November 2001 Sketchbook from Illinois

By Andy Birch

Thanksgiving Weekend 2001

A trip to Illinois over the Thanksgiving break gave me an opportunity one morning to try and catch up with a few birds we don't normally get in California. Beforehand, I had been monitoring the internet for reports of northern finches and Snowy Owls that seemed to be having a bumper year back east. A week before my trip out, up to 3 White-winged Crossbills had settled at Waukegan Beach near Chicago and the birds were still there over Thanksgiving.

This is a species I had only ever seen once, briefly many years ago in my youth, so with a bit of maneuvering I managed to get out there one morning. After wandering around lost, unable to find a sniff of a pine tree, I did eventually find what looked like the right area, a small clump of pines next to the marina. I waited in the rain and with no sign, I started to disconsolately walk back to the car whilst reminiscing on the bad karma I've had in the past whilst trying to see rare Chicago birds. A Snowy Owl the previous year gave me the run around at Montrose. To this day, I still don't know how I never saw it - there aren't that many places for a Snowy Owl to hide there (it's a small marina for heaven's sake!) yet it was seen by everyone but me on both days I looked for it.

Anyway, I was heading back to the car, when I noticed a pine cone moving about wildly on the floor in front of me. I readjusted my eyes and the brown blob shaking pine cone came into focus; it was a bird and it had white flashes on the wing! I knew it was my quarry, a White-winged Crossbill. It performed superbly for a few minutes, feeding in the grass, hopping up to me even and tearing at fallen cones, oblivious to my presence. A large, streaky, chunky bird, quite round-looking as it hopped about.

A nearby search for Snow Buntings came out negative (today wasn't a complete reversal in my luck!) but several American Tree Sparrows gave their presence away with their calls and settled in a dark, thorney bush, showing off their black breast spots nicely.

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