Cold Springs Eternal (Good Birds Anyway)

Screech owl enjoying the weather photographed by John Cassady.

There is so much to write about I am almost overwhelmed. In preparation for the spring Bird Count on May 8, I devoted May 6 to scouting my territory in northwest Lake County, IL. I see scouting outings differently than most birding excursions. My goal is to check areas more than to find birds. There is an obvious overlap when it comes to marginal sites that might or might not be covered on the day of the count. Where I know we will be spending time on the count I don’t even bother to check it, except to drive by to make sure it is still there and accessible. Some of these places I only visit once a year and this is on the count day. Mostly when I scout I do it for logistical reasons: it enables me to write out a clear itinerary, listing the order in which we will hit places and the routes that we will use. This way on the day of the count, I don’t have to fiddle with a map or devote energy to navigation.

One area my group used to cover was Sun Lake in Lake Villa. A Pacific loon took up residence here one late spring many years ago.  It is the only lake in Lake County Illinois that had no road leading to it. It also boasted a unique boardwalk through the cattails leading to the open water: rotting pallets with an occasional washing machine and other appliance filling in any gaps. To reach the boardwalk you had to drive by a creepy looking mansion with way too many windows that looked like it had been built by gangsters. (I do admit, that with restoration under new public ownership the building looks a lot more wholesome). The last couple of times I tried to scout out the lake, I was turned away by site workers. Well, this time, with all the work completed, I tried again. Garbage littered the place and downed trees were used to obliterate traces of the trail but I think I found it. At one point I reached for the narrow trunk of a buckthorn to help get over some piled wood. Unfortunately, the portion of trunk I grasped was studded with the long sharp projectiles which earned the plant its name, and I wound up carving a small cavity in the base of my thumb. Alas, all of this effort was for naught, however, as the cattail wall seemed impenetrable and I never could even glimpse open water. One less spot to examine for count day.

Overall, though, I was pleased with the results of my scouting. My best bird was a Wilson’s phalarope on a drying mudflat that held only three other birds, all lesser yellowlegs. But I also had success with some late ducks: a pair of ruddy ducks on East Loon Lake, a pair of ring-necked ducks at Prairie Crossing subdivision, and a green-winged teal in a large flooded field, I had never covered before.

The following day, May 7, it poured. I joined friends for an Evanston North Shore Bird Club walk at Skokie Lagoons. We had to wait an hour for the rain to subside. The wait was worth it, though, as we had a total of 23 species of warblers, four vireos, and four Catharus thrushes. The highlight for me was a mourning warbler, one of the late arriving Opporornis.  It is probably the earliest I have seen the species, whose numbers around here peak in the third week in May.

The weather for the spring count was supposed to be cold and windy, with some rain. The cold and windy part I could stand, as discomfort and the failure to find birds is something one becomes accustomed too in this line of work, such as it is. But the prospect of standing in a marsh in the dark with 40 degree temperatures, 20 mph winds, and the kind of rain that plagued us Friday morning enters the realm of “please, for the love of all that is holy, put an end to my misery.” (Jennifer e-mailed me later asking if it is ever warm and dry on the spring bird count. I think it was in 2006.)

Dan Ludwig, Jennifer Schmidt, and Tim Earle enjoying the November weather of this year's spring bird count (taken at Deer Lake)

My crew of three met Saturday morning at 3:30. Jennifer Schmidt, Dan Ludwig, and Tim Earle had all been on the spring count with me before so they knew what to expect. The wind was strong and the temperatures were as predicted. Fortunately, there was nor precipitation. Our first stop is Deer Lake where we spend maybe five hours, the first of which is in the dark as we wait for the wetland to wake up.

Owls have long captured the human imagination through their mysterious ways. For a birder, one of the great mysteries is why on a perfectly lovely calm night, the persistent playing of their calls will yield no response while on another night, cold with a wind rushing through the trees with such force as to drown out most other ambient sounds, a mere whinny or two will engage a screech owl at the tail end of his work day. Pondering the whims of an owl is beyond this blog, but suffice it to say that we were thrilled when the owl promptly answered.

The first birds whose voices arose from the marsh were swamp sparrows. After the owl, I started playing the voices of the two bitterns, as well as Virginia rail, and king rail. Soras usually will call at some point on their own initiative. Just as enough light had seeped through the thick clouds to enable Homo sapiens to see, an American bittern flew up and across the large expanse of cattails. It never vocalized, however, and its “unk-a-chunk” is one of my favorite avian utterances. But a lovely sight none the less. Another mystery to me is that we often miss both bitterns, and some years we will get the least and others the American. But we have never had both species in the same day.

As the morning unfolded, the birding remained productive. A highly unexpected flock of black-bellied plovers flew over. (Likely to be the only ones seen on the count by anyone.) The number of places where black terns still nest in northern Illinois varies from one to two. Deer Lake is one of the places and is a bird we kind of expect. But it wasn’t until the tail end when Dan spotted a flock of four. Soras did eventually call (we had a total of five) but for the first time ever we left Deer Lake without a single Virginia rail. Repeated scanning of the lake did reveal a flock of gadwalls and one wigeon. Yellow-rumped warblers also responded to the screech owl tape, with a flock of about 30 fluttering around one low tree. But they were not alone as we pulled out orange-crowned, black and white, palm, golden-winged, and others.

It drizzled a bit but the cold and wind never let up. I wore but a light jacket, and was on the cusp of being chilled, but I attribute my having donned a second tee shirt as keeping me from crossing the line. Everyone had gloves but me, so my hands began to hurt. These weather conditions remained throughout the day except there were a few times when the rain was heavy and at least twice we were pelted by hail. Fortunately, during those periods of heavy precipitation, we were close to the car.

The rapids of Mill Creek in northern Lake County, Illinois.

Our next important site is along Mill Creek, one of the principal tributaries of the Des Plaines River. Tim had a vesper sparrow, and at one point we had maybe five northern waterthrushes calling at the same time. We always see a eastern phoebe, and although it took some looking, we were not disappointed. Barn swallows were acting strange in that they were resting on the rocks in the creek.

Jennifer and Dan had to leave early so Tim and I carried on. We had such gems as yellow-headed blackbird, redhead, and ruddy ducks. After Tim left at 4, I checked one last spot that kept me out until six. I ended the day at Wadsworth where I added such species to the list as American pipit, eastern bluebird, and several species of shorebirds. For the day we had a total of 97 species. I should also say that of the birds that I scouted out two days earlier, three were not seen at all (phalarope, green-winged teal and ring-necked duck) and two were absent from where they had been (ruddy duck and wigeon). But at least the places remained.

Finally, this ends a year’s worth of blogging. I have enjoyed it a great deal and I hope you have as well. I greatly appreciate Mr. Crowe for his giving me this opportunity.

Yellow-rumped warbler photographed by John Cassady.

The ever changing weather of this year's spring bird count- from challenging to more challenging.

          

Tags: deer lake, eastern screech owl, Mill Creek, spring bird count, sun lake