March 25, 2020 – As a way to showcase the redesigned Meadowlark Magazine to potential members, and in light of people being stuck at home more during the stay-in-place order, we are happy to announce that the latest issue of Meadowlark Magazine is available online here as a gift to the entire birding community. We hope you enjoy it!
To our members and those slated to receive this issue of Meadowlark, our printer is currently still operating as an essential business. There may be delays, but we expect you to receive your print copy in the mail within the next few weeks.
If you are not currently a member or let your membership lapse, we encourage you to become a member today and help us continue to grow IOS as an organization. In light of the current economy and the fact that we have already had to cancel outings that we rely on for revenue, we are particularly grateful to those who can join at the “Contributor” level or higher or are able to make an extra donation to support the work of IOS.
Finally, thanks to everyone who contributed to this issue of Meadowlark either through documenting rare bird sightings with IORC, sending us photos, posting sightings in eBird, writing articles, or assisting field reports and field notes.
The Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC) recently concluded evaluations of five records of the occurrence of rare birds in Illinois and occurrence of regularly occurring species at unusual times. Among these, IORC accepted two of the records while not accepting three. Among the accepted records was the following addition to the list of species having occurred in Illinois: Small-billed Elaenia.
Paul Sweet, Bob Hughes, and Adam Sell examine study skins of Large Elaenia, Small-billed Elaenia, and White-crested Elaenia in preparation to vote on record 2012-007, the Chicago elaenia.
The records involved are summarized below. For each record, we indicate the species or form, with number of individuals in parentheses if greater than one, followed by date or date range, location, and county. The record number is indicated in parentheses, followed by, for accepted records, names of the documenters. If multiple documenters are listed, those understood by IORC to have been the original finders of the bird(s) are listed first and separated from the others by a semicolon. IORC thanks all the documenters, for accepted and unaccepted records alike, for their submissions. All documentation is maintained in the IORC archives so that there is a permanent record of all these observations. Documentation, regardless of the Committee’s decision, is a valuable part of the record of bird life in Illinois.
Records Accepted
Small-billed Elaenia, 17-22 April 2012 at Douglas Park, Chicago, Cook County (2012-007; Aaron Gyllenhaal, Ethan Gyllenhaal; Mark Bowman, C.A. Bridge, Bonnie Duman, Matthew Fraker, Gordon Garcia, Nathan Goldberg, Jerry Goldner, Jim Hully, Stoil Ivanov, Ken Koontz, Nolan Lameka, Joshua Little, Lisa Rest, Ryan Sanderson, Brian Tang, Monte Taylor).
Swainson’s Warbler, 3 May 2018 at Northwestern University, Evanston, Cook County (2018-069; Allison Sloan).
Records Not Accepted
Barnacle Goose, 25-28 February 2019 at Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve, DuPage County and Bartlett Lake Prairie Wetland, Oswego, Kendall County (2019-002).
Mottled Duck (2), 30 May 2013 at Montrose Point, Lincoln Park, Chicago, Cook County (2013-016). This was a resubmission of a previously accepted record, based on better understanding of detecting evidence of hybrid origin in this complex.
Mottled Duck, 29 October 2013, 16 November 2013, and 28 April 2014 at Sangchris Lake State Park, Sangamon County (2013-065).
The Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC) has recently made publicly available, via a set of web pages, a variety of information related to its work. They are found at http://geoffwilliamson.info/iorc/. Importantly, a section of these pages regarding documentation of bird records represents a portion of the IORC archives. This archival material includes documentary items sent to IORC (mostly written documentation and physical evidence in the form of photographs, videos, and sound recordings, but also a few other items) plus also the evaluation votes and comments of IORC members. The web pages from 2011 to the present are essentially complete with respect to the documentary materials. With regard to votes and comments of IORC members on records, IORC’s practice now is to provide here all votes and comments going forward; however, these are not now available for all records.
Each year’s listing of records includes for all records the serial number, species or form, county, first and last date of observation, and status of the record. Where this or other information on these web pages differs from that in published IORC reports, the latter represent the official record.
IORC members examine Slate-colored and White-winged Junco specimens at IORC’s February 2020 meeting in the Field Museum of Natural History. Left to right: Bob Hughes, Paul Sweet, Adam Sell, Doug Stotz, Vida Kalina.
IORC is making all this material web-accessible, and hence readily available, to inform better the birding public about IORC’s work and to facilitate access to at least part of its archives. IORC hopes that this material’s availability will encourage the submission of documentation of rare and unusual birds in Illinois, will help to improve the understanding of the documentation and review process, and will by example help to improve the quality of submitted documentary materials.
