January 2018

What are These Things We Call Seasons?

Mike Baum
Mike Baum

What are these things we call seasons? Is it winter as I shelter in my car looking out over wind-scoured stubble, listening to the wind-chime soprano tinkling of a horned lark on a day that would kill me in a matter of hours? How can this feather-puff be in full song? Could fall begin with July 1st’s first lesser yellowlegs and solitary sandpipers back in Knox County from the tundra and tropics-bound? Is it spring when the first hopeful pools open on the great rivers and fill with common goldeneyes splashing, calling, mating, and flight-whistling through air too cold for me to breathe?

Ask robins. February’s first front says welcome back. Some say,”I never left.” Ask willow flycatchers. Late May, at the end of all the great passage, they deign to arrive. And in ten weeks will be gone again.

Peer closely at life’s equation. Its complexity is limited only by our lack of perception. Three hundred birds come now to my feeders. Each tells a different tale. I am a chickadee. I weigh one quarter of an ounce and I just spent the ten below zero night in your arbor vitae. Six feet away you slept under down with a net gain of eighty degrees. I am nuthatch, titmouse, woodpecker and I really don’t care what day it is. This is my home. I am starling, house sparrow, collared dove, pheasant, and I really don’t care what continent this is. It is now my home. I am mockingbird, Carolina wren, golden-crowned kinglet, yellow-rumped warbler and I can overwinter here. Until the winter comes that I can’t.

A chickadee forages frozen meat shards from the rib cage of a deer. A Carolina wren works sunflower seeds wishing for a finch bill. A brown creeper believes in bugs under the bark of a January tree trunk, then timidly creeps out onto the snow below woodpecker-hammered suet and gleans amber flakes of fuel with a most curious recipe.

Snow comes, warmth leaves, and the bird list grows. Thirty cowbirds materialize like fruit flies. Among them is a grackle whose other millions are two states south. Amid the juncos, who believe they are south, appear American tree sparrows who only come to me in time of need. My winter bluejays are here now. My summer bluejays are somewhere south of the grackle millions.

Minus ten. The lake is locked down and under four inches of snow. Even the spillway and outlet stream are frozen. But there huddled on a ground pipe staring motionless at an open trickle sits a kingfisher. A hungry optimist, table for one, at a very small sushi bar.

January fourth I spent a couple of hours revisiting my Christmas Bird Count route. On December fifteenth this area hosted thirty thousand geese of five kinds. Today there are six. Six geese. Total. Of one kind in an unkind world.

We have a real winter on our hands. It is coming for our fingers. I sit and write about my back yard birds and wonder about my hiatus from my hobby. Aside from four days in the field for the Knox CBC I have not been out since late May. I have the time right now. I need a spark. Snowy owls may do the trick. They are scattered in many places in the northern half of Illinois right now. Pine siskins and red-breasted nuthatches are out in force with a smattering of common redpolls. I need to stoke my inner fire. I need to go outside.

by Mike Baum

Rare Bird Alert – 27-Jan-2018

Slaty-backed Gull by Carl Giometti
Slaty-backed Gull by Carl Giometti

Barrow’s Goldeneye: Rock Island (North) – On 21-Jan-2018, Colin Dobson reported a male Barrow’s Goldeneye from Rock Island County along the Mississippi River.

Gyrflacon: Madison (South) – A ghost-like white morph Gyrfalcon was photographed by Frank Holmes at Horseshoe Lake State Park in Madison County on 17-Jan-2018.

Slaty-backed Gull: Cook (North) – On 4-Jan-2018, Walter Marcisz and Andrew Aldrich found an adult Slaty-backed Gull along the Calumet River in Cook County.

Prairie Falcon: Gallatin (South) – Ron Bradley found another Prairie Falcon. This one was in Gallatin County on 3-Jan-2018.

Ivory Gull: Lake (North) – While Amar Ayyash was birding Lake County Fairgrounds on 3-Jan-2018, he turned around to find an adult Ivory Gull staring at him. Sadly, no one else got to see this rare find.

Prairie Falcon: Bond/Clinton (South) – Keith McMullen had a Prairie Falcon on New Year’s Day fly across the Bond/Clinton County border.

Harlequin Duck: Clinton (South) – Dan Kassebaum found a Harlequin Duck on Carlyle Lake on 22-Dec-2017.

CBC Marathon Man

Twenty-three consecutive days of winter birding no matter how bitter the cold. Rising before dawn to listen for owls and staying up late to compile the day’s sightings. Thousands of miles of driving often traveling through the night without sleep to get to the next destination, sometimes navigating treacherous stretches of highway in blizzard like conditions.

Kelly McKay by Steve Hager
Kelly McKay by Steve Hager

Sound like heaven or hell?

To the National Audubon Society, it’s officially the 118th annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC), the nation’s longest-running citizen science project, designed to capture long-term data on the status and distribution of bird species. Every day during the count period (December 14, 2017 – January 5, 2018), all across the United States, birders and conservation enthusiasts alike gather to count birds within a well-defined 15 mile wide circle. Many “CBCers” participate in a single count and then not another until the following year.

To wildlife biologist and CBC iron man, Kelly McKay, the count is a chance to do what he loves most – identity as many bird species as possible in a day while also contributing to science. Unlike most who are “one and done,” Kelly attempts to contribute to a different CBC every day of the count period, a grueling 8+ hour/day logistically challenging feat known as the “CBC marathon.” On top of that, Kelly compiles the data for not one but seven count circles, a significant challenge in itself.

Inspired in the early 1980s as a teenager by his mentor and avian biologist, Pete Peterson, Kelly has participated in more than 475 CBCs all time, second only to birding legend, Paul Sykes. It wasn’t until the 2002-2003 season that Kelly began to plan his first marathon, but quickly ran into problems. He couldn’t find a count within reach on three count days! The following year, Kelly started planning much earlier and on January 5, 2004, after the Andalusia CBC, he successfully completed his first marathon. This January, Kelly finished his 9th marathon in the last 16 years, covering more than 25 counties in five states – Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, and Wisconsin.

While Kelly takes his CBC participation very seriously, he doesn’t expect many to even think about let alone attempt a CBC marathon. He does hope his story inspires others to get more involved in community science projects to advocate for bird conservation and preserve our state’s biodiversity.

by Matthew Cvetas

Scroll to Top