Darrell Shambaugh on 10/19 reported via IBET: I birded Big Rock Forest Preserve in Kane County earlier in the day. Including DARK-EYED JUNCOS, I found 10 species of sparrows: WHITE-THROATED, WHITE-CROWNED, LINCOLNS, SWAMP, SONG, FIELD, VESPER, CHIPPING (only one), and AMERICAN TREE (many, first I've seen this fall). There were also 9 EASTERN BLUEBIRDS, an EASTERN PHOEBE, a BROWN CREEPER, several YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, RUBY-CROWNED and GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET, a COOPER'S HAWK, a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, and a TURKEY VULTURE. There were a few TREE SWALLOWS flying around the lake, but no ducks, grebes, coots, or loons.
On Jeter Road, south of Big Rock FP and south of Jerico Road, I found a HERMIT THRUSH with a flock of robins at a mud puddle.

Karen Lund on 10/17 reported via IBET: This morning there was a pair of eurasian collared doves perched on telephone wires at the southwest corner of State St. & Allen Rd. in Hampshire. Possibly they are part of the small group I was seeing on New Lebanon Rd. which is only a few miles away, although I haven't seen those birds for 3 weeks.

Pete Moxon on 10/17 reported via IBET: At Nelson Lake Marsh (aka Dick Young) in Kane County, I came across 18 PURPLE FINCH. They were feeding quite intently on seeds of one of the Elms (either Slippery or American). I forgot to make an ID on the tree before leaving but will next visit. I often see them also feeding in some of the Ashes also. They were in the area where the Spotted Towhee was a couple years ago, S. of the platform. Also in the area was a loose grouping of 22 FOX SPARROWS, among others that I mentioned prev. Also present: 3 MARSH WREN, 1 SORA, 28+ TREE SWALLOWS, 3 BARN SWALLOWS, 21+ CHIMNEY SWIFT, 3 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE (flew in from the N. with some CANADAs). 1 VESPER SPARROW, 6 CHIPPING, (added to prev spec). 8 HERMIT THRUSH, (seen SUN, afternoon-forgot on last post), but still present. Lots of Sparrows still remain, the majority are actively feeding below the ridge that the trail is on & all along & around the marsh (in the denser vegitation. Most of the Ducks sp. mentioned still present.

Pete Moxon on 10/16 reported via IBET: (Yesterday at) Nelson Lake Marsh (Kane) ( aka Dick Young), & while scanning for waterfowl, we noticed a couple of Swallows that appeared to be TREE SW. As well as 4 SANDHILL CRANES. Waterfowl included: 7 CANVASBACK (flyovers), 4 SCAUP (spec), 6 BUFFLEHEAD, 5 RUDDY, 2 RING-NECKED, 8+ GADWALL, 12+ GREEN-WINGED TEAL, 6+ WOOD DUCKS, 1 MUTE SWAN, 1 PIED-BILLED GREBE, ++ AM. COOT (lots), ++ MALLARDS (lots). At least 1500-2000 CANADA GEESE (flew in from the surrounding area.) Among then were quite a few CACKLING GEESE as well. We heard quite a few Sparrows below the platform along the marsh. I later returned after "marsh/pond hopping" to investigate.
3 WINTER WREN, 2 MARSH WREN, 1 SEDGE WREN, 1 HOUSE WREN, 1 THRASHER, 2 E.TOWHEE, were among the Sparrows along the area below the platform & 200-300' either direction outward. Sparrows included: at least 150 WHITE-CROWNED that I was actually able to see (many more birds were present). In addition were quite a few WHITE-THROATEDs, & several ea of: FOX Sp, SONG Sp, 32+ SWAMP Sp. 3 LINCOLN'S, a few FIELD, 2 SAVANAH, 3 CHIPPING.
At Tanner rd. Marsh: 1 SNIPE, 1 STILT S.P., 2 PECTORAL, 1 KILLDEER, 20+ CHIMNEY SWIFTS, 2 TREE SWALLOWS, several N. SHOVELERS & a few CACKLING GEESE among the CANADAs.
At the retention pond behind the Orchard Auto Mall: 1 GREATER YELLOWLEGS, 2 LESSER YELLOWLEGS, 3 SNIPE, & several KILLDEER, 2 HORNED LARK, 7 CHIMNEY SWIFTS, 2 SWAMP SP., both TEAL & N. SHOVELERS, MALLARDS.
At CARSON SLOUGH: 1 LESSER YELLOWLEGS, sev KILLDEER, 30+ CHIMNEY SWIFTS, 8 TREE SWAL, 1 BARN SWAL, 12+ GREEN-WINGED TEAL, 2 BLUE-WINGED TEAL, 6 WOOD DUCKS, 6 N. SHOVELERS, & lots of AM. COOT, 2 MARSH WREN, 10+ SWAMP SP. & a few SONG SP., several WHITE-CROWNED, & WHITE-THROATED.
Braburn Marsh, had only a few GADWALL, N. SHOVELERS, COOT, 3 PIED-BILLEDS, 8 SWAMP SP. 3 TREE SWALLOWS.
COOPERS HAWKS were spotted along, MAIN st. Batavia near KIRK in a residential area, as well as along Wenmoth rd. a mile fr. Nelson Lake.,  and a SHARP-SHINNED, along BLISS rd, as well as several SWIFTS & SWALLOWS while driving.

Darrel Shambaugh on 10/5 reported via IBET: Wednesday there were 8 TURKEY VULTURES sitting on the water tower at East Side Drive and Route 38 about 2:00 PM. Is this a known Turkey Vulture hangout, or was it just my dumb luck to find a bunch of resting migrants? Wednesday I saw 5 Turkey Vultures between Hinckley and Geneva while driving to work, and when I was outside later in the afternoon two flew over our plant. Must have been a lot of them passing through on Wednesday.

