Letters

Saving Kane

Dear Editor,

First of all, I have been a subscriber to your magazine for almost five years, and I have learned a great deal about our local environment. It has also encouraged me to volunteer at the local forest preserves, grow native plants in my yard, and to go birdwatching.

I am very concerned about the issue of urban sprawl. I know from my own experience that in the Campton Township area of Kane County, where my relatives live, development is increasing at an alarming rate. I would like to know what you and other organizations across the Chicago region are doing to protect open space so that future generations can see the diversity of nature in their own backyards.

Luke Dahlberg
Lombard, IL

Editors’ Note: The Chicago Wilderness Green Infrastructure Vision identifies critical “resource protection zones” and supports smart growth strategies for people and nature. Learn more by visiting the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) website.

 

Who's that hawk?

I am terrible at hawk ID. Do you know what kind of hawk this is? He was in my backyard this afternoon. I think he was eating a squirrel. I definitely need help in this area. It seems like every book I have has entirely different drawings or photos for the same hawk.

Shari Gullo
Lake Zurich, IL

Response from Marianne Hahn, Thorn Creek Audubon: To start with, hawks and gulls are probably the two most difficult groups of birds to identify, because there is so much variation depending on age and differences between individuals. So don’t feel bad. If I took a photo of a thousand red-tailed hawks, each one would be different. It’s no wonder, then, that the field guide pictures look different. So how does one make an ID? Think about human beings and the phenomenal individual variation in the species, yet we have no difficulty telling humans from other primates. Once you learn the basic characteristics, it gets easier, but still can be very challenging.

Now to your bird. Size and shape are the first things to note, and while size is often difficult to assess, we have the conifer tree and the fence to make some comparisons. Your hawk is mid-sized — not as big as a red-tailed hawk, and not as small as an American kestrel. Shape-wise, it’s long and lean, more like the Green Bay Packers’ Donald Driver than like stocky A. J. Hawk. To me, that means it’s in the “lean, mean” accipiter group, rather than one of the buteos.

The accipiters seen in this area are the sharp-shinned hawk, Cooper’s hawk, and, rarely, the northern goshawk. The adult accipiters are blue-gray on the back and wings, but yours is brown, so it’s an immature accipiter.

Is it an immature goshawk? A goshawk would have a skinny head and neck, not a chunky one like this bird. The streaking on the underside would be heavy and even the undertail coverts would have brown spots. The coverts are pure white. So it’s either a Cooper’s or a “sharpie.”

A sharpie’s head is small relative to the size of the body; the Cooper’s is a “fathead.” Finally, at this time of the year [midwinter] in this area, the Cooper’s is more likely to be seen than a sharpie. So I’d bet $50 this is a Cooper’s.

Cooper’s eat mostly small birds, but if they can catch a squirrel, they will eat it. They are powerful, agile, fliers that like open woodlands. They have adapted quite nicely to suburban “woodlands” with birdfeeders making for easy hunting. A pair nested successfully last summer in a big old silver maple along Kedzie Avenue near a friend’s house in Olympia Fields, IL.

10th ANNIVERSARY ACCOLADE

Greetings,

From one regional nature magazine to another, congratulations on reaching this major milestone. We’re just hitting our seventh anniversary, and I know it is no mean juggling act to keep these babies going. But you’ve obviously hit a chord, nurtured a receptive audience, and built a dedicated community. Keep up the great work!

David Loeb
Publisher & Cofounder
BAY NATURE Magazine
Berkeley, CA

A BEER FOR A BARN OWL

Dear Editor,

In the Winter 2008 issue of Chicago WILDERNESS, Jack MacRae’s “Natural Events, Revealed” article had mentioned that in a past issue he had asked what were barn owls called before there were barns [and promised beer for an answer]. I thought this was a silly question but also one to think about. It was so intriguing that it prompted me to go online. Here is what I came up with: monkey-faced owl, ghost owl, church owl, death owl, hissing owl, hobgoblin or hobby owl, golden owl, silver owl, white owl, night owl, rat owl, scritch owl, screech owl, straw owl, barnyard owl, and delicate owl.

Thanks for the question and all the wonderful articles.

Heather Grotefend
Northlake, IL

To Jack MacRae,

I heard that barn owls have also been known as [gives same list as above]. However, since they were not officially described until 1769 by naturalist Giovanni Scopoli, they may have always been known as a barn owl since barns were around in 1769. Is this answer beer-worthy?

Gary Davis
Warrenville, IL