Hello from Chicago (McKinley Park)

Hey, just joined the forum. I've been a life long fan of birds, however, I've been more interested in identifying them when I'm away from home. My wife and I saw an awesome assortment of herons, spoonbills, egrets, cormorants, and sandpipers in the bird sanctuary near Cape Canaveral and roadrunners in Big Bend National Park.

When I was dating my wife, she moved to the Hyde Park/Kenwood aread, and we became enthralled with the Monk Parrots that live there. Now that I own a house and a cat, however, I've been more interested in the mundane birds that live in the neighborhood. A pair of European Starlings live in my neighbor's gutters and keep dumping fledglings into my backyard. I also take walks to nearby McKinley Park lagoon which plays home to ducks, geese, and now coots.

I hope to get better at identifying birds and provide some info from the maybe less well-known places I visit.