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| Black-Tailed Gull by Wes Serafin |
News, notes and random
jottings from a very birdy 2016
(published 1-4-17)
Birding deserves a “year in review” story every December just
like the myriad other categories of American life and culture. So for all the
watchers out there, here’s my compendium of birding news, notable sightings and
random thoughts from a year that flew by faster than a peregrine with a
tailwind.
In the milestones department, the biggie was the 100th
anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The landmark conservation law,
signed in 1916, came too late to save the passenger pigeon, but it has
protected North America’s native bird species ever since.
Birds need the federal protection that MBTA and subsequent
laws like the Endangered Species Act provide. A shocking reminder came in
January with news that a 19-year-old Texas man shot and killed two whooping
cranes, a rare species numbering just 450 in the wild.
In October a federal judge hit the perpetrator with a fairly
severe sentence—not the “slap on the wrist” that’s happened before in cases
like this. The outcome was a solid victory for the International Crane
Foundation and triggered a collective fist pump by birders from coast to coast.
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| Common Ringed Plover by Gary Soper |
But enough doom and gloom. Good things happened in 2016 too,
including some truly remarkable sightings.
A strong case for Bird of the Year could be made for the common
ringed plover spotted by photographer Gary Soper in September. The Eurasian shorebird,
a first for Illinois, sent birders scurrying to Iroquois County for a glimpse.
Some of those same chasers (and birders from at least eight
states) began 2016 with a trip to Carlyle Lake in downstate Clinton County to
witness a black-tailed gull, another mega-rarity for Illinois. Bill Rowe and
his son Matt somehow picked out the vagrant gull in a swirling cloud of “everyday”
gulls.
Slaty-backed gull was another notable winter visitor, seen in Cook and
Will Counties.
Several spring songbirds also lit up the hotlines. Matthew
Cvetas discovered a Townsend’s warbler in Chicago’s Millennium Park in late
April, and two days later a Swainson’s warbler turned up at LaBagh Woods,
spotted by Glenn Giacinto. At about the same time, a western tanager appeared
at Cook County’s Elmwood Park.
Coveted DuPage birds included yellow rail at Springbrook
Prairie in Naperville—kudos to site steward Joe Suchecki—and a little blue
heron at McKee Marsh in Warrenville, found by Kyle Wiktor. Pileated woodpeckers
nested at Morton Arboretum.
Observers atop the Greene Valley Forest Preserve hawkwatch
hill recorded the site’s first-ever gyrfalcon, plus whooping crane, golden
eagle, northern goshawk and American anhinga. On Sept. 27, the crew counted more
than 3,000 migrating broadwinged hawks—Greene Valley’s best single day ever for
the species. This was season No. 11 for the hawkwatch, where data are collected
by volunteer birders from September through November.
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| Rufous Hummingbird by Shannon Leslie |
Downers Grove homeowners Bob and Karen Fisher welcomed a
wayward rufous hummingbird (and dozens of appreciative birders) for several
weeks in October. The hummer was species No. 198 for DuPage County’s birdiest
yard.
Sightings along Chicago’s lakefront always amaze me. The
area, especially Montrose Point and its Magic Hedge, is famously well birded,
ensuring that nothing with wings escapes detection.
The partial—repeat, PARTIAL—2016 lakeshore list: brant,
neotropic cormorant, cattle egret, red-necked grebe, black-bellied whistling
duck (three!), piping plover, whimbrel, red knot, Say’s phoebe, American
avocet, upland sandpiper and whip-poor-will. Tack on 30 species of warbler, too,
including cerulean, Kirtland’s, prairie and worm-eating.
Lake County watchers hardly got cheated. Illinois Beach
State Park produced western grebe, red-throated loon and ferruginous hawk, and
Waukegan Harbor birders scored harlequin duck, purple sandpiper and snowy owl. Winthrop
Harbor, home of the annual Gull Frolic in February, gave up California gull and
little gull. A brown-headed nuthatch was earned at Chicago Botanic Garden.
Kane County’s highlight reel featured Barrow’s goldeneye, Ross’s
goose, snowy egret, Hudsonian godwit and black-necked stilt. The latter two
species visited the same roadside “fluddle,” two months apart, in Sugar Grove.