Question, suggestions, and corrections may be directed via email to the IORC Secretary, Geoff Williamson, at iorcommittee <at> gmail <dot> com.
One of the purposes of the Illinois Ornithological Records Committee
(IORC), per its bylaws, is “to maintain the official Illinois State List of
Birds.” Among the various changes and updates to the list, the most exciting are
additions of species. Year 2019 was a banner year in this regard, with the
species total growing by five. By comparison, the previous five species
additions happened over a five-year long period from 2014 to 2018. Four of the
five from 2019 represented species unrecorded in Illinois prior to 2019:
Limpkin, Little Stint, Lewis’s Woodpecker, and Cassin’s Kingbird. Three of these
were long-staying vagrants, allowing many Illinois birders to travel to see
them. Only the kingbird was a one-day wonder. The fifth addition, Barnacle Goose,
came from evaluations concluding in 2019 of prior records going back to 1983.
The species total for Illinois now rests at 449.
Sneaking under the radar in all this was that 2019 included a State List change event of a rarity on a par with that of adding five new species. A family of birds was newly added to the state list! Limpkin is the sole member of Aramidae, a family within order Gruiformes (which also includes the rails and cranes).
Limpkin at Borah Lake, Richland County, 6 Sep 2019. Photo by Fran Morel.
Families are added to the State List very infrequently. The
last time was, well, 2017, but that event stemmed from Yellow-breasted Chat
being split out from the Wood-Warblers (family Parulidae) into its own family
Icteriidae. Yellow-breasted Chats have been present in Illinois for a long
time. The four most recent family-level additions to Illinois’s list that were
precipitated by a bird being newly recorded in the state were spread over a
period of about 60 years.
Here are the six latest family additions to the Illinois
list.
2019, family Aramidae (Limpkins): Limpkin
[2017, family Icteriidae (Yellow-breasted
Chats): Yellow-breasted Chat]
1990, family Muscicapidae (Old World Flycatchers):
Northern Wheatear
1986, family Fregatidae (Frigatebirds): Magnificent
Frigatebird
1983, family Sulidae (Boobies and Gannets): Northern
Gannet
1962, family Alcidae (Auks, Murres, and Puffins):
Ancient Murrelet
The last family level addition to the Illinois list stemmed from this Northern Wheatear, 12 Sep 1990 in Coles County. Photo by Greg Schaefer.
On the official Illinois State List of Birds there are now 449 species, 62 families, and 21 orders represented.
At its Annual Meeting on 16 February 2020, the Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC) made adjustments to the definitions of the status codes for species on the official Illinois State List of Birds. IORC also reviewed the status of each species on the state list and made updates as necessary, starting from a set of recommendations assembled by Keith McMullen.
The new definitions for the status codes are as follows. These codes are now uniformly based on the number of records.
Regular: Species for which there are at least eight records in the past ten years. This includes species that are very local and those that cannot be located reliably anywhere in the state. Most species in this category are expected within the state annually.
Casual: Species for which there are at least six records in the state and three to seven records in the past ten years.
Accidental: Species for which there are either less than six records in the state or less than three records in the past ten years.
Accidental (provisional): Forms with accepted records, all of which are sight records documented by no more than one observer.
Extirpated: Species which were formerly Regular in Illinois but which have not been recorded in the state in the previous 50 years.
Extinct: Species which have occurred in the state but no longer exist.
Species for which status category was changed include the following.
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck: status changed to Regular from Casual.
Gray Partridge: status changed to Accidental from Regular.
Ruffed Grouse: status changed to Extirpated from Accidental.
Ruff: status changed to Regular from Casual. This species will remain on the Review List.
Purple Sandpiper: status changed to Casual from Regular. IORC now requests that sightings of this species from anywhere in Illinois be documented.
Long-tailed Jaeger: status changed to Casual from Accidental.
Little Gull: status changed to Regular from Casual. This species will remain on the Review List.
Neotropic Cormorant: status changed to Regular from Casual. This species will remain on the Review List.
Anhinga: status changed to Regular from Accidental. This species will remain on the Review List.
Brown Pelican: status changed to Casual from Accidental.
White Ibis: status changed to Regular from Casual. This species will remain on the Review List.
Fork-tailed Flycatcher: status changed to Accidental from Casual.
Common Raven: status changed to Accidental from Extirpated.
Rock Wren: status changed to Accidental from Casual.
Mountain Bluebird: status changed to Casual from Accidental.
