A group of 16 birders met at McGinnis Slough in the Palos Area this morning, Sunday, November 20th, to look for waterfowl and any other interesting birds that crossed our paths. We were fortunate to have local expert Wes Serafin join us to navigate and give a bit of history about the different areas. McGinnis was partially frozen this morning, but we still managed some decent flocks of waterfowl here. Most notably the dozens of Bufflehead and Hooded Mergansers, Coots, and Pied-billed Grebes. A couple Great Blue Herons were hunkered down among the cattails.
Read MoreJoin one of Chicagoland’s most active Christmas Bird Counts on December 18, 2016. Nearly 100 people volunteer their time on a wintery Sunday to count birds. The count circle includes a wide variety of habitats from the forests of Palos to the pine plantations of the Morton Arboretum to the open grasslands of Green Valley. The Lisle Arboretum Count is part of the National Audubon Society’s national Christmas Count program.
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Nine birders met in Burnham Park just south of the McCormick Place on Saturday, 10/22 bright and early at 7am.
This area has been restored into stretches of native prairie to benefit migrating birds. It is known for the large number of migrants, especially sparrows, that feast on the seeds of the various prairie plants.
Although we did have 7 species of sparrows including American Tree, Fox, Dark-eyed Junco, White-crowned, White-throated, Song, and Swamp, the most abundant birds were Golden-crowned Kinglets. They flitted and hovered around every tree and shrub, and sometimes were even hopping on the ground looking for insects. We tallied well over 100 kinglets for the morning.
Read MoreChristine and Geoff Williamson led a bird and nature hike at Deer Grove East Forest Preserve in northwest Cook County.
At the start of the walk, we had the opportunity to enjoy two parents and one young Sandhill Crane. This species has been nesting at Deer Grove for a few years now. Read the full trip summary in the post.
Read MoreMany thanks to Shawn for leading an excellent field trip to the Palos area. The 10 of us who attended all enjoyed very large numbers of waterfowl--thousands of American coots, and great views of all three merganser, shovelers, buffleheads, green and blue winged teal, redhead, canvasback, gadwall, wigeon, pied bill and horned grebes, among others, plus great views of two nesting osprey. . I really appreciated Sean's great eyes and ears in finding all the birds in the reeds on the far sides of the sloughs, and great patience in making counts of the more numerous species.
Read MoreThis year the Forest Preserve District decided to establish birding competition teams in every preserve that provides a leader and a team. The competition starts March 1 and is designed to get birders into the Forest Preserves and record their data on e-bird. Learn more about the competition here: Forest Preserve District Big Year
Read MoreThe 67th Lisle-Arboretum Christmas Bird Count was held on Sunday, 20 December 2015. There was only a brief freeze in the weeks prior to count day, so that we had a lot of hope for a good count. The 90 field observers and nine feeder watchers also had reasonably warm weather to work with, without any snow on the ground. Despite this, most field parties bemoaned the lack of birds.
Read MoreHave you been out to LaBagh Woods lately? If you have, you have seen that the LaBagh Big Year has made a huge difference. Planting is complete for this year, but fund-raising and scouring LaBagh for new species has not stopped.
How have we done?
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LaBagh Woods Big Year - 1/3 Done!
It seems like just yesterday that COS kicked off the LaBagh Big Year with a field trip there on a snowy January 1. Here we are now in May, with migration in full swing, over one-third of the way through 2015. So how do we stand?
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The 67th Lisle-Arboretum Christmas Bird Count was held on Sunday, 20 December 2015. There was only a brief freeze in the weeks prior to count day, so that we had a lot of hope for a good count. The 90 field observers and nine feeder watchers also had reasonably warm weather to work with, without any snow on the ground. Despite this, most field parties bemoaned the lack of birds.
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Quietly, and with little fanfare, before the Ivory Gull was even a thought forbirders in the Chicago area, a very special year-long event kicked off at LaBagh Woods. Chicago Ornithological Society (COS), in conjunction with a number of other conservation-minded partners, launched a fundraiser for the restoration of the understory at LaBagh in 2015 and beyond.
Read MoreCOS has launched its 2015 fundraiser for LaBagh Woods, located at Foster Avenue and Edens Expressway. LaBagh Woods is a critical habitat for migrating birds, but is not in good shape. Years of neglect have resulted in a significantly degraded habitat. Thanks to recent re-dedication by the Cook County Forest Preserve, volunteers have received a grant to remove the buckthorn and other invasive species that have overrun LaBagh. Unfortunately, the dollars aren’t there to purchase shrubs, trees and the fencing to protect new plantings from hungry deer.
This is where you come in!
Read MoreSixteen birders showed up on a cool but sunny fall day. It was a great to be out birding. Unfortunately birds have wings and all of the swans seen yesterday were gone. We did have some quality birds. An American Pelican swam around and was very visible. An adult Bald Eagle flew around but quickly disappeared in on of the corners. The waterfowl seen unfortunately were hugging the west side and difficult to ID.
Read MoreWe have collected hard copies of our newsletter, The Chicago Birder, from Volume 1 Issue 1 in 1989 through Volume 23 Issue 4 in 2010. Before turning over the complete set to the Chicago Academy of Sciences for permanent safekeeping, I am collecting a second set of newsletters for backup purposes and so they will be readily available to our members.
Read MoreA joint Chicago Ornithological Society-Illinois Young Birders field trip led by Eric and Aaron Gyllenhall attracted 40 birders to Douglas Park on Chicago's Westside. Combining eBird lists of four different birders, the group list for the trip stands at 62 species!
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