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| Brant by Carl Giometti |
Did you hear that? Thousands of sandhill cranes filled the
skies in early December, cruising over the region in waves ahead of a cold
front.
Also in December, a Harris’s sparrow sampled the feeders for
several weeks at Crabtree Nature Center in Barrington. The species visited Lyman
Woods (Downers Grove) in November.
Willlowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn celebrated 60
years in 2016. The Night Owl Benefit in September, a delightful event held on site,
raised $27,000 to help fund new housing for the center’s education raptors.
Congrats and best wishes to Ron Skleney who retired after 12
years as a Willowbrook naturalist. I’ll always picture him with a hawk or owl
on his arm, speaking at schools and other venues around DuPage. Nobody did it
better. Ron is currently giving talks on the virtues of shade-grown “bird
friendly” coffee and keeping his binoculars within reach.
The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, Willowbrook’s
parent, launched a pilot nest box program for American kestrel, a species in
decline locally. Only starlings and tree swallows occupied the boxes this year
but it’s a start.
Illinois Audubon Society resumed its greater prairie chicken
restoration efforts, relocating 99 birds from Kansas to downstate Prairie Ridge
State Natural Area. It’s all about growing the self-sustaining population of “boomers”
in a state where they once thrived.
High fives for the Illinois Young Birders! The group’s first-ever
symposium, held at Ryerson Conservation Area in August, was a hit. ILYB is a
special project of the Illinois Ornithological Society.
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| Townsend's Warbler by Jerry Goldner |
On my reading wish list: “Lost Among the Birds” by Neil
Hayward. He’s the guy who broke the North American Big Year record with 749
species in 2013.
The second annual Global Big Day on May 14 set a new mark
for most species in 24 hours: 6,100. More than 15,000 birdwatchers from 144
countries reported via eBird.
Canada may finally get an official bird. The National Bird
Project ended with gray jay as the top choice, with formal designation by the
Canadian Parliament likely in 2017.
Canadians might also have considered the amethyst-throated
hummingbird. The species, never recorded north of Mexico, turned up at a Quebec
feeder in July.
Passings: Paul Mooring, a Glen Ellyn native, lifelong
environmentalist and champion of the Illinois Prairie Path; Sally Baumgardner, another
environmental superstar and past president of the DuPage Birding Club.
“Cookie,” Brookfield Zoo’s avian patriarch, also died. At 83
he was the oldest cockatoo of his species in the world, and the last of 270
animals living at the zoo when it opened in 1934.
Tufted titmouse, a common bird but scarce in the Chicago
region, teased us with multiple appearances in DuPage, including Cantigny Park,
Elsen’s Hill, Fullersburg Woods and a Glen Ellyn feeder.
My favorite backyard bird is on a postage stamp! All hail
the small but mighty red-breasted nuthatch.
No yardies for me in 2016—my list is stuck on 115—but what a
surprise to pick off a Canada warbler in May and again in late August. Plus, for
the first time, black-capped chickadees raised a family in our wren box.
Finally added common loon to my DuPage list, seen in March
on Blackwell’s Silver Lake. My weirdest sighting of the year was a ring-necked
pheasant in Wheaton, pecking in the grass along Shaffner Road.
My personal Bird of the Year was easily great gray owl, one
of six lifers gained at Sax-Zim Bog near Duluth, Minn. Seeing that awesome bird
with friends, after a desperate, down-to-the-wire search in frigid conditions,
made the experience even better.
Sax-Zim was unforgettable, and so was a brief, unplanned
visit to Congaree National Park in South Carolina. If you like prothonotary
warblers, you’ll like Congaree.
A family vacation to the Baseball Hall of Fame in
Cooperstown, N.Y., included a side trip to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in
Ithaca. The Lab, long on my destination bucket list, did not disappoint. Nor
did the sort-of-on-the-way Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown, a city
better known for Lucille Ball. Thanks Catherine, Rachel and Jay for indulging
my passions for baseball, birding and classic road trips!
And thank you, readers, for supporting another year of Words
on Birds. I wish you all a healthy 2017 filled with exciting birds and birding
adventures. Remember, if the Cubs can win the World Series, anything is
possible.
Copyright 2017 by Jeff Reiter. All rights reserved.