LISLE ARBORETUM CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT
2007 Count Summary

The 59th Lisle-Arboretum Christmas Bird Count was held on Sunday, 16 December 2007. Just prior to count day, the circle received a covering of three to six inches of snow. Some parties found forest preserve entrances still gated in the morning, and walking our territories was a little more difficult with the snow covering. The wind was blowing moderately hard (13 to 23 mph) all day, mostly out of the northwest, and temperatures dropped from 28 degrees at dawn to 19 degrees at sunset. Most of the still water was frozen, but moving water remained open. Skies were clear both in the morning and the afternoon.

The 87 field observers and 18 feeder watchers amassed a list of 78 species with an additional four species observed during count week (the three days prior to and the three days after count day). I believe that this is the first time the Lisle-Arboretum count has had more than 100 participants.

GOOD BIRDS

There were 19 "code 4" species located in the circle. This number does not include the two Northern Shovelers, the 46 Ring-necked Ducks, the Pied-billed Grebe, and the Northern Saw-whet Owl that were found. All of these species were considered to be Code 4 in past years, but this year were "demoted" to Code 3, as they now occur fairly regularly on the count.

  • Two Cackling Geese were found in Area 6 of the circle. I'm surmising that this species will be found in most years, now that we are paying attention and are looking for it, but for the moment these geese will remain Code 4.
  • A whopping 22 Northern Pintail were tallied. One of these was found by Christine Williamson's party at the Downers Grove sewage treatment plant. Another 20 were located at Whalon Lake Forest Preserve by Bob Fisher's group, and the remaining individual was found out in Area 6. We've recorded Northern Pintails on the count in five of the last 15 years.
  • The counters at Whalon Lake also spotted four Canvasbacks, and another was at Hidden Lake Forest Preserve, bringing the total to five. We had Canvasbacks on the count last year, too, but then you have to go back to 1986 for the last time they were tallied.
  • The ducks at Whalon Lake also included three Redheads. This species occurs infrequently; the last two years in which we found them in the circle were 2001 and 1993.
  • The lone Bufflehead for the count was among the waterfowl found in Area 6 of the circle. One to five birds of this species have been counted on six of the last 15 years.
  • Rounding out the Code 4 waterfowl was one Ruddy Duck, found at the Lemont Quarries in Area 6. Both last year and this year there has been a single bird of this species on the count.
  • Two Bald Eagles were seen: an immature flying near Lyman Woods in Downers Grove, and an adult at Greene Valley Forest Preserve.
  • One Killdeer was seen along the DuPage River in Area 1. We have found one Killdeer last year, too, but you have to go back to 1998 for the next most recent year when we had this species on the count.
  • The two Eurasian Collared-Doves marked the fourth straight year we've had this introduced species. The Tiffins again had one at their feeders in Brookfield, and Bob Fisher's group in Area 2 located one Bolingbrook (where they are regular and probably in greater numbers).
  • Like last year, the Monk Parakeet total reached 10. Area 5 recorded seven of these, and three more were added in Area 3 where they were recorded for the first time.
  • A Short-eared Owl was seen at dawn near Lemont by Greg Neise and Randy Shonkwiler. This is just the 11th year this species has been counted, with three of those years happening in the last 15.
  • We tied the high count for Savannah Sparrows with three seen on count day. Leo Miller, Dave Wagner, and Julie Kelso watched one at Hidden Lake Forest Preserve, and two more were found at Whalon Lake Forest Preserve by Bob Fisher and Dick Young. This is only the third time this species has been recorded: this year, last year, and the year before.
  • Bob Fisher and Dick Young also found one Lincoln's Sparrow at Whalon Lake. Single Lincoln's Sparrows have been located on four of the last 15 counts, but then you have to go back to 1976 for the next most recent tally.
  • The top of the landfill at Greene Valley Forest Preserve produced two Lapland Longspurs, where Bob Fisher, Urs Geiser, and Dick Young spotted them. Longspurs and Snow Buntings had been at this location since October. Lapland Longspurs, like Snow Buntings, occurs on about one in every four counts.
  • Bob Fisher, Urs Geiser, Vicky Srooczynski, and Dick Young also tallied 18 Snow Buntings on the hill at Greene Valley.
  • The three Common Redpolls found in Area 6 marked the first time since 1999 that we recorded this species. We had hoped that more would be at the feeders during this invasion year, but apparently a lot of the birds that made it to our area kept going.

HIGH COUNTS

We set or tied five record high counts this year:

  • The five Canvasbacks broke the old record of two that was originally set in 1965 and tied last year.
  • We broke the old record of 118 Red-tailed Hawks from 1997 with our tally of 136 this year.
  • The amazing tally of 86 Eastern Bluebirds was helped significantly by the 74 that Roger Rzepka located in the morning in the Palos area. The old record was 74 birds seen in 2005. Eastern Bluebird was formally a Code 4 species. It made its first appearance on the Lisle count in 1976, then again in 1990. But since 1993 it has been recorded every single year except for 1996.
  • The 10 Monk Parakeets tied record set just last year.
  • The three Savannah Sparrows tied the record set in 2005.

LOW NUMBERS

We found just one Common Merganser this year. Typically we average more than 20 of this species in any given year.

