There are a group of travelers who consider winter in Chicagoland a balmy break from their year-round residences. Every year, about right now, they fly into our city and settle in for a several-months-long vacation, anticipating our single-digit temperatures and welcoming our wind chill. Although this is the only season they visit Chicago, they, like many visitors, are attracted to the downtown area and also enjoy spending time in the surrounding suburbs. And like other visitors, they often arrive by the scores. Whole flocks of them.
They’re birds.
“Illinois is an ideal winter migratory destination for the junco, snowy owl, brown creeper, purple finch, red-breasted nuthatch, and common, hooded and red-breasted merganser ducks,” says Jerry Garden, expert birder and vice president of the Chicago Audubon Society, a chapter of the National Audubon Society.
“They come from the north — as far away as the Arctic Circle and the boreal forests of Canada, as well as upper Minnesota and the upper peninsula of Michigan — where winter conditions can frequently get as cold as 40 to 60 (degrees) below zero and seasonal snowfall can reach 10 to 20 feet.”
These avian travelers are simply doing what many birds do: heading south to warmer climes for the winter. Hard as it is to imagine, Illinois is their Florida.
The snowy owl, for instance, lives on the Arctic tundra and is able to handle temperatures as bitter as 50 degrees below zero. In winter, when the tundra snow gets so deep this large bird of prey can’t find food — such as lemmings and snowshoe hares — it migrates south for its next meal.
The owl arrives in Chicago in early December and usually leaves in March. Good news for bird watchers: You have a four-month window to see this spectacular animal. Bad news for area rodents: the snowy owl hunts nearly every night.
Flocks of common, hooded and red-breasted merganser ducks depart early to late fall from their home territories of northern Minnesota, the upper peninsula of Michigan and northern Wisconsin, driven by the instinct to head south. Their migration generally begins as cooler temperatures set in, with the last stragglers leaving, somehow, just before the lakes freeze over.
Nobody really knows what triggers migration. “It’s probably a genetic cue ingrained generations ago. And it’s definitely one of the many marvels of the bird world,” Garden says.
Whether you’re a beginning or experienced birder, Chicagoland is brimming with bird-watching opportunities for the well-bundled up. Dress warmly, grab some binoculars — and a field guide if you have one — and check out the following. Tours are free and require no preregistration unless noted.
Birding tours
Paul H. Douglas Nature Sanctuary (Wooded Island). Meet at the Darrow Bridge, just south of the Museum of Science and Industry (57th Street and Lake Shore Drive). 8 a.m. Saturdays and 7 a.m. Wednesdays through December. Chicago Audubon Society guide Doug Anderson, 773-493-7058.
Northwestern Landfill. Meet at Gilson Park, enter at main entrance at 700 Sheridan Rd., Wilmette. Stay right and follow road to parking lot closest to Lake Michigan. 9 a.m. Saturday. Illinois Audubon Society Lake/Cook Chapter guide Mike McNulty, 847-432-2209.
Indiana Dunes. Meet at Miller Beach parking lot, Lake Street, 2-3 miles east of Highway 12 off I-65 North, Miller Beach, Ind. 8:30 a.m. Sunday. Co-sponsored by Chicago Audubon Society and Chicago Ornithological Society. Stephen Lee, 708-485-8197. 9 a.m. Nov. 16. Illinois Audubon Society Lake/Cook Chapter guide Donna Motherway, 847-405-0443.
Crabtree Nature Center and Bakers Lake. Meet at Crabtree Nature Center exhibit building, Palatine Road 1 mile west of Barrington Road, Barrington. 8:30 a.m. Nov. 15. Includes 1.3-mile trail hike. Chicago Audubon Society guide. Doris Johanson, 708-299-3505.
Old School Forest Preserve. St. Mary’s Road 1 1/2 miles south of Illinois Highway 176, Libertyville. 8 to 10 a.m. Nov. 16. Meet at Trails parking lot. $2 Lake County residents, $3 non-residents. 847-948-7750.
Palos Area. Meet at The Little Red Schoolhouse, 9800 S. 104th Ave. (Willow Springs Road), one-half mile south of 95th Street, Willow Springs. 8 a.m. Nov. 23. DuPage Birding Club guide Urs Geiser, 630-515-1712. Check the Club hot line for other bird walks and last-minute changes, 630-406-8111.
North Park Village Nature Center. 5801 N. Pulaski Rd. Owl Prowl, 7 p.m. Nov. 21 and Dec. 12. Chicago Audubon Society guide Jerry Garden. Pre-registration required. 312-744-5472.
Lake Calumet Area. Meet at O’Brien Lock and Dam, 130th Street one-half mile east of I-94, just west of steel bridge over Calumet River. 8:30 a.m.-noon Dec. 13. Chicago Audubon Society guide Jim Landing, 312-996-3118.