Townsend’s Solitaire: status changed to Regular from Casual. This species will remain on the Review List.
Sprague’s Pipit: status changed to Accidental from Casual.
Evening Grosbeak: status changed to Casual from Regular. This species is now on the Review List.
Pine Grosbeak: status changed to Accidental from Casual.
White-winged Crossbill: status changed to Casual from Regular. This species is now on the Review List.
Bachman’s Sparrow: status changed to Extirpated from Accidental.
Golden-crowned Sparrow: status changed to Casual from Accidental.
The Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC) recently concluded evaluations of 40 records of the occurrence of rare birds in Illinois and occurrence of regularly occurring species at unusual times. Among these, IORC accepted 39 of the records while not accepting one. Among the accepted records were the following additions to the list of species having occurred in Illinois: Limpkin, Little Stint, and Cassin’s Kingbird.
The records involved are summarized below. For each record, we indicate the species or form, with number of individuals in parentheses if greater than one, followed by date or date range, location, and county. The record number is indicated in parentheses, followed by, for accepted records, names of the documenters. If multiple documenters are listed, those understood by IORC to have been the original finders of the bird(s) are listed first and separated from the others by a semicolon. IORC thanks all the documenters, for accepted and unaccepted records alike, for their submissions. All documentation is maintained in the IORC archives so that there is a permanent record of all these observations. Documentation, regardless of the Committee’s decision, is a valuable part of the record of bird life in Illinois.
Records Accepted
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (34), 9 May to 28 June 2019 in Granite City, Madison County (2019-028; Frank Holmes)
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (2), 16 June 2019 northeast of Meredosia, Morgan County (2019-021; Colin Dobson)
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (28), 28-29 June 2019 in Grand Tower, Jackson County (2019-24; Rhonda Rothrock, Trevor Slovik)
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (19), 17 August 2019 in Grand Tower, Jackson County (2019-037; Dan Wylie)
Fulvous Whistling-Duck, 6-27 August 2019 along the Big Muddy River levee at Island Road, Jackson County (2019-035; Don Mullison; Rhonda Rothrock, Dan Williams)
Fulvous Whistling-Duck (23), 13 September to 5 October 2019 adjacent to Mississippi River levee roads near Merrimac, Monroe County (2019-046; Wally George; Travis Mahan, Geoffrey A. Williamson)
Harlequin Duck, 21-30 December 2017 at Carlyle Lake, Clinton County (2017-081; Keith McMullen, Al Smith)
White-winged Dove, 2 May 2019 in Skokie, Cook County (2019-020; Amanda Tichacek)
White-winged Dove, 23 August 2019 at Two Rivers National Wildlife Refuge, Calhoun County (2019-039; Bill Rowe)
Limpkin, 20 June to 7 November 2019 at Borah Lake, Olney, Richland County (2019-043; Brady Colin, Tom Colin, Matthew Cvetas, Fran Morel, Bob Shelby, Craig Taylor, Geoffrey A. Williamson)
Ruff, 20 April 2018 at Canteen Lake, Madison County (2018-064; David Becher; Al Smith)
Curlew Sandpiper, 20 May 2000 at Rend Lake, Jefferson County (2000-085; Brian L. Chandler)
Little Stint, 3-7 August 2019 at the Emiquon Preserve, Fulton County (2019-032; Keith McMullen; Steve Freed, Davida Kalina, Geoffrey A. Williamson)
Parasitic Jaeger, 16 September 2017 at Carlyle Lake, Clinton County (2017-082; Al Smith)
Little Gull, 24-26 February 2019 at Carlyle Lake, Clinton County (2019-027; Dan Kassebaum)
Great Black-backed Gull, 24 July 2019 south of Beall Woods State Park, Wabash County (2019-029; Leroy Harrison, Bob Shelby)
Neotropic Cormorant, 27 June to 15 July 2013 at Dixon Waterfowl Refuge, Putnam County (2013-082; Benjamin Murphy, Jeff Smith)
Anhinga, 8-13 July 2019 at Cache River State Natural Area, Johnson County (2019-026; Keith McMullen)
Brown Pelican, 5 May 2018 at the Mt. Pulaski water treatment plant, Logan County (2018-070; Lara Borgerson)
Brown Pelican, 18 August to 14 October 2018 at Carlyle Lake, Bond, Clinton, and Fayette counties (2018-065; Roger Hayes, Keith McMullen)
Black Vulture, 1 May 2018 in Kankakee, Kankakee County (2018-068; Jed Hertz)
Black Vulture, 17 July 2019 in Streator, LaSalle County (2019-034; Steven R. Wargo)