American Kestrel totals were also quite low, with only eight counted. A more typical count is 26 or 27, so this year we found less than a third than we normally do. This is only the second time since 1983 that the kestrel tally was in single digits.

We found only two Tufted Titmice. This species is getting harder to find in the circle. We had 48 in 2001, but in the last four years there have been less than 10. The last time we recorded as few as two was 1988.

The 10 Brown Creepers was less than half the recent average of 22 birds a year. Every seven to 10 years it seems we get a count with low numbers of this species.

MISSES

Every year we miss a number of "Code 3" species. This year there were 11 of these. As we promote more species from Code 4 to Code 3, this number might increase. This year's list of Code 3 misses includes Snow Goose, Wood Duck, American Wigeon, Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Pheasant, Red-shouldered Hawk, Wilson's Snipe, Long-eared Owl, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Horned Lark, and Brown-headed Cowbird.

"Code 2" misses were Red-headed Woodpecker and Common Grackle.

THE TALLY

Here are the grand totals. For a breakdown by area, see the 2007 Count Totals sheet (this is a pdf document).

Below, for those Code 1 to Code 3 species whose total is greater than 25% above the average count for the last 15 years, I have noted "(high)" after the total. For those where the count was at least 25% below the average I've noted "(low)". Record high counts are also marked. The "Code 4" species appear in all-capitals.

 

Snow Goose
0
(low)
CACKLING GOOSE
2
-
Canada Goose
9709
-
Mute Swan
2
(low)
Wood Duck
cw
(low)
Gadwall
123
-
American Wigeon
0
(low)
American Black Duck
4
(low)
Mallard
1416
(low)
Northern Shoveler
2
-
NORTHERN PINTAIL
22
-
Green-winged Teal
7
(low)
CANVASBACK
5
(RECORD HIGH)
Ring-necked Duck
46
-
Lesser Scaup
0
(low)
BUFFLEHEAD
1
-
Common Goldeneye
6
-
Common Merganser
1
(low)
RUDDY DUCK
1
-
Ring-necked Pheasant
0
(low)
Pied-billed Grebe
1
-
DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT
cw
-
Great Blue Heron
20
-
BALD EAGLE
2
-
Northern Harrier
1
-
Sharp-shinned Hawk
14
(high)
Cooper's Hawk
21
(high)
Red-shouldered Hawk
0
(low)
Red-tailed Hawk
136
(RECORD HIGH)
Rough-legged Hawk
3
(high)
American Kestrel
8
(low)
American Coot
15
(high)
SANDHILL CRANE
cw
-
KILLDEER
1
-
Wilson's Snipe
0
(low)
BONAPARTE'S GULL
cw
-
Ring-billed Gull
282
(low)
Herring Gull
107
(low)
Rock Pigeon
2537
(high)
EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE
2
-
Mourning Dove
884
(high)
MONK PARAKEET
10
(RECORD HIGH)
Eastern Screech-Owl
23
-
Great Horned Owl
10
(low)
Long-eared Owl
0
(low)
SHORT-EARED OWL
1
-
Northern Saw-whet Owl
1
-
Belted Kingfisher
10
-
Red-headed Woodpecker
0
(low)
Red-bellied Woodpecker
124
-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
0
(low)
Downy Woodpecker
207
-
Hairy Woodpecker
58
(high)
Northern Flicker (yellow-shafted)
19
(low)
Northern Shrike
4
(high)
Blue Jay
147
(low)
American Crow
77
(low)
Horned Lark
0
(low)
Black-capped Chickadee
402
(low)
Tufted Titmouse
2
(low)
Red-breasted Nuthatch
39
(high)
White-breasted Nuthatch
145
-
Brown Creeper
10
(low)
Carolina Wren
14
(high)
Winter Wren
4
(high)
Golden-crowned Kinglet
10
-
Eastern Bluebird
82
(RECORD HIGH)
Hermit Thrush
2
(low)
American Robin
466
(low)
European Starling
6115
(high)
Cedar Waxwing
685
(high)
Yellow-rumped Warbler
24
-
American Tree Sparrow
1138
(high)
SAVANNAH SPARROW
3
(RECORD HIGH)
Fox Sparrow
17
(high)
Song Sparrow
68
-
LINCOLN'S SPARROW
1
-
Swamp Sparrow
29
-
White-throated Sparrow
143
-
White-crowned Sparrow
3
(low)
Dark-eyed Junco
1029
-
LAPLAND LONGSPUR
2
-
SNOW BUNTING
19
-
Northern Cardinal
483
-
Red-winged Blackbird
20
(low)
Common Grackle
0
(low)
Brown-headed Cowbird
0
(low)
Purple Finch
10
-
House Finch
117
-
COMMON REDPOLL
3
-
Pine Siskin
192
(high)
American Goldfinch
372
-
House Sparrow
1022
-
-
-
-
Total Species
78
-
Total Individuals
28,767
-

 

THANKS, AND SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

Thanks very much to all the field observers and feeder counters who made this a record-setting CBC this year!

Mark your calendars for 14 December 2008: the 60th Lisle-Arboretum Christmas Bird Count.


Last modified on 18 January 2016
by Geoffrey A. Williamson