The great thing about Chicago’s weather is the drama. Of course standing on an icy corner in a howling gale waiting endlessly for a bus from the ZTA (“Zeno’s Transit Authority: We’re always almost there”), you might be pardoned for thinking “Drama, schmama, I’m moving to San Diego.”
We need to run all those names by slowly to get a feel for the significance of this. The three gulls, for example, range in rarity from the Franklin’s, a bird of the prairie potholes that shows up here every fall in small numbers, to the Sabine’s, a bird that nests around ponds and marshes along the shores of the Bering Sea. Most of the population winters off the coast of Peru, but once in a great while a Sabine’s gull wanders into the Great Lakes on its way south.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
We see red-throated loons on Lake Michigan almost every year, but the sightings are scattered and unpredictable. I have never seen the bird here. My lifer red-throated loons are from LA’s Venice Beach, where I found them numerous and very cooperative–they were fishing in the surf just a few yards offshore on a warm, sunny December day.
Sandhill cranes came through in numbers. There were reports from the Chicago Botanic Garden and elsewhere. I can add my own report of two flocks totaling about 80 birds that I saw heading south over California Avenue at Montrose on the afternoon of Sunday, November 3.
Dunlins still sometimes pass in such huge flocks that people mistake them for clouds of insects. There was a time when many species of shorebirds–sandpipers and plovers–passed through the mid latitudes in similar numbers. Market hunting that began in the late 19th century made the first major dent in their numbers. Now they are losing habitat. Long-distance migrants typically depend on a number of way stations along their routes from nesting ground to wintering area. They may occupy a tidal flat or a coastal marsh for only a few days, but take that link out of the chain of migration stops and the birds may not be able to complete their flight. Instead of arriving at their winter home tired and hungry but otherwise fit, they perish along the way. When we think about conservation, we need to recognize the many birds that require whole continents to live out the drama of their lives.
