I stayed local today, starting at Baker’s Lake in Barrington at 7:15. Baker’s Lake isn’t a 
great place to bird, but it has the advantage of being open at dawn while Cook County forest preserves don’t open until 8:00 am. It’s main feature is the huge rookery in the center of the lake. When I started birding here 28 years ago, there were a few herons nesting in the trees on the island. Since then, the trees have died and the island has shrunk. The forest preserve built a scaffolding out of two-by-fours, and it now contains a mass of nests of Cormorants, Egrets and Herons (below, right). Things were fairly lively this morning. (The birds marked in red were new for the year.) I saw:
Double-crested Cormorant; Blue Jay; Canada Goose; Baltimore Oriole; European Starling; Indigo Bunting; Nashville Warbler; Brown-headed Cowbird; American Goldfinch; Lincoln’s Sparrow; Palm Warbler; Yellow-rumped Warbler; Red-bellied Woodpecker; Great Egret; Hairy Woodpecker; Red-winged Blackbird; American Redstart; American Robin; Blue-headed Vireo; Tennessee Warbler; Eastern Bluebird; Common Grackle; Gray Catbird; Yellow Warbler; Great-crested Flycatcher; Great Blue Heron; Black-crowned Night Heron; Mallard; Northern Cardinal; Blue-gray Gnatcatcher; Red-eyed Vireo.
From Baker’s Lake, I drove to Deer Grove Forest Preserve. This is a reliable place for 
woodland birds, especially in migration, so I go here every year, but I don’t like the place. It isn’t well maintained (it’s a Cook County forest preserve, after all) and I meet unsavory characters once in a while. I added:
Swainson’s Thrush; Wood Thrush; Golden-winged Warbler; Blackburnian Warbler; Black-throated Green Warbler; Rose-breasted Grosbeak; Cape May Warbler; Black-and-white Warbler; Ovenbird; Song Sparrow; Common Yellowthroat; Bay-breasted Warbler; Blackpoll Warbler; Eastern Phoebe; Chipping Sparrow; Wood Duck; Yellow-throated Vireo; Northern Waterthrush; American Crow; House Wren; Magnolia Warbler.
I left Deer Grove and headed for Crabtree Nature Center. On the way I passed a forest preserve I’ve never seen before — Younghusband Prairie. It’s located on an old farm on the 
back side of Baker’s Lake. I walked around the lake once years ago, trespassing in people’s yards and walking through woods without trails. Now it been turned into a park. A nice mowed trail headed off across the field, and I headed off along the trail. After about half a mile, the trail entered a brushy area, then came to a steel bridge across a marsh. On the other side of the bridge, without warning, the trail turned into a narrow track through the woods. I followed it for a while as it got narrower and narrower. I finally became little more than a deer path through a thicket. I pushed my way through and found myself on the cement foundation of a round barn that burned down a few years back. In the middle of the circle was a guy about my age, a bit stoned-looking, sitting next to his bike and drinking a beer. He said hi. I asked him what happened to the trail. He said, “This is it. This is the center of everything.” I kept my distance and asked him if there was another way out. He pointed across the circle and said, “I’ve been down that way. Just head for that pine. I pushed my way through some bushes and found a deer trail, but it 
soon disappeared. I found myself in a thicket, but kept walking in hopes of finding the trail I came in on. As I went further and further, I got twisted around and soon had no idea where I was. After a quarter mile of this, I came upon an uncrossable marsh. I started to follow it, but the mud soon make me enter the thicket again. I walked for the better part of an hour through a maze of brush and thorns, bent over double most of the time to get under the branches. When I finally came out of it, sweaty and thirsty and covered with thorns, I was right back by the cement circle. The guy was gone. I headed back toward my car. I did see some cool birds along the official trail part of the experience. I added:
Orchard Oriole; Sedge Wren; White-crowned Sparrow; Red-tailed Hawk; Eastern Kingbird; Northern Flicker; Barn Swallow; Savannah Sparrow; Black-capped Chickadee; Brown Thrasher; Swamp Sparrow; Tree Swallow; Henslow’s Sparrow; Cooper’s Hawk. 
I was glad to get out of there. My next stop was Paul Douglas Forest Preserve, along I-90. I don’t know what it is about this place, but there are more ticks there than in the rest of the world put together. I walked for 15 minutes on a narrow trail through four-inch-tall grass and picked 23 of them off my pants. I didn’t wander around much, just looked to see what was in the marsh. I added:
Blue-winged Teal; Solitary Sandpiper; Spotted Sandpiper; American Coot; Yellow-headed 
Blackbird; Gadwall; Pied-billed Grebe; Killdeer.
My last stop was Crabtree Nature Center. I had the place almost entirely to myself. I added:
Downy Woodpecker; Mute Swan; Hooded Merganser; Turkey Vulture; Common Moorhen; White-throated Sparrow; Sora; Green Heron; Blue-winged Warbler; Chestnut-sided Warbler; Eastern Towhee; Field Sparrow.
During the course of the day, I also saw Mourning Dove, Rock Dove and House Sparrow.
I ended up with 90 birds. I should have seen more — with better planning and by avoiding getting lost in thickets, I could have seen over 100, something I’ve only done three times in my life. I walked nine miles.