A riled up Lake Michigan as it lashes Chicago lakeshore on Dec 25, 2009 (photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal)

I hope all of you had an edifying holiday season. Computer problems here at your Blogger’s high tech multi-hundred dollar facility precluded a blog last week, a situation for which I am sorry. Hopefully, though, blogging will now be able to proceed according to schedule.

While the Hanukah candles do generally get lit (although spouse, aka IT-Gal, and I missed some this year, being that we spent three joyous evenings at the Compu Serve store dealing with the aforementioned computer failings), the holiday season for me is really the Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs). Spouse spends Christmas with her family in Ohio or Florida (as was the case this year) so I am left alone to obsess over the three counts that I compile, or help to compile.

The first of my counts this year was the Chicago Lakefront. While adhering to the 15 mile diameter circle required of all nationally sanctioned counts, coverage is largely restricted to the Chicago lake shore and harbors, including Jackson Park on the southern edge and Montrose area on the north. Besides the unusually limited habitat of the count, it is one of the very few that is actually held on December 25. I used to joke that it is for people without family or friends (we actually had an all Jewish count back in 1972, although we only had four participants) but over the years we have built up a following of birders who spend half a day counting birds and then heading off for more traditional Christmas celebrations. We have two main groups- mine meets at the south end and works north, while Geoff and Chris Williamson meet at Montrose and work south. They quit mid-day while my group continues to Montrose. (It is easy to keep separate lists at all the spots, so there is no double counting.) While I don’t have the exact number yet, this Christmas we had around ten participants. My group consisted of the three Gyllenhaal’s (Aaron, Ethan, and Eric), Tim Wallace, Kelly McKay, and Caroline Hertzberg.

Holding Lakefront on Christmas Day, it turns out, has real advantages for a count that focuses on the downtown portions of America’s third largest city. Lake Shore Drive, the count’s principal thoroughfare, is almost empty. You can drive onto the usually very crowded Navy Pier without harassment, and there is no one to shoo you away from McCormick Place as you scan the lake. It would be nigh well impossible to cover the territory as thoroughly on a week day or holiday weekend.

Another attribute of this count is that it draws media attention like no other local birding event. The idea of birdwatching early Christmas morning must seem so weird that it merits coverage, particularly on a day that rarely generates news. There weren’t any stories this year but three years ago I was interviewed by a radio station that ran a few snippets focusing on our best bird of that day, a mockingbird. A newspaper reporter heard the piece and called me up for yet another interview that was the basis for a story ran on a Wednesday,  Staffers at our local public radio station read the article, and contacted me for a third interview that they ran on the next day.

 And then there is Kelly McKay, a birder from the Quad Cities area of western Illinois. Kelly has become famous in the world of birders by subjecting himself to Christmas Bird Count marathons. This year the Christmas Count period begins on December 14 and ends on January 5: there are 23 days on which CBCs can be held. Kelly, for the third time, is planning on attending 23 counts, which are scattered across WI, IA, and IL. He birds all day and than drives to the next location (or home if the next count is in that direction). But since only one is held on Dec 25, he pays us a visit. To fill in gaps, he compiles five or so counts himself, including the only one scheduled on December 24.  

Ring-billed gulls on Chicago Lakefront CBC on December 25, 2009 (photo by Tim Wallace).

December 25, 2009 was marked by unremitting rain and winds of 25 to 35 mph. The temperature was in the high thirties. Waves crashed into the lake wall and exploded like geysers. Not only do such conditions preclude effective scanning of the lake, it means that notebooks become soggy and optical equipment fogs up. Now for the good news: areas that have few people on Christmas morning even during the best of weather were completely deserted in the face of heavy rains. Even the shivering foreign tourists in their summer clothing who usually flock to such destinations as Adler Planetarium and Shedd Aquarium for photos of the skyline were absent.

Despite the adverse weather, we actually did pretty well. And that has not always been the case. The fewest species seen on the count occurred on a frigid day when the lake was still open, conditions that created a thick impenetrable layer of fog over the water. It was impossible to see anything smaller than a swan, and none of those were around. My mother and I, the only participants on the last day of the count period, logged six species, a total that exceeded no other North American count south of Yellow Knife, Northwest Territories.

Our first stop was at LaRabida Children’s hospital. The harbor yielded a nice group of ducks including such unexpected species as canvasback (2) and red-head. That started us off on a productive duck roll- over the course of the day, we also saw ruddy, gadwall (a damaged wing highlighted the white patch), and all three mergansers. The best duck was a male harlequin at North Avenue. With its harlequin pattern of irregular white blotches, this is one stunning looking bird. It was riding the waves full of debris as they smashed into the pier; but the bird was able to maintain a safe position and even dive into the cresting wave. This is a species of the northeast coast and northwestern rivers, so raging water is its home and conditions were perfect for it.

American pipits have been hanging around in various places on the lakefront so it was not surprising that we added this species to the count list for the first time. Geoff and Chris saw nine at Montrose and we had one fly over at McCormick Place. It was a first for the count. Northerly Island produced a short-eared owl, which attracted the attention of a persistent crow. Northerly Island used to be the home of Meigs Field, until Mayor Daley decided he’d rather have a park there. When the airport operated and the land was off-limits to people, snowy owls would often linger. It was probably the best place in IL for the species but not so since the area has become accessible to pedestrians. On the other hand, short-eared owls appear more often, perhaps because there is no where for them to hide from mobile searchers. A few snow buntings also flew over.

Need to get home to dry out the boots and coat for tomorrow’s Evanston North Shore Count . . .

Short-eared owl photographed by John Cassady.