Yellow-headed Blackbird- A Lifer!

It took plenty of years to finally find this beauty! An extremely rare sighting in Illinois, I recieved word of a few about 60 miles away. I chose a good day, set out early and was rewarded, but not without a few hiccups/complaints! The directions were simple enough, but the vagueness in terrain became clear pretty quickly. I knew there wasn't a parking lot for this "state owned" property as of yet, so I was advised to park in the neighborhood close by. I did that, walked across the highway, to a sign stating the preserves name, but was questioning the "authorized vehicles only" part of it. I was assured that the sign was there to keep out the kids, so I began my journey. I was looking at a seldom used gravel road, followed by a footpath along a cornfield, to an open area, looking north for a cattail marsh as the directions say...Sounds easy! A half-mile walk! O.K...Let's just stop the drama here and just chalk one up to another place I care not to revisit. The immediate cattail area was awesome though! The YHBB sighting was awesome! He was very photogenic, and had I had a pair of rubber wading boots, he would have obliged me in some really nice close-ups!