From Athena the goddess of wisdom to the wizard Harry Potter, owls have been fascinating people for

centuries. The folklore and superstition surrounding them are astounding. In this program you’ll learn

about the true natural history of owls. Although many resident birds have left the area, this time of year

can be ideal to observe owls in the wild. Winter is the time to catch a glimpse of the great horned owl

incubating eggs, the low flying short-eared owl soaring over a prairie, and particularly this year, the rare

snowy owl hanging out at the beach. In case you don’t get the chance to see one of these owls in the

wild, stick around to the end of the program to see a local owl or two up close.

Sara Denham, manager of the McHenry County Conservation District Wildlife Resource Center for the

past 14 years, will be presenting her program on owls at the 2012 Annual Meeting on Saturday, January

21st. Sara has been involved in the propagation and rearing of the Illinois endangered Blanding’s turtle

as well as the reintroduction of barn owls, orangethroat darters and green snakes back into the county. She and her staff provide

environmental education programs to school and community groups and spend a considerable amount of time on the phone

answering a variety of wildlife inquiries from the public. Sara has been working with and for wildlife for over 25 years.

The Annual Meeting will be held at the Ridgefield-Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church, located at the end of Market Street off of

Ridgefield Road in Ridgefield. The meeting will begin with members gathering at 5:30 p.m. for a potluck dinner that will

commence at 6:00 p.m. The program will then begin at 7:00 p.m.

The annual raffle will follow the presentation, so please bring $$$ and any nice nature related items for the raffle! Also, remember

to bring a dish to pass, a utensil to serve it with, reusable tableware, and your favorite non-alcoholic beverage. Coffee will be

available at the meeting. Members of the public are welcome to attend. This is always a fun event not to be missed!

Would you like to try for a few winter birds from the comfort of a car? Meet at the Harts Road parking lot,

just off Route 31 in Glacial Park at 1:00 p.m. We will car pool and use two-way radios to help spot the

birds. Bring two-way radios if you have some.

We will try for a rough-legged hawk, shrike, harrier, red-tailed or with a little luck, a bald eagle at Glacial. We will drive

around and look for snow buntings, horned larks or Lapland longspurs. We surely will see American tree

sparrows, juncos and chickadees. There are usually pheasants around Stewart Road and also a good spot

for kestrels. Twenty species is our goal. Bring drinks and a snack—bathroom stops are available.

We will be back to Glacial late in the afternoon and try and spot the dusk-rising short-eared owls. RSVP to Doug

and Maggie Crane at mdcrane1024@sbcglobal.net or call the Cranes at 815-338-0046 by January 7th.

Think you can beat Sandy, Al or Greg? For those of you who haven’t read the book The Big

Year by Mark Obmascik or seen the movie this past fall starring Steve Martin, Owen Wilson

chase after Sandy Komito’s record of 721 birds in the Big Year contest of 1998.

Sightings and otherwise are by the honor system. Participants

must register for the contest by contacting Tami Zuck at

tamizuck@comcast.net or 847-922-6746, before January 31,

2012. She will maintain the secret list of participants.

To keep their true identity a mystery, all participants will give

themselves a ‘bird’ identity, for example the “Silly Sparrow” or

“Roaming Robin”. Their real name will remain secret until the

end of the year. At the end of each month, participants will

contact Tami with their current total and the last bird they

identified. Progress reports will be in the newsletter and on the web site listing their secret ‘bird’

name, count for the year to date, and their most recent bird seen or heard.

The contest officially starts at 12:00 midnight right after the MCA Annual Meeting on January 21, 2012

(see front page) and goes to 5:00pm right before next year’s Annual Meeting on Saturday, January 19,

2013. Prizes will then be awarded at the Annual Meeting in January 2013. Good luck!!

brush up on your winter birds, and remind family and friends that the 14th annual GBBC is just around the corner.

counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. Anyone can participate, from beginning

bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event.

It’s free, fun, and easy—and it helps the birds. Participants count birds anywhere for as little or as

long as they wish during the four-day period. They tally the highest number of birds of each species

seen together at any one time. To report their counts, they fill out an online checklist at the Great

Backyard Bird Count website.

As the count progresses, anyone with internet access can explore what is being reported from

their own towns or anywhere in the United States and Canada. They can also see how this

year’s numbers compare with those from previous years. Participants may also send in

photographs of the birds they see.

Each year at this time membership dues are collected. Family memberships are $10 and good for

the entire calendar year. We continue to maintain ridiculously low dues thanks to so many

generous members who send in a donation in addition to the ten dollars. We receive no grants or

other funds and support our programs and other ventures strictly with memberships and donations.

sure to designate as to whether you wish to receive email announcements and would like to receive

your newsletter electronically (NOT by regular mail). This is a NEW service MCA will soon be

offering. You must provide us with a CURRENT email address for these services.

