by Carl Strang
Spring migration is nearly done. This was my first at Mayslake Forest Preserve, and I was pleased to find that the preserve hosted a wide range of species stopping to refuel on their way north. I was not very successful in photographing them in the late part of the season, however. One reasonably decent exception was an olive-sided flycatcher.
This north woods nester has a large head in comparison to other flycatchers, the extra jaw musculature needed to crunch its preferred diet of bees, wasps and other relatively hard-shelled insects. This diet also accounts for the olive-sided’s late appearance in the migration season. Don’t expect to find it by its distinctive song. I have heard the “quick-three-beers!” in DuPage County only once in more than 25 years. Its preferred hunting perch is a high dead tree branch, which makes it fairly easy to find when it is present.
Nesting continues. My count of first-round robin nests reached half a dozen on the preserve, and they have been fledging young for the past week. Soon they’ll begin round two. A few mallard and Canada goose broods have made regular appearances around May’s Lake and Trinity Lake.
A pair of phoebes is nesting at the friary.
I taped over the unoccupied chambers of the purple martin house, leaving open the two with starling broods.
Purple martin colonies are few in our area, but this house is in a good location and there is hope that young birds will find it attractive in June.
With the migrants refueled and on their way, my attention will focus more on the preserve’s nesting residents. Among them, I hope, will be this yellow-billed cuckoo.
The cuckoo was foraging at the edge of the savanna, where the gypsy moth eggs have hatched.
Cuckoos are caterpillar specialists, and may be attracted by the gypsy moths.
