Sand In My Shoes

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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

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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.

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.

Doug was prepared with a book about Runes. Dad’s choices are actual Runes he found in the book.

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.

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or OH, NO! Mom’s in the kitchen

Hi, Everyone,

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.

And finally-

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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.

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November 30, 2020

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!

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.

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There have been a lot of sunrises since I last posted. Each one is unique. I didn’t expect November to be so busy! There is a Hawk Watch in Zion and one a bit further away at Fort Sheridan. Early November had some exciting targets which we missed so we keep going to see if we can still get some good birds. Normally the hawks migrate on north and northwest winds. Yes, that means colder temperatures. We really froze one morning! Since then we have had south winds and it warmed up again. I guess you need to have cold winds to get good hawks. Here are a few of our birds.

Those are just the raptors. I’ll save sparrows and finches for another day.

We had a fun socially distanced birthday party for Doug out in the driveway, complete with Lenos! I’m glad it was a warm day with no rain.

Sheridan Road is under construction. They repaired a lot of curbs and manhole areas. Then they scraped off the top layer. Now they are perfectly the manholes before they actually pave it. This project extends from Cory to Glen Flora. We have been parking the white car in the hospital lot and leaving the blue car in the garage. There is more road nose with the grooved pavement.

Dad worked hard to get all the leaves raked up and the gutters clean. I vacuumed the leaves in the side garden but left all the weedy perennials standing so the birds can enjoy them. We haven’t had any special birds in the yard lately but you never know what could show up.

I hope everyone is safe and healthy. Dad and I are super careful and doing fine.

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The party is just getting started at a north Sheridan Rd house! They added mist but today was so windy I think they gave up.

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When we we talk about fall color we automatically think of trees turning beautiful shades of yellow, red, orange and brown. But there is a lot of color right at our feet. Many wildflowers save their blossoms for fall, feeding the bees and migrating butterflies.

The asters shown above are seen everywhere, even in our yard. They are always a target for insects. The colors range from white to pale blue to bright purple. The blossoms are very small and numerous.

Evening Primrose

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We have had some interesting sunrises lately. The one above was taken when the west wind had blown smoke from the California fires all the way to Lake County. You could faintly smell the smoke in the air.

We are in to fall birding now. The summer species are winding down. Very few birds are singing the easy to recognize songs as they did in the spring. They are now using short chips to communicate.

The American Bittern was a particularly good find by Dad. I was lazy that morning and stayed home from the beach. He texted me about thirty minutes after he got there to let me know. I ran down as fast as I could to see it . I don’t think anyone else saw it after that. Except for the Semipalmated Plover these are all local birds. The Bittern will probably leave soon but the rest will winter here.

I hope everyone is well and staying healthy!

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Everyone talks about the beautiful colors of fall. The leaves change to brilliant hues, custom made for wall calendars. The birds change colors also. I’ll show a few examples.

The list goes on and on. The fall birds are often juvenile and female, lacking the bright colors of the male. But many male birds also shed their bright plumage in favor of dull browns and greens. This makes fall birding a head scratcher!

September 13

We had a last minute visit from Doug and Lisa. They had big news. Doug got a promotion and bought a new car! You have probably heard that news already but I wanted to include it here. The car is a Subaru. Doug explained that the name is Japanese for the constellation of the Seven Sisters. That explains the Subaru logo. But wait, where is the seventh star? It is invisible! Doug named the car Celeste.

We had a great visit. Dad grilled hamburgers and we had the usual which everyone enjoyed. We had to eat indoors because the bees are pretty bad right now. You can’t even drink a beer outside without them swarming around you.

September 19

I have been hitting the beach again around dawn. There are still shorebirds migrating and the chance for rare gulls is increasing. The sun is coming upper later, of course, so I don’t really get out as early as in the spring.