Listing Through Life

porzana (crake) carolina (of Carolina)

Monday, April 21, 1980 — 12:00 noon

Northbrook, Illinois — golf course

I was only wearing one contact this day. I think I lost the other one the day before at Baker’s Lake. I went out with a friend at lunch anyway. We walked across a small field, over some railroad tracks, across a road, and on to a golf course.

We were walking along the edge of a small pond in the center of the course. I saw a bird flush from a thin strip of reeds and fly about ten feet to another small strip. I followed, stepping up on a log to get a better view. The Sora scooted through the reeds and stood in the open for a few seconds, but I didn’t get a very good look. Besides having blurred vision, I was falling backward of the log. I picked myself up and looked again, but the Sora was gone. The strip of reeds was about two feet wide and ten feet long, but that was big enough for the bird to hide in. We searched and searched, but we couldn’t find it.

I went back after work to try again. As I approached the strip of reeds, the Sora flushed and headed out across the pond away from me. It ran across the surface with its feet dangling, splashing the surface as it went. About 25 feet from shore, it disappeared under the water. We circled the pond for another half hour, but the bird was not to be found.

gallinula (chicken) chloropus (from chloros, green, and pous, foot)

Sunday, April 20, 1980 — 12:30 pm

Barrington, Illinois — Baker’s Lake

The lake was crawling with birds this day. This lone bird, called a gallinule at the time, was swimming about halfway out to the island in the middle of a huge raft of American Coots. It looked just like the coots except for the red bill.

sayornis (for Thomas Say, American entomologist who accompanied Stephen Lond on his 19th-century expedition to the Rocky Mountains) phoebe (a daughter of Gaea)

Saturday, April 19, 1980 — 10:00 am

Barrington, Illinois — Crabtree Nature Center

I were walking down the prairie trail, just as it opens up into the field and before it gets to the bridge. The Phoebe was sitting in the top of a small tree near the marsh, continually wagging its tail.

Later that summer, and for each of the next five summers or so, a Phoebe nested on a ledge above the doorway of the blind on Bulrush Pond. It would fly out and land in a nearby tree every time someone approached. I once spent about half an hour sitting inside the blind waiting to see if it would come in while I was there. It finally flew in the door, but just as quickly went out the window  I didn’t want the eggs to get cold, so I left. More than once, I saw young birds in the nest. I don’t know if it ever successfully fledged its chicks under those conditions.

calidris (speckled water bird) melanotos (from melas, black, and noton, back)

Friday, April 18, 1980 — 12:00 noon

Northbrook, Illinois

As the weather got warmer and migration started, I began going outside every chance I found to see birds. I even took advantage of my lunch time at a distribution company to wander around a nearby empty lot and golf course behind the building.

For these birds, however, I didn’t have to go very far. Between the back of the building and the parking lot was a small grassy area. As soon as I walked outside, I spotted them wading in puddles in the grass. They fed, dipping their bills in the water as they moved around. When I got too close, they flushed, flew around the field once, then took off out of sight.

passerculus (little sparrow) sandwichensis (of Sandwich, Unalaska, in the Aleutians)

Thursday, April 17, 1980 — 4:45 pm

Deerfield, Illinois

On a college campus was an overgrown garden where the married students grew vegetables in the summer. I spotted several sparrows feeding in among the weeds and dried vegetable plants. I chased them back and forth for a long time, trying to see the field marks. Whenever I flushed one, it would fly a short distance and land, usually out of sight on the ground, but occasionally in one of the tiny trees in the area. Since I had time, I continued chasing them until I saw all the marks, including the notched tail.