Swallow-tailed Kite, 27 July 2019 near Rosecrans, Lake County (2019-030; Patricia Isaacson)
Swallow-tailed Kite, 17 August 2019 in Thebes, Alexander County (2019-036; Steven Huggins)
Swallow-tailed Kite, 22 August 2019 at Silver Creek Conservation Area, McHenry County (2019-042; Jeff Aufmann)
Swallow-tailed Kite, 23 August 2019 north of Livingston, Madison County and during 1-16 September 2019 near Alton, Madison County (2019-040; Keith McMullen; David Becher, Frank Holmes, Devin Peipert, Kimberly Rohling)
Swainson’s Hawk, 2 May 2019 in Hudson, McLean County (2019-038; Dan Williams)
Gyrfalcon, 13 February 2017 in Lawndale Township, McLean County (2017-083; Tim Lindenbaum)
Cassin’s Kingbird, 22 September 2019 at Montrose Point, Lincoln Park, Chicago, Cook County (2019-048; Krzysztof Kurylowicz; Vinod Babu, Robert D. Hughes, Steven Mlodinow)
Say’s Phoebe, 8 September 2019 at Greene Valley Forest Preserve, DuPage County (2019-044; Urs Geiser, Bonnie Graham)
Sage Thrasher, 29 September 2012 at Sand Bluff Bird Observatory, Winnebago County (2012-058; John Longhenry, Steve Reischel)
Great-tailed Grackle, 5-6 August 2018 at Spring Bluff Forest Preserve, Lake County (2018-066; Joan Campbell, Bonnie Graham)
MacGillivray’s Warbler, 3 May 2019 in Savanna, Carroll County (2019-047; Ethan Brown)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s), 14 June 2019 at Illinois Beach State Park, Lake County (2019-031; Beau Schaefer)
Black-throated Gray Warbler, 4 May 2019 east-southeast of Tisilkwa, Bureau County (2019-066; Douglas F. Stotz)
Townsend’s Warbler, 15-17 September 2019 at Montrose Point, Lincoln Park, Chicago, Cook County (2019-045; Alison Newberry; Matthew Cvetas, Colin Dobson, Scott Judd, Geoffrey A. Williamson)
Western Tanager, 9-13 May 2019 in Normal, McLean County (2019-025; Michael McKinley, Benjamin Murphy)
Western Tanager, 21 September 2019 in River Forest, Cook County (2019-049; Jill S. Anderson)
Painted Bunting, 2-12 June 2019 at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, Will County (2019-023; Jeff Smith; Jared Gorrell, Davida Kalina, Vince Moxon)
Records Not Accepted
Townsend’s Warbler, 22 May 1970 at Prairie Park in DeKalb County (1970-001)
As 2020 winds down, it’s time to start thinking about submitting your list numbers to the Illinois Ornithological Society’s Listers Corner. State Life Lists, County Lists, Big Days, Site Lists and many, many more. Whether you submit in one category or dozens, we want them all. If you’re wondering what the categories are, simply visit IOS Listers Corner and browse away. This has been another exciting year, with state first records and other species that haven’t been found in Illinois for decades.
Need help putting your lists together? We have some list blanks that many have found helpful: 1) the 2020 Listers Corner Blank Form, for those who prefer to send in their lists via snail mail, 2) a County Ticks Excel sheet which will automatically add up your county totals by region, 3) a simple Illinois List blank form, in either Excel XLSX or PDF format, and 4) a Total Counties per Species (TCPS) Excel sheet that is the easiest way to keep track of your county lists.
The Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC) recently concluded evaluations of 29 records of the occurrence of rare birds in Illinois and occurrence of regularly occurring species at unusual times. Among these, IORC accepted 22 of the records while not accepting seven. Among the accepted records was an addition to the list of species having occurred in Illinois: Lewis’s Woodpecker.
The records involved are summarized below. For each record, we indicate the species or form, with number of individuals in parentheses if greater than one, followed by date or date range, location, and county. The record number is indicated in parentheses, followed by, for accepted records, names of the documenters. If multiple documenters are listed, those understood by IORC to have been the original finders of the bird(s) are listed first and separated from the others by a semicolon. IORC thanks all the documenters, for accepted and unaccepted records alike, for their submissions. All documentation is maintained in the IORC archives so that there is a permanent record of all these observations. Documentation, regardless of the Committee’s decision, is a valuable part of the record of bird life in Illinois.