Roger Hotham on 10/3 reported via IBET: Oct. 2 Margaret Mechtenberg reported a strange TV (Turkey Vulture) along the Fox River just downstream from the South Elgin crossing. She saw 2 TVs fly up from the ground to join 6 others in a tree. One of the two flashed bright white asymmetrically in the flight feathers and in the mid one-third of the tail feathers. Upon close approach she noted a pinkish grey head and a dull white color in the vent area. She returned later and found the bird soaring. The contrasting plumage was very striking and only the silhouette indicated TV.

Carole Schoeck on 9/27 reported via IBET: Sorry about the late post, but the Fox River forest preserves between Geneva and Batavia had such good birds yesterday that it's worth talking about today. Linda Cames and I started out at Fabyan Forest Preserve (Rt. 25 just south of Geneva) while it was very chilly, and ended up at Lippold Park (previously an archery range) just south of Batavia, at 2PM. We had over 50 species along the way, with the highlights being: 10 warbler species- AMERICAN REDSTART, NASHVILLE, MAGNOLIA, CAPE MAY, BAY-BREASTED, BLACKPOLL, BLACK-THROATED GREEN, CHESTNUT-SIDED, YELLOW-RUMPED and TENNESSEE. Vireos: PHILADELPHIA, WHITE-EYED, YELLOW-THROATED, BLUE-HEADED and RED-EYED. MARSH WREN, RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, BROWN CREEPER, BELTED KINGFISHER and many other birds were seen also. (After crossing the river at Fabyan, almost all of this species were seen at the north edge of the Japanese Garden off Rt. 31.)
Our last site, Lippold Park, was a real hotspot, even later in the day. Highlights were: YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER, YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO, GOLDEN-CROWNED and RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS, HERMIT THRUSH right in the parking lot next to my car, plus many warblers and other birds.
Only RING-BILLED GULLS everywhere along the river that we were aware of.
A beautiful day to be outside.

Jon Duerr on 9/20 reported via IBET: Scott, Joy and I stopped behind the Aurora Public Library overlooking the Fox R. this morning and found an immature Cormorant along with Gt.Egret, GBH, Wood Duck and numerous Starlings. This isn't bad habitat but I wish Aurora would complete the river walk talked about for many years.

Greg Neise 0n 9/19 reported via IBET: My cousin just called to say that the strange bird he saw a few weeks ago on the Fox River reappeared. He is an inspired amateur, but is also an artist and a keen observer. The first time he told me of the bird I said it sounds like an anhinga, but it's most likely a cormorant. He looked at my field guide and said that while he couldn't be positive, he thought the picture of the anhinga was what he saw.
He just called, all excited, and said that he just saw it again, and described it's long neck and **straight yellow bill**(with no prompting from me)...I think it bears a look if anyone's in the area.
He said that he saw it from the Downer Place bridge in Aurora at about 5pm. It flew to the south, and he thought that it landed in the water near the bank just past some trees that jutted out.

John Heneghan on 9/15 reported via IBET: On the way home from work, there were 4 sandhill cranes and numerous canadians feeding in a recently cut corn field on the corner of Deerpath and Tanner rds just south of Nelson Lake in Kane Cty.

Christopher Cudworth on 9/15 reported via IBET: Nelson Lake Marsh...also known as Dick Young Forest Preserve. A pair of Clay Colored sparrows were present at the T intersection of the main trail leading to the east overlook. The birds were traversing the bluff woods within fifteen feet of the trail. Really nice looks in the morning sunlight. I missed great photos because of one intruding branch that sucked up the focus of my digiscoping attempt. Really regret that because the birds were quite bright in plumage.
Also along the ridge, a Lincoln's sparrow adult. Song and swamp sparrows also present. Sedge wrens are still being heard and seen mainly in the field to the right of the trail that leads north from the overlook. Also had a yellow-billed cuckoo, same spot.
Fall Warblers along the ridge trail included: Black throated green (several), Yellowthroat, Palm, Bay breasted, Nashville.
Still some soras singing in the marsh as well.
The east ridge is very productive in the morning. Also very good for digiscopers and photographers as birds are lit by morning sunlight.

Jeffrey Sanders on 9/11 reported via IBET: hello ibetors--on sunday, in the rain, i found 5 buff-breasted sandpipers at the allen road ( coon )sod farm, west of hampshire forest preserve in N.W. kane county. in the rain, all 5 were taking a group bath. there were dozens of horned larks, but no pipits or longspurs.

Bob Montgomery on 9/9 reported via IBET: Good numbers of Buff-bellied Sandpipers may be found at Coon Creek Sod Farm on Allen Road NW of Hampshire, IL in northwest corner of Kane County. Saturday morning a group of 20 Buffies were found feeding among Killdeer in the area where sod was being cut. This area is north side of Allen Road and the western most field. The is nearly double the number of birds found on Wed. 9/6/06 and the largest group I have recorded in the county.

Ten (R)Andrini (R)Amblers© on 9/6 caravanned sod farms and fluddles west of the Tri-Cities. While only 25 species were identified, there were some "keepers" among them. At the Kaneville sod farm on Main Street west of Batavia, the following notables were sighted: a singing Western Meadowlark, Horned Lark, American Kestrel, Semipalmated Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, and  Sanderling. At the Kaneland HS fluddle at the intersection of Keslinger and Dauberman Roads:  Solitary Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Green-winged Teal.