The most interesting bird I’ve seen this spring at Somme Woods was a transient, a male prairie warbler who sang all morning on May 26, and couldn’t be found on May 27.
The dominant type resulting from the cross is the Brewster’s warbler, which looks very much like the blue-winged except that, instead of solid yellow underparts, it has a white throat and belly separated by a patch of yellow on the breast.
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On May 29, I heard the meadowlark singing from a black locust tree just south of the preserve itself. Then it flew over me and landed in a small tree on the prairie, way over at the northern end of the preserve. It stayed in that tree singing for several minutes. It acts like a bird still in the process of establishing a territory. If there were a female sitting on a nest, the male would probably not have been moving so far. However, I shall keep hoping.
And then two deer wander into my field of view. They are feeding in a relaxed way. One of them snorts from time to time. They look at me. They know I am there, but it doesn’t seem to bother them. They just keep eating.
Others I can’t be sure of. I have only one singing eastern wood-pewee. He may not find a mate. Least flycatchers are around and singing, but they are very late migrants and might move on. Veeries seem like a long shot, but I keep seeing this species in the same place every time I go there, so it could happen. Veeries are ground-nesting thrushes on the threatened list in Illinois. They nest regularly at Ryerson Conservation Area, just a few miles away, so maybe I’ll get lucky.
