Our First Loons and Bonus Pelicans
by Arthur
Posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 4:42 pm CET
We just got back from a short visit to Fox Lake, just 10 minutes from where we live, to see some Common Loons and American White Pelicans after reading about them on the Illinois birding list. Someone reported seeing pelicans and loons at Fox Lake with detailed instructions on how to get there, so we got in the car with our new Leica spotting scope and headed for the Mineola Marina in Fox Lake. It was pouring down rain, so we didn’t stay too long, but we did get to see 20 pelicans and 7 loons, which are two new birds for our lifelist. 🙂
Apologies for the bad quality of these pictures, but they were far away and it was raining.
Common Loon
American White Pelicans
Here are some nicer pictures by someone else:
American White Pelicans by bail56
Common Loon by zircon_215 We tried to take some pictures through the scope, but failed miserably. We’re still waiting to receive our adapter in the mail which will allow us to mount a small camera on the scope for digiscoping.
Amy looking through scopeMineola Marina seemed like a nice place for birding. There are so many lakes around here, but a lot of them are surrounded by private property and you can’t get near. It’s places like the birding lists where we can find out about places like this.
We just got back from a short visit to Fox Lake, just 10 minutes from where we live, to see some Common Loons and American White Pelicans after reading about them on the Illinois birding list. Someone reported seeing pelicans and loons at Fox Lake with detailed instructions on how to get there, so we got in the car with our new Leica spotting scope and headed for the Mineola Marina in Fox Lake. It was pouring down rain, so we didn’t stay too long, but we did get to see 20 pelicans and 7 loons, which are two new birds for our lifelist. 🙂
Apologies for the bad quality of these pictures, but they were far away and it was raining.
Common Loon
American White Pelicans
Here are some nicer pictures by someone else:
American White Pelicans by bail56
Common Loon by zircon_215
We tried to take some pictures through the scope, but failed miserably. We’re still waiting to receive our adapter in the mail which will allow us to mount a small camera on the scope for digiscoping.
Amy looking through scope
Mineola Marina seemed like a nice place for birding. There are so many lakes around here, but a lot of them are surrounded by private property and you can’t get near. It’s places like the birding lists where we can find out about places like this.
8:25 am
The week before last I saw the pelicans hanging out on Lake Catherine and Channel lake, the loons were there also. It was neat to see them all.