North on the Wing by Bruce M. Beehler

Author:Bruce M. Beehler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Smithsonian
Published: 2018-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

As I walked to the visitor center, a Wood Thrush and a Kentucky Warbler sang from the woods just behind the building. Above the road to the campsite, three Mississippi Kites—the slim blue-gray raptors of riverine lowlands—circled in the clear blue sky. Another Kentucky Warbler sang down in the glen, a species that here outnumbered its vocal counterpart, the Carolina Wren. Woodland thrushes overran the park and foraged beside the narrow forest roads. A Chestnut-sided Warbler—a passage migrant—sang its cheerful song, and the camp hostess told me she had been hearing a Whip-poor-will calling most nights. I chose a ridgetop campsite that was woodsy but bug-free, graced with an oak canopy from which a Great Crested Flycatcher on territory sang out wheep! over and over in the evening light. Migrant songbirds—both breeders and passage migrants—were here in force.

First thing the next morning, I biked out to the high, rocky Boutin Overlook. In the river below, a pusher tug guided a long barge upstream amid considerable river traffic. East across the Mississippi were the expansive, forested hills of Illinois, including the towering summit of Bald Knob, with its giant cross. Aside from the cross, there was minimal sign of habitation, merely a vista of rolling green forest. Much of that green space was Trail of Tears State Forest—the next stop after my stay here at this state park.

Here on the bluff top, I was greeted by various passage migrants: Northern Parula, Tennessee and Chestnut-sided Warbler, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Scarlet Tanager. The Mississippi Kites continued their display flights preparatory to nesting, and several thrushes appeared: Swainson’s and Gray-cheeked (passage migrants) and Wood Thrushes and Veeries (local breeders). I wondered what this spot had been like during the Trail of Tears exodus, almost two hundred years ago.

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