Birding with Brock and Elizabeth
The documentation contained within these pages was put together by Brock and Elizabeth Wilkinson. We can be found under the screen names of DinosaurInNameOnly and SpaceDino17. We're a pair of married birders living in central Illinois. We began logging complete checklists with eBird in 2025. We spend a large portion of our time birding at the Ballard Nature Center just outside of Altamont, Illinois.
Recent Photographs
Frequent Locations
Ballard Nature Center
The Ballard Nature Center is a non-profit nature education center located in Altamont, Illinois. The site is a little over two-hundred acres in size and features many trails through different habitats. It's the most developed nature center in Effingham County, Illinois. A large portion of our birding has happened here due to its proximity to our home. It's a great facility and the volunteers are very pleasant.
Effingham TREC Trail
The Effingham TREC Trail is a public trail system which spans from Effingham, Illinois to the Lake Sara Reservoir. The trails are paved with concrete and connected with a mix of pedestrian bridges. It's well maintained and very developed. We've not seen a trail network of this quality in any other rural city of Effingham's size.
Evergreen Hollow Park
Evergreen Hollow Park is a public park maintained by the Effingham Park District. It's located on the northern portion of the city. The northern most portion of the park has a section which has a few grass trails which meander along the wooded edge of the park. The park previously phased into a field of crops. Recently, the city continued to further urbanize the area by building a road across the northern section of the park.
Cumberland County Covered Bridge
The Cumberland County Covered Bridge is a historical landmark located in Greenup, Illinois. The bridge keeps Cumberland Road connected over the Embarras River. There is a short walking trail which runs from the monument's parking lot to the edge of US Highway 40.
Our Favorite Photographs
Checklists
We have removed individual comments from checklists to help keep things neat. Details can always be found on our eBird checklists. We've simplified things down into a couple of markers.
- Bird counts with an (est.) marker include estimates.
- Bird counts with a (nvo) marker were not visually observed.
- Bird counts with a (rare) tag were considered rare birds by eBird.
- Bird counts with a (high) tag were considered abnormally high counts for the time and area by eBird.
- Bird counts with a (abr.) tag include an aberrant individual.
- Bird counts with a (esc.) tag include are considered escaped birds.
We generally keep a handheld tally clicker to keep track of individual red-winged blackbirds at the Ballard Nature Center. A significant portion of the Ballard Nature Center is grassland/wetland. Many red-winged blackbirds reside at the Center during the spring, summer, and fall. There are times where we still estimate the amount of blackbirds in larger flocks. We will add our clicker total to the flyover/roosting estimates and round down to the nearest five or ten.
A large part of our birding is dependent on our ears to identify songs and calls. It's best practice to use birdsong to spot new birds in the habitat. Sometimes, we can't spot what is calling. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology recommends adding on birds you can identify by ear even if you ultimately cannot spot them. If you see a (nvo.) marker, it's because we heard the bird but were unable to find it.