Memberships should be sent to: Dwight Dalton, 573 Tamarisk Lane, Crystal Lake, IL. 60014

A total of 13 club members made the trip down to Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area in Indiana to see

the sandhill cranes. Those who followed their GPS unit went on the Skyway and were treated to over a

hundred tundra swans congregating near

Gary, Indiana. Those of us on the Tri-state

arrived at the exact same time, so

apparently there is no big benefit to

either route. The drive brought us to

the refuge area around noon, so of course we

had a nice lunch to start us off properly.

Jasper-Pulaski has changed somewhat in the past

decade. Hunting used to end by noon, and then the entire

preserve was open to everyone. Now there is just one long

hike open to a tower overlooking two lakes since hunting

goes on all day. That hike out was fairly unproductive since it was

extremely windy, and most of the small birds were fairly inactive. As

sighting may have been a small northern water snake

swimming. Most participants got to see him up close since he

pulled the old “if I don’t move, they can’t see me” trick.

The rickety condition of the tower implied that it would not last

many more years. The wind again kept everything hunkered

down, but a section of the lake that looked like boiling water

turned out to be a large flock of coots actively feeding. A few

pied-billed grebes and a lesser yellowlegs rounded out the

sightings at the lakes.

The sandhill crane viewing area now has a huge platform to

accommodate large crowds of people. We estimated around 200

observers were present by sunset. By 4:30 p.m. the cranes were

actively flying back to their roosting grounds. The top level of the

platform made for perfect

viewing, since some

cranes flew right

overhead as they made

their approach. There

were also at least 50 deer

hanging around the

cranes (see photo above)

that have obviously

figured out they won’t be

shot in that area. The crane flocks are not as close to the blind as they

used to be. I would assume 200 people showing up repeatedly has

caused them to decide to move back at least 100 yards. We did not

hear an exact estimate of the evening we attended, but one recent report put

the number of cranes at 6000 to 7000. The entire field was full of cranes, and

waves kept arriving every few seconds.

The cranes continued to arrive as the sun set. Once it was too dark to see or

photograph anymore, we started our drive back home. We topped off the day with

with a nice dinner with most of the group.

Sandhill cranes on White Pigeon Road near

Genoa City:

• October 30: 50-60 birds

• Novermber 6: about 200 birds.

November 20 -

There were 250 +/- Sandhill

cranes overhead here in

Crystal Lake.

A couple of interesting finds today (December 12)

at my office building in Lake Forest:

• Kingfisher and beautiful male hooded

merganser on the unfrozen half of the pond

behind our building

• Great horned owl hooting outside my office

window at 6:30pm.

December 18 -

Beautiful Sharp-Shinned hawk in my yard.

On Christmas day at 11:40am I heard Sandhills overhead

by my home.

December 31 -

Pine siskins are back to the Iwanicki

feeders in Wonder Lake, just in time

to help us close out 2011.

Sunday, December 11 -

Maybe we need a “Help with the Bird ID” column. The

reason I say this is because I would like to report a

female Red Crossbill in my backyard and on the

patio in mid afternoon. At first I thought it was a

Goldfinch, but its size and lack of any wing bars, said

no. The bird also appeared to be somewhat confused

and cautious, not what I would consider the normal

behavior of a Goldfinch. After searching several Bird

seven Norway Spruce on my

property and there are pines nearby.

Maggie and I had a pretty good month in

December birding around the county. Some of

the birds we saw included 23 mute swans in

Island Lake, some not so wild pheasants around the

game farm on Okeson Rd, a red-winged blackbird

perched just a few feet from a red-tailed hawk off

Steward Rd, northern harriers and short-eared owls in Glacial Park, 6

turkeys still in the trees at 10:30 in the morning along the Nippersink Creek,

several brown creepers at McHenry Dam, a rough-legged hawk, at 176 &

47, I saw a Merlin near Pleasant Valley, and we traveled to Sterling, Il, to see

the rufus hummingbird.

McHenry County Audubon

P.O. Box 67

Woodstock, IL 60098

www.McHenryAudubon.org

Address correction requested

Return postage guaranteed

January 8

January 21

January 28-29

February 9

February 17-20

TBA ??

Winter Bird Drive - 1:00pm

MCA Annual Meeting/Potluck - Presbyterian Church, Ridgefield, IL

Illinois Audubon Society Starved Rock Eagle Weekend

Meeting at Crystal Lake Nature Center - 7:00pm

Great Backyard Bird Count

Behind the scenes tour of Brookfield Zoo Aviaries--to be announced

D. Crane *

N. Schietzelt *

IAS **

N. Schietzelt **

see next issue

N. Schietzelt

Sunday

Saturday

Sat. - Sun.

Thursday

Fri.- Mon.

?

* See inside this issue for details. ** Contact information inside this issue on “Contacts” page.