FIELD NOTES BLOG

September Bird Blog

Bryce Messer
September 5, 2024

Green-winged Teal

Anas Crecca or Anas Carolinensis

This is the smallest species of dabbling duck in North america. It is quite the beautiful little bird with males having a cinnamon colored head and a green crescent emerging from the eye. Their bodies are an overall gray with thin black and white mottles on the breast and a more solid gray-brown coloration on the wings. Females are more drab with an overall brown coloration reminiscent of the female mallard barring their yellow streak on the tail. Both sexes can be easily identified in flight as they possess their titular “green wings”, which is actually a green patch of flight feathers known as a speculum. More vegetarian than other ducks as most of their diet is focused on the aquatic seeds and leaves from plants such as pondweeds; with only occasional consumption of aquatic invertebrates. The green-winged teal doesn't spend a great deal of time in the area as they spend the breeding season across Alaska, Canada and the great lakes; while spending the winter months on vacation in the southern states, the west coast, and Mexico. As such we will mainly catch them appearing during their spring migration and their fall migration which often peaks in the month of September, meaning that this month is your best time to catch a glimpse of one. Unlike other waterfowl they prefer to live in shallow calm water associated with marches, ponds, and streams. But most important to their selection of habitat would be the presence of dense vegetation that offers them plenty of food and protective cover. So good locations spot one would be the wetlands at Nygren, Pecatonica, Ferguson, and Sugar River. Interestingly there is heavy debate in the scientific community over whether or not the green-winged teal is its own species or just an American subspecies of the Eurasian common teal. Their call is quite whistley. 

Northern Saw-whet Owl

Aegolius acadicus

In my opinion this bird definitely holds the title of North America’s cutest bird of prey. It is a rather miniscule bird, being only 8 inches in height and having a two foot wingspan, making them relatively similar in size to the American Robin. To help camouflage in forest they are an overall brown color with a lighter tan belly and a few white spots across the back and wings. The round face of the owl plays host to a pair of large yellow eyes and a light colored “Y-shaped” mark between the eyes. They lack the ear tufts present on some other owls. A fun fact about their wings is that if you shine a UV light onto the underside they glow a bright neon pink. There is no visual difference between the two sexes. They’re small size and cute appearance hides the fact that they are voracious predators, specializing in eating small rodents such as deer mice. Unlike many other owls who swallow their prey whole, the saw-whet must shred them into pieces and one has to eat their prey over the course of two days. Most of the birds we are looking at in this month's blog are migratory and the northern saw-whet is no exception, but it is unique. This is because though the saw whet migrates it doesn't do so in a normal pattern. In fall some individuals will choose to move to lower altitudes or migrate south for the winter while others will choose to stay in their homes year round. But every 4 years an increasing number of individuals will migrate south for unknown reasons. In rockford we have both resident and migratory populations present being found in their preferred habitat of dense forests. Though they won't be hanging around your bird feeders you can attract them to your area by hanging up nest boxes in trees around your property. The appearance of these owls can be deduced from the sound of their interesting call.

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Contopus cooperi

Another passerby like the teal, the only times we can regularly find the olive-sided flycatcher in our neck of the woods is during their fall and spring migrations as they head towards the tropics. This bird shares many physical characteristics with other tyrant flycatchers such as the eastern phoebe and the eastern wood pewee; most notably their shape and coloration. These birds are rather small, being between the size of a song sparrow and a robin. Their head and wing plumage ranges from olive-gray to gray-brown except for their breast and throat which are white, the olive coloration they get their names from is located on their flanks and can only truly be seen in good lighting for when they molt. Like other flycatchers they possess a small crest atop their head and beak that ends in a shallow hook. They can be visually separated from other similar looking species based on minor coloration and size differences and the fact they rarely flick their tails. You should bring along your binoculars with you if attempting to see them as they are normally perched higher in the trees, to give themselves a better view of prey. Speaking of prey, as their name suggests these birds exclusively eat insects quickly catching them while in flight before returning to a perch. While on their perches you hear their calls which sounds like a high-pitched “quick, three beers” however don’t have high expectations since they can be more on the silent side in fall. Unfortunately like many tropical migrants they have seen population declines of up to 79% due to climate change and habitat loss reducing the abundance of the insects they eat.

