The day started at the beach of course at 7:18 am. There wasn’t a real sunrise but I wanted to record the dawn of the shortest day of the year.
Dawn at Waukegan Beach, 12/21/2020
After doing our Monday chores we had an early lunch and finally headed into Chicago to Help Doug and Lisa celebrate the Winter Solstice! They were ready with a roaring fire in the fire pit. Dad and I were dressed for cold weather but the actual temperature was in the high 40’s. But it didn’t hurt to be prepared. Lisa’s Mom was there too to help celebrate. The first project was to carve Runes into or Yule Logs. We accomplished this with the help of a wood burner. These logs were saved from Doug and Lisa’s Christmas tree last year, which is traditional for the Yule log.
Dad with his Yule Log .
Doug was prepared with a book about Runes. Dad’s choices are actual Runes he found in the book.
Doug, Dad, Lisa & Laurie
We had a a lot of fun! The pine logs had sat for a year but they still seemed full of sap so there were a lot of sparks coming from them as they burned. Lisa made lamb stew and fresh bread. It was all really tasty!. To top it off, while we were sitting there, Dad spotted a Bald Eagle just north of the yard over the park.
Doug and Lisa are planning to do it again next year. Doug is saving ashes from this Yule fire to carry over for next year.
With all that talk about Potica, Dad thought you might like my recipe. I found a few more treasures in the box that you might enjoy.
Special Walnut Potica 8-9 cups flour 3/4 cups sugar 2 cups milk 1/2 cup butter 1 1/2 tablespoons salt 4 eggs 3 envelopes yeast
Scald milk. Add sugar, salt and butter. Cool. Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water. Add yeast to milk mixture. Beat eggs until fluffy. Add to milk mixture. Add flour gradually. Knead briefly. Let raise until double.
Filling 2 pounds ground walnuts 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup honey 3 eggs 2 cups milk 2 cups sugar 1/2 pint whipping cream 1 tbs lemon juice Melt butter. Add honey, sugar and milk. Bring to a rolling boil. Pour over walnuts. Add beaten eggs. Whip cream. Add to walnut mixture. Add lemon juice. Mix. Roll dough very thin. Spread filling over dough. Roll dough carefully. Shape as desired (horse shoe, circle, straight. Let raise again. Bake until top is browned.
I typically scale this recipe down. It makes a lot. Roll the dough as thin as possible. The dough expands in the second raising. You won’t do this, but I bake it until the top looks burned. I have grown used to the flavor and it prevents the inside from being too wet. Any way you make it, it will be good. And yes, you can use poppyseed filling. I usually use a can of Solo filling.
Candied Grapefruit Peel 2 Grapefruit or 3 oranges on 4 lemons 1 teaspoon salt 1cup sugar 2 tablespoons light corn syrup sugar for coating Place peels in saucepan. Cover with water and add salt, Bring to a boil and cook slowly for 20 minutes. Drain. Cover with fresh water and boil again for 30 minutes, until tender. Drain. Use scissors to cut peels into strips. Combine sugar and corn syrup with 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil. Add cooked peel. Cook peel gently until syrup is nearly absorbed. Cool in syrup. Drain peel on rack or platter. Shake in bag with sugar the coat. Coat with chocolate if desired.
I mean that in the literal sense. It settled all over the interior of the house, especially in the attic, the dining room and the living room. I guess that should be expected when you have guys on the roof dropping packs of shingles. It has been guys with hammers and saws on and off since the Monday after Thanksgiving. They are finally finished. We had an estimate done for the attic windows and front storm door. The estimator said the magic words “hail damage”. That usually means some insurance coverage for a new roof. So we went for it. Sure enough, they covered the the whole replacement price. We added a ridge vent at our own expense. They ended up removing the existing shingles and even replacing some wood. There was a crew of six men on the roof for two days. The third day two guys came and finished up. Soon after that the soffit men came and replaced soffits on both dormers. Finally today they installed windows in the north dormer and a new front storm door.
I spent most of that time trying to stay out of the way. Birding has been very slow, with two exceptions. On December 7th the Purple Sandpiper was relocated in Waukegan. It is usually seen on the north pier at the beach but the high water levels have reduced the availability of algae on that pier. But a clever birder (not me) looked on the pier to the south and found the bird feeding on a nice algae mat growing on the south side of the pier. So everyone rushed to the lakefront to see the bird. Then early yesterday morning a Snowy Owl was seen hunting over the dunes at Waukegan. But the bird vanished after the first sighting and had to be re-found. Andy was north on the beach so I headed west to the long parking lot. The gulls were making a lot of noise and circling over the boats at Larson Marine. Finally I I saw a white bird on top of a light pole. It sat in a different posture than a gull would and looked pretty white. At that point a truck stopped and a guy with a big camera got out and aimed it at the bird. I was pretty sure he wasn’t photographing a gull. After a few moments the bird moved to a sailboat mast in the marina. It was the Snowy! I texted to the group and Andy and friends were able to see it even though they were still on the beach. After that everyone within driving range raced to the beach. It only stayed till about 2:30 pm and hasn’t been seen since.
This was a last ditch attempt to see a few late fall birds that sometimes pass through along the lake. They are undependable and even if seen are not always easy to identify. They include the Cave Swallow, the Gyrfalcon, the Horned Lark and jaegers (gull-type birds) that only show up on strong east winds. I didn’t get any of these species while I stood here on top of a sand dune. Now, in December, the water between the dunes is usually frozen, so even the geese and ducks have left it. The only birds left seem to be the usual gulls, Canada Geese and Mallards in the channel. So, the birders are left to inspect the few pines and spruces in Lake County.
This is the year of an irruption!! Not volcanes- finches! In some years the food sources in the northern territories of the US and Canada do not produce sufficient cones, nuts and fruit to support the birds that depend on them. These species, mainly finches and grosbeaks, are forced to look elsewhere for food. That means they move much further south than they ordinarily would. This movement is called an irruption, as a large number of birds are suddenly moving out of their usual range. Many times they occur in flocks.
In lake County, spruces and pines are not native species. Fortunately the Forest Preserve District has several locations that have preserved these trees that were originally planted in tree farms. Lyons Woods has spruce and a small number of pines. Van Patten Woods, north and west of here, has a nice stand of pines and a bonus stand of Alders. The campground at Illinois Beach State Park also has pines.
All of the species involved in this irruption are picky eaters. The Red Crossbills chooses cones of pine trees. The White-winged Crossbills prefer the cones of spruces. The Redpolls go for the very tiny cones of Alder trees. They can’t help being picky- the bill of each species has evolved to be most efficient at pulling seeds from specific types of cones. In fact, the Crossbills have evolved to feed from specific species of pine trees and spruce trees. And yes, the bills of the crossbills do cross! I’ll see if I can find a photo. The birds are at the tops of very tall trees, where the cones are, so getting photos is tricky!
Common Redpoll feeding on Alder cones.Red CrossbillRed Crossbill, close-up from an eBird photo by Ryan Schain
The White-winged Crossbills prefer spruce cones. They are more numerous at Lyons Woods. The birds move in flocks and often do not stay in a tree for long. Sometimes the only way to know they are in the area is to hear their calls. That was the case in Lyons Woods for me- no photo but a positive identification due to the nature of their calls.
We had one more irruptive species to locate. This bird, the Evening Grosbeak, does not go to a specific tree and therefore it was much harder to track down. However, the bird likes feeders. Some birders who had visiting Evening Grosbeaks were kind enough to let others into their yards to wait for the Grosbeaks to come in. We finally saw one at a feeder on the northeast side of Bowen Park. It was just a glimpse but enough for a County life bird.
