Got up to 70 degrees today. Overcast; windy at times.
Today we took an early afternoon trip to the hedge. Met two experienced birders who mentioned they are in the Chicago Ornithological Society. They showed us where a red bat (presuming it is an Eastern Red Bat) was perched, sleeping. (It was on the west side of the hedge about half-way up.) Bright colored bat! Like a robin’s breast. And, we saw another bat. This one was on our apartment building. It was probably there, on the outside, because we recently had our roof entirely replaced.
Today was a really nice birding day too. We saw:
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Winter Wren
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Towhee
Brown Thrasher
Brown Creeper
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (several, including an immature)
Northern Cardinal
Hermit Thrushes (a lot)
Swamp Sparrow (a first for me and my wife)
Fox Sparrows
Song Sparrows
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Flickers (Yellow-shafted)
American Robins
Red-winged Blackbirds
Common Grackles
European Starlings
House Sparrows
A Bird in the Hedge 