Solitaire at Garden of the Gods is quite a find for Illinois
Solitaire at Garden of the Gods is quite a find for Illinois
Carvana project includes some bird mitigations, clears key hurdle in Skokie
Much of Illinois’ geologic history begins and ends with the glaciers. After all, the majority of the state was under thick sheets of ice as recently as 10,000 years ago. All that ice bulldozed the land and left us with the pancake-flat terrain that we know well today.
That isn’t the case in the far southern reaches of the state, though. Glaciers never touched places like Saline County and the Shawnee National Forest, where the land remains rugged and folded from a series of violent faulting events eons ago, 300 million years ago or so.
On the southern end of one of those folds, the land tilts upward and a protuberance of Caseyville sandstone appears. It’s a familiar sight if you have seen Illinois’ state quarter or ads for the Enjoy Illinois tourism campaign. The landform is better known as Garden of the Gods.
Chicago birder Stephanie Beilke was visiting Garden of the Gods on the last day of 2021. She and her partner, Mick, decided to take a New Year’s road trip and go for a hike at the site for the first time.
“The primary goal wasn’t necessarily birding, but I knew I would of course be birding while I was there,” Beilke says. “I guess you could say disguising birding trips as hiking trips is a way to fool your non-birding partner into going to cool places where you can also go birding!”
Beilke came across mixed flocks of birds like chickadees, kinglets and titmice, but could not have predicted what she’d soon find at Garden of the Gods.
Every year a few Townsend’s Solitaires make their way east from their Rocky Mountain haunts (in fact there was one seen in McHenry County this past weekend). They feast on juniper berries in wintertime. It just so happens that the fissures and joints of Illinois’ sandstone outcrops are perfect for junipers. One can hope a few more of these nifty thrushes make their way east.
Beilke says she didn’t really research what birds to expect in southern Illinois in winter (another highlight: loads of waterfowl at Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge). Needless to say, recording a lifer at one of the state’s most idyllic locales was a special experience.
“I hope to be able to visit again in the spring or summer,” Beilke says. “I have heard that spring migration in southern Illinois can be pretty awesome.”
Carvana project includes some bird mitigations, clears key hurdle in Skokie
As you may recall from earlier posts, Carvana is a car dealer with a unique business model. The idea is that customers may purchase a car online and go to a glass tower where their car is retrieved from a “vending machine.” The problem is these brightly lit glass towers aren’t so great for birds, especially when they are next to a Forest Preserve (Harms Woods) that also happens to be a State Nature Preserve. All that transparent glass often results in birds flying into windows.
The planned Carvana tower in Skokie has drawn opposition from area residents including birders from throughout the Chicago region and beyond. Bird advocates had requested modifications to ensure that glass is bird-friendly that lights are turned off during migration.
Prior to last week’s meeting of the Skokie Plan Commission, American Bird Conservancy and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources wrote letters expressing concerns about the environmental impacts of the project. Chicago Audubon Society posted an action alert. Additionally, new information has emerged about Carvana’s business model and how it conducts its sales. Some describe it as a Ponzi scheme, and the Wall Street Journal has reported that it has come under scrutiny from regulators in other states.
Carvana presented a revised plan at Thursday’s night’s Commission meeting. All but one Skokie commissioner voted in favor of Carvana’s modified site plan on Thursday night. Lighting will only be dimmed, and only on three sides of the building. Bird-friendly glass will only go up to a height of 54 feet.
Annette Prince of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors called the proposed mitigations “woefully inadequate,” according to WTTW’s Patty Wetli. Others including the American Bird Conservancy supported Prince’s comments at the meeting.
The next step in the process is Skokie’s trustees meeting, which takes place Jan. 18.
Christmas Bird Count season comes to a close
On Dec. 29, I rose in the pre-dawn hours to make the drive to Hobart, Ind., where I joined Ken Wysocki for the Dunes West Christmas Bird Count. I’ve participated in the count previously, but along Lake Michigan in the Miller neighborhood of Gary. This time, we were much farther inland at some of Wysocki’s usual birding spots, including his very own back yard. We drove the county back roads looking for anything we could see. One of the neater finds was a group of White-crowned Sparrows, which Wysocki mentions in this piece that appeared in the Chesterton Tribune.
Among the highlights for me were two Red-shouldered Hawks—we just don’t see them much on the Illinois side of Chicagoland (or at least I don’t).
But as usual the thrill of the search was the highlight, as we made our way through towns like Lake Station and Wheeler and ended up with approximately 40 species.
TWiB Notes
It’s been a great year for Snowy Owls in the Lower 48, and above is further evidence of that, from the nation’s capital……Jerry Liguori was one of the nation’s noted hawkwatchers and his recent passing resulted in an array of tributes from the many people who counted him as a friend and mentor….The wandering Steller’s Sea Eagle, a bird of east Asia, that’s been lingering in the United States for many months, was still being seen in Maine as of yesterday….Lisa Maier found a massive group of 250 Common Redpolls on Saturday at Hickory Grove Riverfront in McHenry County. It’s been a good year for redpolls in Chicagoland.
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