2021 Big Bird Year

Photos by Lisa Musgrave (with a Sandhill Crane adventure by Sai Ramakrishna)
 
It’s been a “big breeding bird year” at the Somme preserves. 
 
Topping the list is the arrival of many pairs of dickcissels at Somme Prairie – for the first time prairie birds have bred there (or anywhere in the North Branch forest preserves) in our decades of stewardship. 
 

 
Many males set up territories and sang their hearts out. More and more, this site is becoming big enough to be “a real prairie” for animals. Credit goes to many: Forest Preserve staff for recent contract clearing of the last of the invading trees … and decades of volunteer stewardship.
 

         Somme Prairie (red)      Somme Prairie Grove (orange)    Somme Woods (yellow)

Across the railroad tracks in Somme Prairie Grove, we were inspired this year to find at least two breeding pairs of red-headed woodpeckers (said to be the fastest declining bird species on the continent). Just a few years ago they arrived in the savannas here, for the first time in decades. Now they’re a striking, showy, and frequent presence. They often talk to me for some time when I arrive ... and fly up close ... sometimes lurking on the back side of a tree trunk ... sometimes boldly out in the open. They seem curious. Or protective? 

Savanna and prairie birds need different habitats. Dickcissels, bobolinks, and such prairie species don’t breed in the “Prairie Grove” because they can’t handle the “Grove” part – the trees. Many species are so finely tuned that they succeed only within strict habitat quality limits. Prairie species can’t cope with the predators that perch and hide in trees. But the savanna species are the fine-tuned masters of the scattered trees habitat. The black-headed youngsters will emerge from their nest holes soon.
 
Another champ this year was the orchard oriole. Also a savanna specialist that didn’t show up for decades, not until the habitat was good enough, and in early years we saw only a few immature birds. 

Both Baltimore and orchard orioles breed at Somme. Unlike the orange Baltimores, the orchard oriole male is a deep brick red. The females are a greenish yellow (as opposed to the female Baltimores, which are orange-ish yellow, if you want to be technical).  

This year at least three pairs wove their hanging nests and raised their chicks here. Both parents feed the chicks, and the family group stays together until fall migration. Those chicks have already fledged, as shown below: 

Our biggest surprise in Somme Woods was a pair of sandhill cranes for a couple of weeks in May, normally their breeding season. Sai Ramakrishna first discovered them and photographed as best he could with his phone. They spent some time walking through the open woods and then approached First Pond, where Sai was studying the vegetation. (The pond had been nearly impenetrable cat-tails; with restoration, it was now diverse and compact bur-reeds, sweet flags, sedges, and forbs.) The cranes began doing ritual mating behavior, jumping, hovering, bowing, dancing, and tearing up vegetation and tossing it dramatically. They weren’t shy about it either; the pair drifted close to where Sai was standing, performing all the while. (Sadly, his phone ran out of power half way through.)

Red-winged blackbirds began screaming at the cranes, dive-bombing them mercilessly, and sometimes landing on their backs to peck them. Three male red-wings are in the photo below, but there were often half a dozen hovering over the cranes. All males - perhaps because the females were on nests, guarding eggs? Cranes are known to eat eggs and nestlings. 

At least twice we saw the cranes pluck clumps of dried vegetation from the reeds. It seemed like they were destroying red-wing nests. Perhaps these two species aren't comfortable nesting close to each other? 

A few days later, a group of three cranes was seen foraging in the Somme Woods ponds. That threesome was kind of a giveaway. This had not been a nesting pair. They had been playing or practicing. Cranes are long-lived birds, and one or two year olds have a lot to learn. They don’t attempt to reproduce in their first few years. Cranes that are too young to breed typically stick together in small flocks. 

Later, Lisa snapped this photo of one of those cranes, hunting for food in the savanna and open woods of the recently-burned Somme Prairie Grove: 

The other big Woods surprise was a pileated woodpecker. One was seen repeatedly over a few weeks. A study estimated that these huge woodpeckers need a minimum territory of 320 acres. The Somme/Chipilly complex is 700 acres of forest preserves. But a lot of it is not yet good pileated habitat. Still, it’s good to know that they’re checking it out. Maybe next year?

