Bobolinks for Breakfast

Last week Karen and I went on an early bird walk sponsored by DuPage Birding Club at Springbrook Forest Preserve.  It was led by Joe Suchecki, my Thailand birding trip roommate.  Joe is a trained ornithologist and a bird monitor for Springbrook, which translates into a lot of local knowledge of the birds.  We took off from the parking lot on the main trail and then Joe turned right and headed into the large meadow.  The farther from the path we got, the more birds we saw.  Many Savannah Sparrows and Red-Winged Blackbirds were found there, but the species that caught my eye were the Bobolinks.  Joe estimated that there were 25 of them; there seemed to be another one every 50 yards we waked.  They were quite noisy (LinLark recently said it reminded here of R2D2 buzzing and clicking) and fun to watch as they would take off from a perch and circle around the meadow before settling down a little farther off.  All 25 of the Bobolinks we saw were males, which have a black body and yellow skullcap (females are a buffy yellow).  Below are some of my shots of the Bobolinks seen at Springbrook.

Speaking of LinLark, she recently shared some of her own pictures of Bobolinks.  Here’s one of them I really liked:

Oh heck, while we’re talking about Bobolinks, mikeaff posted a couple of shots of them, too.  Here’s one of my favorites – don’t ask me how it got both birds in sharp focus:

If you enjoy seeing beautiful pictures of birds from around the world and reading about them Click Here to sign up for our mailing list.  Members can post their own GreatBirdPics and learn more about bird photography techniques.