conservation Area where more…
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Seventeen young birders and families joined forces with Christine Williamson and the Chicago Ornithological Society to bird the south shore of Lake Michigan on September 16th. We met at Chicago’s Rainbow Beach on a beautiful sunny and warm morning. We walked the dunes to the water and began scanning the far breakwall behind the water…
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Eight young birders and their parents joined me, Steve Bayer, and guest leader Tim Balassie for some shorebirding in Kane and Dupage Counties on August 19th. We started at Dunteman Turf Farms in Kaneville, where we found plenty of Killdeer but no other shorebirds. We moved on to Nelson Lake, which fortunately held a much…
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Hi fellow birders! I’m Simon Tolzmann, a young birder from Chicago, IL. Today was my third experience with bird banding. Today gave me a new perspective on banding, as I hope it did to all the other young birders! We started the day at around 9:15 in the morning with nine young birders at Camp…
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Sixteen young birders and their families rose well before sunrise to meet our guest field trip leader, Beau Schaefer, at Illinois Beach State Park (IBSP) – South Unit for our first ever Big Day. Beau is a veteran of Lake County Big Days and we would take advantage of his expertise throughout the day. We…
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Eleven Illinois Young Birders and their parents dodged the rain drops Sunday morning, May 20th, at Montrose in Chicago. Even with a strong northeast winds, migrants were not to be denied. Overnight, they seemed to push on through and were well represented. And despite the gloomy and cold weather, the rain held off just enough…
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Well, things didn’t go quite as planned. Six young birders met bright and early Sunday morning, April 15th, in the parking lot of Denny’s in Bourbonnais eager to explore the Kankakee River area. Yet, mother nature had other plans. It wouldn’t stop raining. Still, we drove to Kankakee River State Park and hoped for the…
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What is it about overnight field trips? It seems like every one presents an unique set of challenges and this one was no exception. It started with the weather. Saturday morning, a nasty winter snow storm rolled into the Champaign area blocking our path to our destination. Within hours, the storm deposited a sheet of…
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Eleven young birders joined us on a foggy day on Lake Michigan, which made for difficult birding despite the mild weather. Visibility was difficult at best. Despite these conditions, one of the first birds seen was a Snowy Owl perched atop a tower at the mouth of the Calumet River at Steelworker’s Park. At the…
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