From the field:Birding Northerly Island

I took a nice walk around Northerly Island on Chicago's lakefont this morning.

The birding was pretty slow. The only obvious migrants were four Palm Warblers and 1 Lincoln's Sparrow. Still a few Song and Savannah Sparrows, along with a Kestrel, a large flock of about 60 Red-winged Blackbirds and 32 Killdeer. Still nice to see these birds right in teh heart of the City.

There were also thousands of butterflies (mostly Monarchs, I think, and those little white moths, with a few other species mixed in), probably the most I have ever seen at one location in Illinois. I counted over 300 perched on a single tree, and there were many more in flight.

Also had an Ovenbird near Seneca Park in Streeterville.

The most inpressive sight of the day, though, was probably the dozen or more buses for the Rolling Stones crew that were parked near the Field Museum. That is probably the largest road crew I've ever seen, the production for tonight's show must be huge.