Date April 21, 2021
Location Wilkinson-Renwick Marsh Nature Preserve, De Kalb county, IL
I received a notification that an American Bittern had been spotted at this site, and seeing as it wasn't too far from my home (about 30 minutes drive time), I decided to go check it out.
The place is a relatively small preserve surrounded by farmland, like an oasis in a desert. One of the several interpretive signs there explained that settlers were unable to drain the area for farming, so they just left it. It later was the site of a train station. You can see the ruins of the station. The walking path itself is simply a straight path with swamp on either side -- i.e. the remnants of a straight train track. There is one grassy path to the right a short distance from the parking area. This is where I first saw this species.
I was looking down to the left of the path and noticed a sparrow in the swampy area. At first I thought, what's a Chipping Sparrow doing down there? The habitat didn't fit, you see. It then dawned on me that this didn't look precisely like a Chipping Sparrow -- some similarities, yes, but definitely different. I realized that it was a Swamp Sparrow and that the habitat did indeed fit quite well.
While I didn't hear the song on this evening, I visited again a few days later and heard and saw lots of these.
No comments:
Post a Comment