Happy Big Year!

What do you do when you have to stay home? You do a Big Year! Home here is defined as Lake County, IL. The Big Year is basically just an effort to see as many birds as you can in one calendar year.

The Christmas Bird Count in Lake County is always on New Year’s Day, so that’s a nice way to get started. Everyone is out that day and every bird seen in the county gets counted. Dad and I did Waukegan Beach and harbor area. It was cold but not too windy. There were only a few interesting birds in the harbor. One was a Great Black-backed Gull (the largest gull on the planet), the other was a Common Loon. Later that day one of the count leaders fed the gulls near the yacht club, so we saw a few more interesting gulls. The weather turned nasty so we called it a day.

The day after Christmas Bird Count is the day everyone goes after the birds that were reported in other peoples lists. But this time we all ended up at the beach. A Brant was reported in Winthrop Harbor at the Marina, last seen flying south. A Brant is seen on the coasts, both east and west, but rarely inland. But here it was, moving down the coast of Lake Michigan to stop at Waukegan Beach and finally at Montrose Harbor giving most people a county lifer and some a world lifer. Dad and I had it as a US bird but were thrilled to get it as a Lake County Lifer.

Sunday morning, after pancakes, we decided to go to the Long-eared Owl spot. Information on this spot is closely guarded because too many visiting birders could drive the owls away. You access the spot by parking in a neighborhood and enter the forest preserve from the road. This area is unmaintained and after a while the trail disappears. Little did we know that Adam had organized a viewing with three other birders for the time we arrived. Peter was another “uninvited” guest. But Adam was gracious enough to include us all in the hunt.

The ground was frozen and covered in snow. there was no telling what was under the snow as you took a step. Peter fell by stepping in a very low spot and I fell, on my face!, by tripping on the stem of a weed. Fortunately, my camera was in the car, due to a dead battery. We spent a lot of time examining the small trees, at about eye level, looking for the owls. These owls can disguise themselves by becoming tall and skinny and staying next to the trunk of the tree. Nathan, Illinois’ current rock star birder (killed the standing state Big Year Record with 344!) nearly walked into the owl. He knew to look down and turn away to avoid flushing the bird. He then led us to a spot where it was safe to see it without disturbing it too much. Naturally, there were a lot of little branches hiding it but that was a much better situation for the bird. We all got to see it and those with cameras got photos. Everyone will either wait to post the report until spring or “hide” the report in eBird. This is how the most sensitive species are protected from hoards of enthusiastic birders showing up. In either case the description of the location will be very general.

Loog-eared Owl, Dad’s photo

Those ears look really long! They are not actually ears but tufts of feathers. There is also a Short-eared Owl with smaller tufts.

Here are our eBird pages:

Annette McClellan

William McClellan