For the birds

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HENNEPIN — On Dec. 16, while many Americans were counting the presents they still needed to buy for Christmas, John McKee was counting a different type of treasure.

McKee is a member of the Starved Rock Chapter of Illinois Audubon Society, and he and five other members were participating in the annual Christmas Bird Count at Hennepin-Hopper Lakes.

The Christmas Bird Count has been conducted by the National Audubon Society since 1900. It is an early-winter bird census that is conducted across the country, in which volunteers follow specified routes through a designated 15-mile diameter circle.

“There’s a very well defined circle, and you count all the birds that you can find in that circle on a specific day,” McKee said.

For many years, the local circle stretched between Princeton and Hennepin and was counted by members of the Bureau Valley Audubon Society, which no longer exists.

The circle was moved six years ago after the Hennepin-Hopper Lakes floodplain was established to include all of that region. McKee said it was better to get more wild areas included to discover what wild birds were out there.

On that December morning, the six birders divided into three teams to start counting. McKee and his partner were out before 5 a.m.

“We actually go to sites which we feel is good habitat for our resident owls and play recordings of owl calls in the dark, and hope we can get an owl to answer us,” he said.

That day, only one owl answered, an eastern screech owl.

One bird, and one species, down.

Throughout the day, the birders, driving and walking their territories, counted 66 species of birds, and a total count of 7,739 birds.

McKee said the number was lower than the all-time high of 80 species, but that the lower numbers came because the lake was frozen.

“This year it was frozen tighter than a drum,” he said. “Before, we had many waterfowl species, maybe 15-20, and this year only five or six.”

Despite the lower numbers, McKee said they found some very good birds.

One was the hermit thrush, which nests further north and winters further south.

“Every now and then you can find an overwintering one,” McKee said. “Why it chooses to not move further south nobody can tell us. We had one hermit thrush, and that’s a very rare find for Christmas bird counts.”

There was also a northern shrike, which is more a far northern bird that only comes down to this area in the winter.

“This happened to be a pretty good year for northern shrike,” McKee said. “To get one of those on a count is always a good find.”

The highlight of the count was the discovery of a vesper sparrow, which is a grassland bird that migrates south for the winter.

“We’ve been doing Christmas bird counts for 39 years, and we have never had a vesper sparrow on any of those counts before,” McKee said. “This was a really unique find.”

McKee said the information collected by the birders is valuable, although the method is not very scientific.

“It’s amateurs out there doing it, and it’s variable depending on weather conditions and the skill of the birders getting the data,” he said. “However, you can still, with that much time and that much data, get trends.”

The data collected by observers over the past century allow researchers, conservation biologists and interested individuals to study the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America. The data also show changes in migratory patterns, perhaps due to climate change, and changes in population.

McKee said the Starved Rock chapter has about 85 to 90 families, and they’re always looking for more members, particularly more birders. Anyone interested in more information can contact McKee at (815) 434-7797.

“It is troubling to me that we gain membership pretty well, but we’re not gaining birders,” he said.

McKee said there are many people who come to the programs and support the organization, but aren’t true birders.

“As far as getting out in the field and really learning birds, the younger generation, the people with kids, trying to pay the mortgage and raise the kids, just don’t seem to have the time and the interest,” he said.

McKee said birders are especially needed for an upcoming spring count.

“Bureau County and Putnam County are very, very underrepresented in the spring count,” he said. “There’s just not enough birders in those counties to really get out and do much.”

McKee said birders do what they do because they enjoy it.

“It’s like going fishing or anything else.,” he said. “You go out and see what you can find. It’s just a challenge to your skill and your ability to find things and your knowledge of what birds might be in what areas.”

McKee said it’s a great thing to do.

“It’s a little bit of a hobby and a sport, and it’s just a fun way to spend a day even though most people think we’re kind of nuts to go out on a cold winter day at 4 in the morning,” he said with a laugh.