Winter 2000

[TEXT ARCHIVE WEB-PUBLISHED MARCH 2002.
ORIGINAL PRINT PUBLICATION DATE: WINTER 2000.]

Here's what's debuting this season
on nature's stage in Chicago Wilderness

by Jack MacRae

January

Long-Eared Owls
A man was recently arrested for killing and eating a long-eared owl. (This is not a true story.) His defense was that he was starving and only committed the crime to feed his family. A sympathetic judge acquitted the defendant, but questioned the man on what long-eared owls taste like. "Just like short-eared owls," the man replied.

Long-eared owls are hanging out in our area. These large dark owls spend their days sitting quietly in groves of conifers. They are the most nocturnal of our owls; rarely venturing out until well after dark. During the annual Christmas Bird Count, long-eared owls have been seen across the Chicago Wilderness, occasionally as solitary individuals, but usually in small groups. Late last winter, a veteran birder in DuPage County spotted a group of long-ears at Springbrook Prairie and spent several hours crawling on his belly to capture them on film. Now, that's what I call dedication.

Old Squaws
The winter sunrise over Lake Michigan is a beautiful thing to see. Our local great lake is also a wonderful place to see large, loose flocks of sea ducks, a type of waterfowl that spend their winters paddling about our area. One of our visiting sea ducks, the old squaw, holds the Guinness world record for deep diving by a flying bird. In the late 19th century, commercial fisherman working in southern Lake Michigan frequently snagged old squaws at depths of 180 feet below the surface. They are swimming this deep in search of fresh water crustaceans. There is danger under the water for these ducks, however. During a two-month period in 1946, one Lake Michigan fisherman tragically caught an astounding 27,000 old squaws in his nets!

A fantastic place to see sea ducks is along the North Shore. There is a beautiful lakeside park in Lake Bluff — appropriately named Sunrise Park — where you can sit with a thermos of strong coffee (I take mine black, please) and enjoy the spectacle of sea ducks through your binoculars.

The Lichen in Winter
A colleague of mine — a very bright, eloquent guy — once told me, "When I think of winter, I think of lichens." I thought this to be a rather odd thing to say, but as I admire this guy's work so much, I thought I should do some investigation into lichens in winter. He is correct! Lichens flourish from the melting snow and general damp conditions of our warm winter days. Winter is a great time for us to examine these beautiful and intricate growths on our rocks and trees. Lichens around here are a palette of grays, greens, oranges, and reds. They're found in many of our natural areas — on tree bark, rocks, and old wooden buildings.

My favorite lichens are the British Soldiers, tiny one-inch spikes with a small red top. They can be seen growing in parks and forest preserves, often on the roofs of old wooden structures, such as those wonderful Civilian Conservation Corps shelters that were built during the great depression.

February

Visiting Shrikes
Winter is the time for a few northern shrikes to visit the Chicago Wilderness. These marvelous birds spend the warmer months near the Arctic Circle, venturing into our area after the snow flies. They can be seen (rarely, mind you) perched at the top of bare, exposed trees. Look for a gray, stocky, robin-sized bird, with a black mask across their eyes. Crabtree Forest Preserve near Barrington and Thorn Creek Forest Preserve in Will County have had visits from northern shrike in recent years.

Both the northern shrike and the loggerhead shrike are predatory songbirds. They possess heavy hooked bills, but lack the strong talons of most birds of prey. To compensate for their inability to grasp their food, shrikes are known to impale their victims on sharp thorns. After the northern shrikes have left for their northern breeding grounds in the early spring, the loggerheads move in, looking for protected areas to raise their families.

Skating on Thin Ice
As a youth, my friends and I would play ice hockey on the frozen waters of Baker's Lake, on the southern edge of the Village of Barrington. After the games, we would skate for hours through the shallow marshy areas, jumping over muskrat dens and the ubiquitous, frozen, dried cattail leaves that dot the landscape. For my money, skating is a more enjoyable way to travel than cross-country skiing. Perhaps it's because of the speed (I can skate faster than I can ski) and there are certainly fewer hills on a frozen pond! So, if you like that invigorating combination of peaceful winter nature and speed, lace up your skates and head to out to a nearby frozen wetland. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

March

Tora! Tora! Tora!
I really don't want to sound uncaring or overly macho, but for those of us who like our nature "red in fang and tooth", the sight of a Cooper's hawk attacking a bird feeder is a pretty cool thing. Swooping in with a low approach, this medium-sized bird of prey slams into its victim feet first, sending an explosion of feathers into the air. Wow!

Cooper's hawks specialize in a diet of songbirds. With long tails and rather stubby wings, these accipiters are designed for maneuverability and quick aerial movements. They favor open woodlands for nesting sites and have benefited from the removal of buckthorn from our natural areas. A true success story is that Cooper's hawks have so increased in population that they have been removed from the endangered species list in Illinois. Way to go! The Old School Grove in Lake County, Illinois, with its stands of mature oaks along the Des Plaines River, provides perfect habitat for these feathered hunters.

Kingfishers
During the late winter, our resident male kingfishers are currently staking a claim to their parcel of real estate along local rivers and streams. They won't tolerate interlopers and will establish firm boundaries between their neighbors, which they guard with great zeal. Seasonally monogamous, male and females will pair up as soon as their province has been established. Once the spring thaw begins in earnest, home building will commence. The male initiates construction, with the female sitting close and offering words of encouragement. Soon both male and female will take turns excavating a long (several feet), narrow (several inches), horizontal tunnel into the soggy stream bank, using their strong beaks and feet to loosen the earth. A nest chamber to contain the eggs will be located at the end of the tunnel.

Canoeists in our area should have little difficulty in locating kingfishers and determining their home range. Watch as these stocky birds fly ahead to the far border of their territory, and then loop back overhead, clacking noisily. While there are no known pre-copulatory displays, after mating the male will celebrate by performing an acrobatic aerial display soaring close to the water.

The Otter Limits
Let's hope there are some Chicago Wilderness river otters in the family way, although this condition in river otters can be confusing. Males and females will mate in the late winter, but their offspring may not appear for nearly a year. It seems that implantation of the embryo into the uterus is delayed for several months. Re-mating between otter couples occurs very soon after giving birth, leading to another yearlong period of pregnancy.

The wonderful Kishwaukee River system in McHenry County contains suitable otter habitat; it has a bed of smooth cobblestones and gently sloping banks. An adult male river otter — a likely victim of an automobile accident — was found two years ago, along the north branch of the Kishwaukee between the towns of Harvard and Woodstock. The McHenry County Conservation District's fine team of restoration ecologists positively identified him.

More recently, wildlife biologists in Lake County found another dead river otter — a full-grown female — by the roadside near Grayslake. Only one other sighting of a river otter has been documented for Lake County in this century. Sad though these finds are, they may indicate a resurgence of otter populations in the northern region of Chicago Wilderness.