yellow warblers | Lake County Nature

Post by Brett Peto

This article appears in the spring 2026 issue of Horizons, the award-winning quarterly magazine of the Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois.

It’s also available as an episode of our Words of the Woods podcast.

Rose-breasted grosbeak: This 8-inch-tall migratory bird is named for the male's triangular, rose-red chest patch. Illustration © Samantha Gallagher. — **Rose-breasted grosbeak:** This 8-inch-tall migratory bird is named for the male’s triangular, rose-red chest patch. Illustration © Samantha Gallagher.

At first light, a wetland at Rollins Savanna Forest Preserve (Grayslake) stirs to life. Red-winged blackbirds trumpet conk-la-REE-look-at-ME songs from swaying cattails. Wood ducks tip forward to eat plants below the water’s surface, rear ends bobbing in the air.

A great blue heron stands motionless onshore, amber-yellow eyes searching the shallows for tasty fish. The fresh smells of spring drift on a casual breeze as the landscape comes alive. Birdwatching gives you front-row seats to these compelling scenes, especially in Lake County.

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Post by Jen Berlinghof

Bird migration is well underway, and the nesting season is upon us at the Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois. I watched last week as an American robin (Turdus migratorius) plucked dried grasses from the yard, nudging them into place with her beak and wings, readying her cup-shaped nest for the azure eggs that are synonymous with spring. From the nearby American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) tree, I heard the gurgling chatter of a flock of brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater).

I thought about how while the robin might’ve seemed completely absorbed in her nest building, she was probably wearily listening to the cowbirds, too. Brown-headed cowbirds are North America’s most common avian brood parasite, forgoing nest building altogether. Instead, they lay their eggs in the nests of more than 200 other species of birds, leaving the incubation and rearing of their young to these unwitting foster parents.