Palm Warbler

Setophaga palmarum

There are two distinct subspecies of this bird which differ in appearance and where they live. The eastern palm warbler, Setophaga palmarum hypochrysea, lives east of the great lakes while the western palm warbler, Setophaga palmarum palmarum, lives from the great lakes across the Canadian boreal forests. Here in Illinois we get the later subspecies, meaning that our palm warblers are a little more drab in coloration with both sexes being overall brown with a tint of yellow. They have a rusty red crown, a yellow face, and a black stripe running from the bill past the eye in the breeding season. But it's likely that we'll catch them in their non-breeding plumage where they are going to be an olive-bron all over except for a lighter colored breast and  their yellow rumps. Like lots of other warblers their favorite foods are insects which they will pick off from tree branches, shrubbery, and the ground. They will also eat berries as they come into season. To give themselves easy access to their food palm warblers are normally found in open woodland areas and shallow wetlands. They are unique amongst the warblers as they are one of two species that will bob their tails while standing on a perch. Their call is a monotonous buzzy trill.

Red-eyed Vireo

Vireo olivaceus

In the late summer forest while enjoying the shallow warmth of the early morning or late afternoon you might lock eyes with a pair of piercing red eyes. These eyes belong to a small but brutal predator of the forest canopy, the Red-eyed vireo. These are a small song bird, about the size of a tufted titmouse, that makes its summer home across the Central and Eastern United States and Canada. They are not sexually dimorphic and both males and females have their iconic red eyes, though immature individuals will have brown eyes instead. Adults are primarily olive green in color with white underparts and an ‘oreo’-pattern eye stripes (black - white - black) around the eye. Their legs are blue-gray and their bill is short and stout, ending in a shallow hook. There is a slight yellow tinge to their flanks and undertail feathers. Like the warbler and the flycatcher these birds are insect eating specialists, though they will eat fruits to build up energy before migration, but they hunt them in a different way. Instead of on the wing or pursuing them on foot the vireo uses a strategy called gleaning, where the bird will fly past an insect on a leaf and catch them before returning to the perch. Their favorite prey include caterpillars and other soft bodied larvae. They are prolific singers and you can hear them still filling the treetops with their iconic nyaah calls and slurred noted song. They hold one of the records for most songs sung in a single day with one individual singing over 20,000 songs.

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America the Beautiful & Our Changing Relationship with Earth Day