Records Accepted
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (2), 30 May 2019 in Naples, Scott County (2019-019; Colin Dobson)
Barnacle Goose, 1-30 January 1983 in Durand, Winnebago County (1983-003; James Landing, Dan Williams)
Barnacle Goose, 16-19 December 2017 in Towanda, McLean County (2017-064; Oliver Burrus, Davida Kalina)
White-winged Dove, 17 April 2019 in Kankakee, Kankakee County (2019-010; Gary Soper)
White-winged Dove, 13-14 May 2019 in Seward, Winnebago County (2019-014; Dan Williams)
Snowy Plover, 25 May 2019 at Montrose Point, Lincoln Park, Chicago, Cook County (2019-018; Eddie Kasper; Isoo O’Brien)
Long-billed Curlew, 13 April 2019 at Montrose Point, Lincoln Park, Chicago, Cook County (2019-005; Scott Latimer, Amanda Tichacek; Robert D. Hughes, Fran R. Morel, Luis G. Munoz)
Pomarine Jaeger, 16-18 July 1986 at Carlyle Lake, Clinton County (2016-106; Dan Kassebaum)
Parasitic Jaeger, 11-29 September 2010 at Carlyle Lake, Clinton County (2010-032; Dan Kassebaum)
Parasitic Jaeger (2), 3-7 September 2013 at Carlyle Lake, Clinton County (with one of these also present during 1-2 September 2013) (2013-050; Dan Kassebaum)
Little Gull, 8 September 2018 at Montrose Point, Lincoln Park, Chicago, Cook County (2018-062; George Dubenic)
Anhinga, 27 May 2019 at Oakwood Bottoms, Jackson County (2019-015; Dan Kassebaum)
Black Vulture, 9 April 2019 in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Cook County (2019-004; Geoffrey A. Williamson; Tamima Itani)
Swallow-tailed Kite, 15 April 2019 in St. Charles, Kane County (2019-006; Leslie Yoshitani)
Barn Owl, 1-11 March 2019 at Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary, Sangamon County (2019-011; Colin Dobson)
Barn Owl, found dead on 28 April 2019 south of Pesotum, Champaign County (2019-012; Tyler Funk)
Lewis’s Woodpecker, 30 April to 5 May 2019 at Ballard Nature Center, Altamont, Effingham County, first state record (2019-007; Tom Colin, Leroy Harrison, Bob Shelby, Dan Williams, Geoffrey A. Williamson)
Say’s Phoebe, 24 May to 5 August 2019 north of Weldon, DeWitt County; this record involved the Say’s Phoebe nesting with an Eastern Phoebe, with the nest producing young (2019-017; Tom Colin, Davida Kalina, Dan Williams)
Western Tanager, 4-5 May 2019 in Mode, Shelby County (2019-008; Leroy Harrison, Bob Shelby)
Swainson’s Warbler, 10 May 2019 at Sexton Creek wetlands, Alexander County (2019-013; Allen Gathman)
Kirtland’s Warbler, 9-15 May 2019 at Grant Park, Chicago, Cook County (2019-009; Geoffrey A. Williamson)
Painted Bunting, 13 May to 15 June 2019 in East St. Louis, St. Clair County (2019-016; Dan Kassebaum)
Records Not Accepted
Long-billed Curlew, 15 May 1943 at Jackson Park, Chicago, Cook County (1943-001)
Parasitic Jaeger, 4 November 2017 at Carlyle Lake, Clinton County (2017-080)
Parasitic Jaeger, 8 September 2018 at Waukegan, Lake County (2018-048)
Swallow-tailed Kite, 22 April 2018 in Greeneville, Bond County (2018-030)
Townsend’s Solitaire, 26 December 2018, Edwards Conservation Area, Boone County (2018-061)
Pine Grosbeak, 5 May 2018 in Elizabeth, Jo Daviess County (2018-063)
White-winged Junco (Junco hyemalis aikeni), 20 October 2018 at Sand Bluff Bird Observatory, Winnebago County (2018-050)
At the beginning of the year, I wrote to you that Meadowlark publishing would be temporarily suspended due to the resignation of our chief editor, Sheryl DeVore, along with field notes editors, David Johnson and Steve Bailey. Sheryl, David, and Steve were longtime volunteers with the Illinois Ornithological Society (IOS) and we wouldn’t be where we are today without their leadership, dedication, and considerable efforts. If you were to open the very first issue of Meadowlark published in 1992, you would find Sheryl’s and David’s names inside. Over the next 25 years, each played a significant role in not only producing this magazine, but driving IOS forward. For this, we are eternally grateful. We thank them for their many years of service and will miss them greatly.
