Scott Cohrs on 9/30 reported via IBET: I spent most of the morning trying to flush any odd rail from the hundreds of acres of grassland on the west side of Nelson Lake. While that objective was fruitless, I did have a few interesting birds.

1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
1 Red-breasted Nuthatch
1 Lincoln's Sparrow
1 (possibly 2) LeConte's Sparrow
10 Bobolink in 3 different groups
50+ Savannah Sparrow
50+ Yellow-rumped Warblers
9 Palm Warbler

I also flushed an interesting sparrow. It had a long, rounded tail with white outer feathers. I am hard-pressed to think of anything it could have been other than a Lark Sparrow, but it disappeared into a soybean field before I could verify.

Scott Cohrs on 9/24 reported via e-mail: Sunday morning at Nelson Lake I had a Prairie Falcon circling over the far west fields.  It was first seen circling over the short grass field on the west side of the barbed wire fence.  It continued to circle, gain altitude, and eventually drifted west out of view.  Obviously a migrant and just a case of being at the right place at the right time. That's only the 2nd one I have seen in IL, and the first I have seen in the county. 

Jack Pomatto on 9/17 reported via e-mail: Today at Lippold Park in North Aurora I saw 8 species of warblers with Pine Warbler as the most noteworthy. On the way home I saw a Broad-winged Hawk rise up from the roadside flying straight at my windshield on Rte 25, at Fabyan Woods. Luckily we both took evasive maneuvers.

Bob Andrini on 9/9 reported via e-mail: Sunday morning Kath and I went to do the monthly census at Delnor Woods in St. Charles. We were greeted with five surprises: many Swainson's Thrushes, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Chestnut-sided Warblers, Winter Wren, and Ovenbird along with 16 other species. The migration is on, get out and take take a look.

Chris Cudworth on 9/9 reported via IBET: A short bike/hike to Fabyan FP in Geneva at 7:00 a.m. resulted in a few fall warblers including MAGNOLIA, BLACKPOLL and (BLUE-THROATED GREEN). Also a healthy phalanx of WARBLING VIREO, all singing madly in the morning sunshine. There were RED-EYED VIREO as well, CEDAR WAXWING (25) along with the requisite CATBIRD and BLUE JAY. A PHOEBE as well, sitting on the handicapped parking sign.

Darrell Shambuagh on 9/9 reported via IBET: I stopped at the cemetery in Kaneville (Kane County) about 1:00 PM Saturday to check Dunteman's Sod Farm. The only bird there was an OSPREY sitting in a bare dirt area, all by itself, no water anywhere in sight!!

Steve Smith on 9/5 reported via IBET: The (Great Horned Owl) is back. At 7:30 tonight he was perched on a telephone pole within 50 feet of the antenna I saw him on last time (on the southwest corner of Randall and Bowes Roads in Elgin).

Bob Fisher on 9/2 reported via IBET: Karen and I visited (the Melms Road Sod Farm) again (between OBrien and County Line Rds on Melms Rd) late Sunday morning. 500+ shorebirds were still present in the flooded areas behind the house on the north side of the road. Dominating the mix were 100+ Killdeer, 60+ Golden Plovers, around 50 Lesser Yellowlegs and 50+ Pectoral Sandpipers. 1 or 2 Black-bellied Plovers and 10 or so Semipalmated Plovers were also present, as were several Greater Yellowlegs.

Peeps were present in large numbers; we were able to ID Least, Semipalmated and a few Baird's Sandpipers but many of the peeps were too far from the road to identify. We could only find 1 Stilt Sandpiper, but 10 or more (probably more) Buff-breasted Sandpipers foraged in the grassy areas. Less than 10 dowitchers were present; most too distant to determine which species, but we did get reasonably good looks at one which we identified as a juvenile Long-billed Dowitcher. We did not see any phalaropes.

We talked to the owner/resident, who advised in a friendly manner that they would not permit birders onto their property. Apparently, a year or 2 ago, they granted permission to a birder who then abused the privilege in some manner.
 

Sheryl DeVore and Steve Bailey on 9/1 reported via IBET: About 2 miles west of the MELMS ROAD Sod farm, we had an immature NORTHERN HARRIER coasting the fields. We had another immature NORTHERn HARRIER scaring up the shorebirds at the MELMS ROAD SODFARMS, where at least 600-700 SHOREBIRDS were present -- seemed to be quite a bit more than what folks have been posting lately. We added some shorebird species here. Here are the totals:

30+ BLUE-WINGED TEAL
32 AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER -- WATCHED ONE BATHING IN ONE OF TWO LARGE POOLS OF WATER ON NORTH SIDE OF MELMS ROAD.
5 SEMIPALMATED PLOVER
100+ KILLDEER
10 GREATER YELLOWLEGS
250+ LESSER YELLOWLEGS
75-100 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS
75+ LEAST SANDPIPERS
5 BAIRD'S SANDPIPERS
150+ PECTORAL SANDPIPERS
3-4 STILT SANDPIPERS
3 BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS
15 DOWITCHER SP.

We then went down the road a couple miles to the Allen Road farms (Called Coon Creek Sod Farms). Here we had:

75+ KILLDEER
3 BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS

There was a small fluddle with shorebirds on the east side north of the Starks intersection of Route 47 and 72. We saw 9 COMMON NIGHTHAWKS along Route 47, just north and south of Huntley.

Then we had in a flooded field halfway between Huntley and Route 176 along the east side of IL 47, we saw at least 30 GREAT EGRETS. Must have been lots of frogs in there.
 

David B. Johnson and Andy Sigler on 9/1 reported via IBET: Coon Creek Sod Farms by far were the best in Kane County along Melms and Allen Roads with 100s of shorebirds inc.: 34 American Golden-Plover, 8 Buff-breasted Sandpipers, 2 Baird's Sandpipers, a Wilson's Phalarope, 24! Stilt Sandpipers (both ad. and imm.), 5 Semipalmated Plover, 200+ Killdeer, 10 Greater Yellowlegs, 138 Lesser Yellowlegs, 120 Semiplamated Sandpiper, 32 Least Sandpipers, 17 Short-billed Dowitchers, 120 Pectoral Sandpipers, and 1 Solitary Sandpiper.
 

Nolan Lameka on 9/1 reported via IBET: Friday I went to Melms Road in Kane County ,based on the Fishers post. The ponds were drying up,but still close enough to the road that I got some distant shots of a American Golden Plover and what I suspected were Buff-breasted Sandpipers. I sent the pictures to a veteran birder who confirmed that they were Buffies.