Bird count: 82 species, 1,713 individuals

Final tally just in: 1,713 birds comprising 82 species.

Notables included Wilson's phalarope, king rail, least bittern, bald eagle. Any others? Note in comments, please.

Wilson's Phalarope

A lone female Wilson's phalarope (as in the reference photo above) was spotted this morning at Middlefork Savanna, perhaps only the second such sighting in 50 years.

Unlike most species of birds, it's the female phalaropes who get the fancy feathers, and the males who are responsible for raising the young.

Milk Snake

A exciting find. Milk snakes are very shy animals, and difficult to find. DePaul University Bryan Suson, of the Wildlife Discovery Center, and Caleb Gordon, of Lake Forest College, uncovered this fellow at about 1:30 a.m.

173

At 9 p.m., the species count is 173: 50 invertebrates, 44 vertebrates (including this guy), 22 vascular plants and 57 non-vascular plants. Most field teams were still collecting data, so the numbers should go up much further once they're in and entered in the database. Stay tuned.