The Grasshopper Sparrow Journals: July 27-August 10, 2024
A surprise from the Mockingbirds, a park lifer, and fall migration begins
The Grasshopper Sparrow Journals documents bird life at Chicago's Park 566. Previously home to one of the largest steel mills in the U.S., Park 566 has become one of northeastern Illinois's premier spots for avian biodiversity—and the only location within Chicago city limits where Grasshopper Sparrows breed. I hope you enjoy this tour of Park 566 through the pages of my nature journal, photos, and videos. 💛
Breeding season was drawing to a close and the first hints of fall migration were felt in Chicago, as far traveling shorebirds once again graced our skies and beaches.
July 27, 2024
As I sat down to write this post, I was struck by how sparse my field notes and photos were for this particular July day. Then I came across the photos below from my phone. Ah yes, this was the day my spotting scope had an unfortunate accident.
Possibly over-prepared for what I anticipated to be a wonderful morning, I was lugging around my camera, my scope and tripod, and my field sketching supplies. Yikes—no wonder that didn’t go well!
At the start of our walk, probably only 15 minutes in, I set my scope and tripod down to look at something
spotted on the lake. As I walked away, I recall seeing it oh-so-slowly tip over and hit the ground. “No big deal” I thought. “That was such a gentle fall. Thank goodness for that soft grass.” I picked scope and tripod up and continued down the road to my favorite Sedge Wren spot. Only when I set things down again did I realize the damage. The “neck” of my spotting scope was dangling to the side within its protective case. Uh-oh. Opening up the case revealed the damage: the eyepiece of the scope had completely snapped off, taking bits of the scope’s body with it.
Probably worried that my scope was irreparably busted (it wasn’t) and disappointed I wasn’t going to field sketch the way I had planned (I didn’t), my notes from this day were limited. But the park Mockingbirds really turned the morning around—they had a second nest! Whoa. We’d just seen them feeding fledglings on July 13, and here they were 2 weeks later with a new set of nestlings. No wonder we’d only seen one Mockingbird the previous week, the female must have been sitting on this new nest!
August 3, 2024
This was a lovely morning with a pink sunrise, enjoyed once again with Sedge Wrens.
Not long after, we spotted three juvenile Grasshopper Sparrows in the road in the North end of the park. For some reason I think they look extra adorable with that streaking on their breasts, which they lose as adults. Cuuuuute!
As we stared adoringly at these charming sparrows, an Upland Sandpiper flew over the park. We were hopeful that the Uppie would land and spend some time with us, but we only ever heard their calls for those few brief moments in the early morning. Here’s a short clip of my audio from that, and you can faintly hear the Upland calling at 3 and 11 seconds between the songs of Sedge Wrens, Indigo Bunting, and American Goldfinch.
And that wasn’t the only shorebird encounter of the morning. A couple hours later the Birding Illinois Discord server lit up with reports of 2 Whimbrel flying south from Montrose. By that point in the year I’d already seen Whimbrel several times at Montrose1, but I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to see one at Park 566. This was my moment! We quickly looked up their flight speed and calculated how long it would take them to get to the park, and I kept checking the sky.
I’d just about given up hope when they suddenly appeared, two large stocky shorebirds with their long distinctive bills. They flew right over us, then circled the south end of the park before disappearing. Park lifer #196!
August 10, 2024
What I remember most about this day was that there were SOOOO many Chimney Swifts. They were swooping low over the grasses at the south end of the park, and I sat down on my stool and watched them whiz by while trying to capture their various shapes in flight with a brush pen.
Mixed in with this large groups of swifts were about a dozen barn swallows and a few Cliff Swallows, the latter an uncommon visitor of Park 566.
Once we reached the breakwater at the south end of the park, we spotted a lone Semipalmated Plover, who allowed us to sit and watch and take photos while they preened and rested. Thank you buddy—safe travels!
Thank you as always for reading. Only one more post to go to conclude my 2024 Grasshopper Sparrow Journal, and just a few more weeks until these beloved sparrows return to their Chicago home.
💛,
Kelly
Photos and illustrations: Kelly C. Ballantyne
2024 may go down as Whimbrel Summer for Montrose Point, as they were spotted there on 12 different days spanning May-September, compared to only 6 days in 2023.
I really like that sketch of the Semipalmated Plover - really well done, Kelly. Also that photo of the junvenile Grasshopper Sparrow is excellent with them staring straight at the camera. I wonder what they were thinking at that time, haha. Thanks for sharing.
My favorite thing about the grasshopper sparrows at Boyer chute in Nebraska was that I could measure distance by their territory song. It was the same number of footsteps from one sparrow to the next.