chondestes (from chondros, grain, and edestes, eater) grammacus (lined)
Thursday, May 1, 1980 — 4:45 pm
Deerfield, Illinois
I was walking around a college campus, back by the baseball diamond. There was a weed-covered dirt hill in the corner near the woods. As I walked up the slope, a sparrow flew out of the weeds and landed facing me about 40 feet away in a row of brush and trees. It was a beautiful bird with a striking head pattern and a white-edged tail that fanned out in flight.
pooecetes (from poa, grass, and oiketes, dweller) gramineus (grass)
Tuesday, April 29, 1980 — 12:30 pm
Northbrook, Illinois — golf course
I was on another half-hour walk to the golf course over lunch. I crossed the fairways and began walking through a weedy field that stretched beyond. I saw the Vesper Sparrow on a weed-covered dirt hill. It sat in a bush and preened for a short time then flew to a plowed field and foraged for a little while before taking off out of sight.
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.