Somme Woods and Prairie Grove seem to be especially fine woodpecker habitat. In addition to at least five pairs of red-headed woodpeckers (appreciating both the savannas and open oak woodlands) and uncountable northern flickers (another species of conservation concern), these sites have large numbers of red-bellied, hairy, and downy woodpeckers, in part perhaps because of the large numbers of dead trees (ash and elm trees killed by disease and invasive trees killed by fire).
 
Other birds that posed splendidly for Lisa in 2021 include:
 

One of the "success stories" of the Somme preserves has been that of the hummingbirds. They appreciate our abundance of flowers. 

A decade ago, Somme was the opposite of a success story for the scarlet tanager. An occasional pair tried to nest in Somme Prairie Grove, but it never seemed to work out. Then our big push for oak woodland habitat in Somme Woods stole the tanagers away from Prairie Grove. 

Even after the tanagers head back to the Amazon and Central America for the winter, we feel their presence as indicators that our efforts seem to be achieving quality woods habitat. They also continue to remind us that when some birds win, others lose. As the tanagers lost their habitat in Prairie Grove, they increased from zero in Somme Woods to three, four, and five pair, now breeding regularly. Yes, the improved habitat for savanna birds decreased tanager habitat in Prairie Grove, but the work in the Woods more than made up. Similarly, the great-horned owls that once nested and hunted in Somme Prairie have lost that habitat, but they're thriving in the savanna and woods. 

Lisa finds great-horned owl nests every year in Somme Prairie Grove and Somme Woods. Owls don’t build nests but typically “re-cycle” the previous year’s red-tailed hawk nest, as above. She lays her eggs in February and typically spends some of her incubating time in a nest rimmed with snow. It’s his job to bring her enough food to keep her warm during this unusually early start to the breeding season. 

The kestrel (also called sparrow hawk) is a kind of falcon. These fast-flying raptors eat mice, small birds, and often grasshoppers. Since apparently-over-abundant mice chop down and eat a large percentage of some of our endangered prairie plant species, we vote that Somme's kestrels concentrate on mice.

This year the kestrel parents nested in a hole in a tree in the northwest corner of Somme Prairie Grove. They use old woodpecker nests. They fledged at least two young this year. The parents and young have been screaming and dare-devil flying, all over the open parts of the site for a couple of weeks now. Since they hunt on the wing, unlike the great-horned owl, they also spend a lot of time at Somme Prairie. 

 

The American woodcock is a kind of sandpiper that breeds in savannas and open woods. They’ve recently begun nesting in parts of Somme Woods where large areas of invasives have been cut. Like the great-horned owl, they’re one of Somme’s earliest nesters. Sometimes the incubating female is nearly covered with snow for a day or two, but she toughs it out. 

Their nests regularly have four large eggs. As soon as they hatch, the chicks are ready to walk around with their mom, looking for food. Both the eggs and the chicks are well camouflaged and in danger when people walk off trail in woodcock habitats in spring. They can and do get stepped on. 

If a woodhen flies up in a labored, weird way after waiting until you’ve nearly stepped on her, she’s trying to lure you away from her chicks. Don’t move your feet until you’ve studied the ground for little tykes like this. Back off! But it’s okay to take a photo if you’re careful.  

Finally, a photo worthy of the wood duck. These beauties are regulars in the Somme Woods ponds - and are also often seen sitting high on big limbs in the oaks. Nesting in tree holes, they appreciate both ponds and open woods. We occasionally see the somberly colored female with her line of ducklings, after they take the big jump out of their nest hole, as she leads them through the woods toward the safety of the ponds. 

Congratulations to Lisa Musgrave for a spectacular year of bird photos.

Congratulations to all who've worked to restore habitat here. Every bird shown is indebted to you.