A group of 15 birders led by Andrew Aldrich beginning at McGinnis Slough and then stopping at Saganashkee Slough and Maple Lake. Among the highlights were great looks at Common Loons ...
Read MoreSave the date! April 22 at 6:30pm at Galway Arms in Lincoln Park, COS will be hosting a fundraiser for LaBagh Woods. We're honored to have live music by Congress of Starlings!
Read MoreCOS president Carl Giometti attended a February 20 presentation of the Industrial Corridor Modernization: North Branch framework plan, prepared by the Chicago Department of Planning
Read MoreWe are really starting to see progress being made at the this Swamp White Oak grove area, and I am so proud of our volunteers for what they have accomplished in this area. But like most restoration efforts, no rest for the weary. We will continue removing unwanted dead trees, pole trees and buckthorn to prepare this area for seeding (immediately) and planting (in the near future).
Read MoreJust what is your COS Board doing on this unseasonable warm February Monday evening, besides eating lasagna?
Your COS (Chicago Ornithological Society) Board is comprised of 10 volunteers lead by Carl Giometti, our COS President for 2017. The board meets a minimum of once per quarter and deliberates on a number of initiatives COS is involved with for Chicago area birders.
Read MoreThe native shrub plantings are finished for 2016, and now we begin to prepare other parts of LaBagh for native shrub plantings and native herbaceous plant seeding in 2017. This is important work, but more than anything else, IT'S FUN!
Read MoreA 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.
Read MoreNine 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?
Read MoreLaBagh 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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