Bald Eagle - Wayne, IL (Elgin, St. Charles: high school, suburbs, yard)

[WLUTZ]

Saw a immature bald eagle yesterday morning in Wayne.

I'm sure it was just migrating through to WI or Canada but it was pretty cool.

[gardener34]

Wow! It wouldn't surprise me.

It is kind of off season for the migratory eagles though. The fox river is not too far west of there and the eagle was likely going down the river. There are nesting sites on the Illinois river I believe - which the fox runs into in Ottawa, IL. And there are regular sitings in january at Starved rock.

A few times we have seen immature bald eagles on the fox river in St. Charles township - again though, in late Dec./Jan. Likely the birds were going down to starved rock I am thinking.

Thanks for posting!

[Steve-o]

Very cool indeed. Ive only seen one in the area, and that was back in high school, right along the Fox River in St. Charles. We were on the paddlewheel boat cruise and saw one up in a tree, about 20 yards away from the boat. Youll see alot of them down near Starved Rock and up near Galena.

[gardener34]

In general, we see Ospreys and the very occasional bald eagle (winter) along the Fox river for the hawks/bird of prey.

We recently have been seeing a harrier - which I understand are uncommon. And by the landfill up in South elgin you will see the turkey vultures.

They have that thing with the "eagle viewing" weekend at starved rock lodge every year in January sometime.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by gardener34

And by the landfill up in South elgin you will see the turkey vultures

Ive seen those vultures down near Sugar Grove too. We were at Big Rock Creek Forest Preserve and had several of them soaring overhead. You dont realize how huge they are until they get low. Some of them looked to have 6' wingspans or more!

[WLUTZ]

Turkey vultures very common at the S. Elgin landfill. Harriers very uncommon here in the suburbs; I've never seen one. I've never seen an Osprey around here. I have seen Rough-legged hawks (from the Arctic area) at the landfill in the dead of winter (that was a couple of years ago). That's good to hear about Starved Rock; I didn't know that.

Anyways, hopefully this trend will continue seeing more eagles. It's great to see the recovery they've made.

[gardener34]

There used to be a dupage birders hotlist where they listed reports of uncommon bird sightings. But they pulled it recently. Likely it was too much work for the person doing it.

The best places to go birdwatching locally are fermilab and morton arboretum - a lot of the sightings used to come from those.

But here is a link to a checklist of birds and whether or not they are rare or not in the dupage/kane cty. area.

Birds of DuPage County (http://home.xnet.com/~ugeiser/dbc/checklist.html - broken link)

[dherkes]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

Ive seen those vultures down near Sugar Grove too.Some of them looked to have 6' wingspans or more!

The turkey vulture is a member of the same family as the herons & cranes. Eagles and hawks are raptors. The TV is a very useful animal. It keeps the dead animals from piling up

[tcs1366]

My sister sees them out in Oswego. They fly right over her house.