Under the guidance of Walter Marcisz, nine dedicated folks gathered at the Bridgeport branch of the Chicago Public Library on September 8 and started entering into eBird historical records of bird observations we received from Doug Anderson. We had a follow-up gathering at the library on October 13th.
At the Cache River Nature Fest Birding Blitz teams compete to see and hear the most species of birds in a 24-hour period, while raising money for conservation in southernmost Illinois. Teams can search for birds throughout the area of southernmost Illinois, from Jackson, Williamson, Saline, and Gallatin counties south through Union, Johnson, Pope, Hardin, Alexander, Pulaski, and Massac counties.
To help celebrate COS's 100 years as a Chicago area birding club, Lucas Haberkorn, age 11 years, and Nandu Dubey, age 14 years, members of the Illinois Young Birders club (IYB), created artwork for COS to use to promote its celebration.
We had 82 species of birds on the count this year, the 63rd time the count"s been held. This is the third best species total for the Lisle-Arb count, trailing only the counts from Dec 2009 (89 species) and Dec 2006 (86 species).
