Kishwaukee and Rockford Christmas Bird Counts
December 31, 2008
Article in: Bird Conservation
Over the past few weeks we participated in two area Christmas Bird Counts, one being the long-running Rockford CBC and the other a newer count along a favorite river corridor, the Kishwaukee. Both were enjoyable but not as birdy as we had hoped.
The Rockford count would have been perfect for digiscoping except snow depth was over a foot deep and we didn’t feel like dragging the scope over several miles of trudging. Thus, we missed a gorgeous juv. Bald Eagle and two exciting sightings of Eastern Coyotes.
Birding in the fog is difficult!
The Kishwaukee count happened to be held on what turned out to be the foggiest day we’ve ever seen (and birded in). Visibility was zero and outbursts of rain (and no hiking trails in our area) forced us to bird from the car for most of the time. We were able to find a good number of birds but it was a strain on the eyes to stare through the fog.
Our best finds were a cluster of five White-crowned Sparrows, a gang of nine Northern Cardinals, and a ghostly sighting of a raptor that went unidentified as it disappeared into the fog.
Somehow we were able to find a Red-tailed Hawk in this parking lot
It is likely that count numbers this season will be a bit “interesting” to say the least.
Rock Cut State Park Christmas Bird Count
December 30, 2008
Article in: Bird Conservation
Sunday, December 14th, was our first Christmas Bird Count (CBC) of the winter. The Rock Cut State Park CBC [count code ILRC] is a brand new count, covering Rock Cut State Park and much of Boone County Illinois. The Birdfreak Team is completely in charge of creating, organizing and compiling this new count.
Groups were assigned areas and we had 19 participants. The weather forecast was unusual; a high of almost fifty degrees, windy (30+ MPH) and rainy. The hardest obstacle on this count was the ice from melted snow that covered many of the trails and parking areas.
Herring Gulls digiscoped at many many feet away
Being that this was the first count EVER for this area, we didn’t know what to expect. Contained in the 15-mile diameter circle are several great forest preserves and a lot of country roads and open fields. With the wind keeping birds down, we managed a respectable 47 species. Area coverage was incomplete, so it is highly likely we could have topped 50 species.
Of course, Christmas Bird Counts aren’t the same as “Big Days” in the sense that it isn’t the number of species but the exact (well, as close as possible) count of the birds in a given area on a specific day. We tallied 11,952 individual birds, 62.39% of these being Canada Geese.
While nothing extraordinarily rare was spotted, several good finds included 3 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 4 Northern Shrikes, and 26 Pine Siskins. Next year we plan to do more scouting and spread the teams out a bit more to find even more birds.
Gulls Eating A Fish
Bird Photography Weekly #18
December 29, 2008
Article in: Bird Photography Weekly
Bird Photography Weekly #17 is all wrapped up! Join the next installment today!!
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Review of Rare Birds Yearbook 2009
December 28, 2008
Article in: Book Reviews
The Rare Birds Yearbook 2009
Much like the 2008 version (Rare Birds Yearbook 2008: The World’s 189 Most Threatened Birds
- Conservation Works
- California Condor – how condors are adapting to life in the “modern” world
- The Role of Biodiversity – where editor Erik Hirschfeld discusses hot conservation topics with expert conservationist Dr. Nigel Collar
- Bamboo Specialists – Birds of the Atlantic Forest
- Religion, Tradition, and Bird Conservation
- Haribon – which covers the search for the “King of All Birds”, the Philippines Eagle
- and more…
The main part of the Yearbook is of course the directory that covers 190 Critically Endangered species. Each species received two, one, or a half page and includes a photo (or illustration if no photo is available), map of breeding range, population number and trend, reason(s) for listing, and threats that have led to this status. 130 new photos were added, much of which came from the photo competition held in close association with Birdlife International.
Many of the birds featured face dangerously uncertain futures and sadly, some may already be a lost cause. Sixty Critically Endangered species were covered in 2008 but are not part of the 2009 edition because there is either no new information and/or there has been no recorded sightings.
However, there is still hope as long as we act now and come out in full force. You can start by purchasing this book from www.rarebirdsyearbook.com where £4 [~$5.63] of the £18.95 [$26.65] price goes straight to bird conservation. That’s over 20% of the sale price.
Read our review of the Rare Birds Yearbook 2008 which is still available but in limited quantities.
Phriday Photo – Pine Siskin
December 26, 2008
Article in: Birding
Baby it’s cold outside!
Merry Christmas!
December 25, 2008
Article in: Birding
Merry Christmas to all including our feathered and furred friends!