I also mentioned in that same letter that, if we’d like to see this journal continue, we needed to recruit and assemble a new staff of invigorated volunteers. To that end, the board and I searched for, identified, and brought on several fresh faces including Jill Anderson and Matt Hayes. Jill has been a long time supporter of the IOS grants program and has previously contributed articles to Meadowlark. We welcome her as the new fall field notes editor. Prior to joining IOS, Matt Hayes served as Wisconsin Society of Ornithology’s Research Committee Chair. We welcome Matt as the new breeding season field notes editor. Finally, we selected Eric Secker as our new chief editor. Eric brings a wealth of talent and experience to our staff as a designer in both print and digital media. We couldn’t be more excited to have all of them on board.
Our goal has always been to produce an engaging quarterly magazine, documenting the status of birds and birding in the state of Illinois while highlighting your seasonal field notes, photos, and original drawings, as well as technical papers on local avian studies. Over the past few years, the IOS Board and I realize that we have fallen woefully behind in our obligation to publish on time. To rectify the situation, our newly assembled staff have put together an aggressive plan to get caught up. Arriving soon is the first of several issues in support of that effort. In addition, we have completely redesigned Meadowlark’s look and feel. We think you’ll like what you see and read not only in the first issue, but future issues coming soon.
Now, more than ever, we need your support to continue not only Meadowlark, but also our many valuable programs – Illinois Young Birders, Research Grants, and our one of a kind field trips. Help us achieve our goals in bringing IOS all the way back. We want you as an active participating member. Why not renew your membership today?
Matthew Cvetas
IOS President
Greetings birders,
For those who don’t know me, my name is Eric Secker and I am the new chief editor and designer for Meadowlark magazine. I’m excited to announce that we are getting back on track and quickly working through back issues to get caught up to 2019. This week, the first catch-up double issue of Meadowlark will begin arriving in the mail to both current members and individuals with memberships that lapsed during the time there were delays in production. In addition to getting caught up, I’m very excited to share that future Meadowlark issues will be in full color with photos filling more to the edges of the pages and a new expanded size magazine format. I can’t wait to share the first few issues with you.
If you aren’t already a member of IOS or have let your membership lapse, now is an excellent time to join again so you don’t miss out on what’s to come. Also, I need your help through your contributions and the contributions of many other volunteers. Together, let’s make Meadowlark the Illinois birding journal for showcasing the sightings, stories, data, and research going on in the Illinois birding community. If you have questions, comments or feedback, or want to volunteer, please reach out to me. You can learn more on the Meadowlark Journal Info page.
Recent decisions by the Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC) resulted in the addition of Barnacle Goose as the 445th species on the official Illinois State List of birds. The record that added Barnacle Goose to the list involved the bird found by Andrew Aldrich on 27 November 2012 in Oswego, Kendall County and subsequently seen through 16 December 2012 at various Kane County, Kendall County, and Will County locations. For any record to accepted by IORC, six or seven of the Voting Members of the committee must vote positively. This case merited six positive votes, with one dissenting vote cast on the basis of origin.
The set of records recently evaluated by IORC included seven involving Barnacle Goose. Because the question of origin in addition to that of identification arises in cases of Barnacle Geese, and because potential first state records attract extra scrutiny, the documentation of each of these seven observations needed to be particularly strong to garner acceptance. Three of the records did not make the cut, one on the basis of identification and the other two on the basis of origin. Three records will be circulated within IORC for a second round of review. (Records can go through as many as four rounds of review before reaching a final disposition.) The Kane/Kendall/Will County record from 2012 was the only one of the seven to gain acceptance in the first round.
Barnacle Goose in Kendall County, 28 Nov 2012.
Photograph by Andrew Aldrich.
Photographic evidence included in the accepted record made clear the bird’s identification as a Barnacle Goose. In comments accompanying their votes, IORC Members cited a variety of factors that supported the bird being a wild vagrant individual. These factors included the dates of occurrence, the documentation including evidence of the individual traveling with a flock and evidence of the species mix of that flock, and the documentation making a compelling case that the goose showed no signs of prior captivity.
There are 23 instances of Barnacle Goose in Illinois that have been cited in the literature, appeared in eBird checklists, or for which evidence potentially allowing review is otherwise available. The seven records recently considered by IORC are among these. IORC previously evaluated two of the other records; questions of origin resulted in neither of these being accepted.
