Eastern Bluebirds and other Northern Illinois March Migrants

A female Eastern Bluebird in Rock Cut State Park, 3/24/2012.

I am sorry that due to my work that kept me indoors from dawn to dusk, I missed a fantastic March of unseasonably warm weather that brought many migrating birds up north earlier than usual. I literally was unable to get outside to do any birding until the 3rd week of March. So my list of FOYs and migrating birds is rather short. Newly arrivals that I was able to spot in the last week of March were Eastern Bluebirds (Above), Eastern Phoebes, Turkey Vultures, Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets, and Chipping Sparrows (Below).

Chipping Sparrows showed up at my backyard feeder, Rockford, IL; 3/29/2012.

I neglected to mention waterfowl in my last post about February migrants, so here is a list of early arrivals for both February and March:
February: Buffleheads, Common Mergansers, Lesser Scaups (all three of these first three could very well have been here all Winter), Greater-white-fronted Geese, Red-breasted Mergansers, Ruddy Ducks, and Greater Scaups.
March: Common Loons, Horned Grebes, Eared Grebes, Pied-billed Grebes (Below), and Northern Shovelers.

An Eared Grebe, Bauman Park, Cherry Valley, IL; 3/31/2012.

Pied-billed Grebe, Rock Cut State Park; 3/24/2012.