April 22, 2025
From the rugged peaks of the Rocky Mountains to golden desert canyons, the rolling prairies to the ancient, mist-shrouded Appalachian mountains — America is a land rich in many beauties. We are home to the towering redwoods of the west coast, sun-drenched coastlines in the south, and the deep blues of the Great Lakes that collectively hold the largest volume of freshwater on Earth. These wild places offer a kind of quiet that stirs the soul. This vast, varied land is what we proudly call “America the Beautiful.” And on Earth Day, this is the America we celebrate. We scroll through snapshots of National Parks, photos of mountain trails, canyon vistas, tidepools, and wildflower filled prairies. Maybe we've seen these places with our own eyes — maybe we carry them like a dream we hope to one day reach. We’ve all, in some way, been struck by the beauty of this land. As I write these words, I’m sitting at my desk looking out the window into the woodland of Severson Dells, watching the first green buds emerge, listening to the fluting whistles of returning songbirds. How lucky are we to live among such beauty? But that beauty is in danger. Today, mountaintops in Appalachia are being blown apart for coal, their peaks stripped and valleys buried in rubble. Ancient forests in the Pacific Northwest are leveled for lumber, their centuries-old trees felled in minutes. Oil rigs rise like metal skeletons in Alaska’s fragile tundra, while pipelines thread through sacred Indigenous lands and important wildlife corridors. Wetlands that once buffered our coastlines from hurricanes are drained and filled. Prairies, once stretching unbroken across the heart of the continent like an ocean of grass, are disappearing under pavement and plow. Our coastlines are receding. Our coral reefs, once vibrant, are dying, bleaching bone-white. Even here, outside my window, invasive honeysuckle strangles the understory where spring ephemerals once bloomed, and the chorus of birds is quieter than it used to be — a stark reminder that nearly one-third of North American bird populations have vanished in the past fifty years. But this isn’t a new story. Ours is not the first generation to witness the cost of ‘progress’. The tension between beauty and destruction has shaped this nation since the Industrial Revolution. And while the challenges we face today are daunting, they are not insurmountable. Every year, on April 22nd, we celebrate Earth Day – a day that itself was born from a moment not unlike our own. America of the 1950’s and 60’s is almost unrecognizable from the America we know today. In 1943, Los Angeles residents awoke one morning to skies so dark and chemical-laden they feared they were under a gas attack . It was smog. Just 5 years later, a lethal blanket of smog from zinc smelters in Pennsylvania killed 20 people in just three days . The Merrimack River in New Hampshire ran a different color each day , depending on what the local mills were dumping. And in 1969, Cleveland's Cuyahoga River — thick with oil and industrial waste — burst into flames , its smoke billowing four stories high. These weren’t isolated incidents. They were the symptoms of a larger crisis—one brought on by decades of industrial expansion with few, if any, environmental safeguards. At the same time that America was enjoying unprecedented prosperity, it was also polluting its air, poisoning its rivers, and sickening its people. The economy boomed, but the environmental consequences were growing harder to ignore. In 1962, a marine biologist named Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, a book that would become a cornerstone of the modern environmental movement. Carson’s work focused on the effects of chemical pesticides—especially DDT—on ecosystems and human health. She warned of a future without birdsong, where toxins accumulated in the food chain and sickened both wildlife and people. Silent Spring struck a chord. It didn’t just present scientific facts, it gave voice to a deep, growing unease. People were already noticing the changes around them: the absence of fireflies in summer, the increasing number of fish kills in local lakes, the haze that lingered over cities for days. Carson’s words helped connect the dots, and it didn’t just inform, it inspired, and from it spurred the beginning of the environmental movement. By the late 1960s, a wave of activism was sweeping the country. Young people were leading protests against the Vietnam War, civil rights leaders were marching for justice, and college campuses had become hotbeds of political energy. Watching this cultural shift with inspiration was Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. A long-time advocate for environmental protection, Nelson saw how the antiwar movement had galvanized young people—and he wondered whether that same passion could be channeled into fighting a different kind of crisis: the growing threat to America’s air, water, and land. His sense of urgency only deepened in early 1969, when tragedy struck the California coast. A blowout at a Union Oil drilling platform off the coast of Santa Barbara spilled nearly 100,000 barrels of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean . Black sludge washed up on miles of pristine beaches. Seabirds lay dying under slicks of oil. Dolphins and seals washed ashore. The air reeked of petroleum for weeks. The images were devastating—and they were broadcast into homes across the nation. Senator Nelson knew the time to act was now. In November of that year, he announced plans for a "National Teach-In on the Crisis of the Environment" —a day when Americans would come together to learn, protest, and push for meaningful environmental change. This name was later changed to Earth Day, and the date chosen was April 22, 1970—strategically placed between spring break and final exams to ensure strong participation on college campuses.  To bring this ambitious vision to life, Nelson turned to Denis Hayes, a 25-year-old student activist. With Hayes’ help, a 7 month timeline, and a shoestring budget of just $124,000, Earth Day sparked an unprecedented nationwide movement. College campuses began planning teach-ins and events. Newspapers picked up the story. Civic groups, churches, and schools joined in. The momentum built quickly—and organically. Within a few months, the Earth Day idea had become a nationwide grassroots event supported by millions of people. Colleges campuses across the country organized “teach- ins”, and major newspapers were writing about Senator Nelson's ideas. Earth Day may have been Gaylord Nelson’s idea, but American citizens made it happen. “Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level,” reflected Gaylord Nelson. “It organized itself.” Historian Adam Rome would later call it “the most famous unknown event in modern American history.” On April 22, 1970, an estimated 20 million Americans—nearly 10% of the U.S. population at the time —participated in what remains the largest single-day political demonstration in the nation’s history. People from all walks of life gathered for marches, cleanups, rallies, and teach-ins. The message was clear: the environment mattered, and the public was ready to fight for it. What made Earth Day so powerful was not just its scale, but its unity. The movement crossed ideological lines. It was bipartisan, supported by both Democrats and Republicans. At a time of deep national division, Earth Day reminded Americans that the health of our planet is a shared responsibility—and a common cause. Even more remarkable is that this enormous, coordinated event was pulled off without the tools we rely on today. No social media. No email. No cell phones. Just passionate people, printed flyers, rotary phones, and the belief that change was possible. The success of Earth Day didn’t just move the public—it resonated with leaders in Washington, and led to real change. In just a few years, the United States went from having almost no federal environmental policy to enacting an environmental policy infrastructure strong enough to slow down the era of unregulated industrial sprawl to protect our planet and public health. The success of the first Earth Day led to the passage of some of the most important environmental legislation in American history, including: The Clean Air Act (1970) The Clean Water Act (1972) The Endangered Species Act (1973) President Richard Nixon oversaw the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and signed the above landmark environmental laws into effect. In a 1970 speech, Nixon captured the spirit of the moment with a message that still rings true today: “The great question of the seventies is, shall we surrender to our surroundings, or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the damage we have done to our air, to our land, and to our water? Restoring nature to its natural state is a cause beyond party and beyond factions. It has become a common cause of all the people of this country. It is a cause of particular concern to young Americans, because they, more than we, will reap the grim consequences of our failure to act on programs which are needed now if we are to prevent disaster later. Clean air, clean water, open spaces—these should once again be the birthright of every American. If we act now, they can be. We still think of air as free. But clean air is not free, and neither is clean water. The price tag on pollution control is high. Through our years of past carelessness we incurred a debt to nature, and now that debt is being called. ” In the years that followed the first Earth Day, America made progress—rivers stopped catching fire, cities began to breathe a little easier, and wildlife rebounded. But the work was never meant to end in the 1970s. Earth Day is a reminder that the environment is not a limitless resource, and that protecting it requires action, accountability, and cooperation. Fifty five years later we face new environmental challenges, but Earth day is a reminder of what we can accomplish when we come together, regardless of party or background, to protect the natural world we all share. Today, the landmark pieces of legislation that were established in the 1970’s are under threat. The first hit to the Clean Water Act was the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Sackett v. EPA, which significantly narrowed the Act's scope, limiting protections for wetlands and many streams. This ruling has led to a significant weakening of federal oversight. More recently, the EPA has announced significant changes to the Clean Water Act that potentially puts the drinking water sources for tens of millions of Americans at risk. As for the Endangered Species Act, there is a proposed rule change that would limit violations of the Act only to actions that hurt or kill animals. Harming the habitats the endangered animals need to survive would no longer be a violation of the Endangered Species Act, which would open large swaths of land to logging, mining and development that were previously protected. As we all know, if a species doesn’t have the habitat to survive and breed in then it will eventually go extinct. This proposed rule change is open for public comment until May 19 in the Federal Register, so please consider sharing your opinion . Additionally, there is the Zero-Based Regulatory Budgeting To Unleash American Energy Executive Order. The legal community is still trying to figure out just how far reaching this EO is, but it is likely to have a significant impact on a wide range of environmental regulations. These threats to the health of our environment put “America the Beautiful” at risk. The spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesties, and the fruited plain from sea to shining sea are left vulnerable. Now more than ever, Earth Day calls on all of us to act to protect our beautiful environment. Earth Day is now celebrated in over 190 countries. But its roots lie in a time when people refused to accept the destruction of the world around them as inevitable. So, what will you do this Earth Day? Because history has shown us: when people care, when they act together, the world changes. The debt to nature is still being called—and we still have the power to answer. This Earth Day, don’t just celebrate – participate. Plant a tree. Call your representatives. Learn the name of the bird outside your window. Donate to organizations that support our natural lands, our water, and our future. Vote. Teach your children not just to love the Earth, but to fight for it. Talk about climate change, even when it’s hard. Especially when it’s hard. Use your voice, use your art, use your science. Join a local cleanup, start a compost bin, reduce your plastic use. Talk to your neighbors. Talk to your parents. Talk to your children. You can’t wait for someone else to take action. You don’t need to be perfect. You don’t need to do everything. But you do need to begin. Because the Earth doesn’t need more perfect people, it needs millions of imperfect people who care enough to act with intention everyday. Sources: Klein, Ezra, and Thompson, Derek. Abundance . Simon & Schuster, 18 March 2025 “Gaylord Nelson & Earth Day Origins.” Nelson Earth Day , https://nelsonearthday.net/gaylord-nelson-earth-day-origins/ . Accessed 18 Apr. 2025. Gammon, Katharine. “The Deadly Donora Smog of 1948 Spurred Environmental Protection—But Have We Forgotten the Lesson?” Smithsonian Magazine , 26 Oct. 2018, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/deadly-donora-smog-1948-spurred-environmental-protection-have-we-forgotten-lesson-180970533/ . Accessed 18 Apr. 2025. Lamoreaux, Naomi. “The 1943 Hellish Cloud Was the Most Vivid Warning of L.A.'s Smog Problems to Come.” Smithsonian Magazine , 15 Jan. 2018, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/1943-hellish-cloud-was-most-vivid-warning-las-smog-problems-come-180964119/ . Accessed 18 Apr. 2025. “The Merrimack River: How Revisiting Its History Helps Renew Action.” Forest Society Blog , Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, 26 Sept. 2022, https://www.forestsociety.org/blog-post/merrimack-river-how-revisiting-its-history-helps-renew-action . Accessed 18 Apr. 2025. Pyne, Stephen J. “The Cuyahoga River Caught Fire at Least a Dozen Times, but No One Cared Until 1969.” Smithsonian Magazine , 22 June 2019, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cuyahoga-river-caught-fire-least-dozen-times-no-one-cared-until-1969-180972444/ . Accessed 18 Apr. 2025. Westervelt, Eric. “How California’s Worst Oil Spill Turned Beaches Black and the Nation Green.” NPR , 28 Jan. 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/01/28/688219307/how-californias-worst-oil-spill-turned-beaches-black-and-the-nation-green . Accessed 18 Apr. 2025.