TWiB Notes: Rare raven, a steely plan, and a friendly Snowy Owl

Plus, opt outside this year rather than participating in a frenzy.

A Common Raven (not the one seen flying at Park 566 recently).

A Common Raven sighting in these parts is a very, very uncommon thing. Demond McDonald was birding Park 566 on the Southeast Side on November 11 when he found a Common Raven soaring along with another birder. It likely was the first raven sighting in the Chicago limits in decades. Same for all of surrounding Cook County.

In some ways, it is entirely surprising. Ravens breed just north of here, on the cusp of the North Woods of Wisconsin and Michigan. There have been increasing numbers of sightings in southwest Michigan, and the birds are now regular as far south as Saugatuck-Douglas.

Then there were a handful of sightings from the Indiana Dunes in the last five years, the latest being in May of 2023. On the other side of the lake, there were sightings in 2023 and 2024 in southeast Wisconsin, one from Waukesha County and another from Kenosha County.

Ravens were once part of our local avifauna, and it’s possible we’ll be seeing more of these intelligent, adaptable birds in the years to come.

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Steely plan

A Horned Grebe swims in Lake Michigan waters near Park 566 and the South Works site.

Speaking of Park 566, a plan to place a quantum computing campus nearby at the old U.S. Steel South Works site has cleared a hurdle despite concerns from conservation groups. Bird Friendly Chicago, a coalition of local birding organizations, has requested that the development take enhanced bird protections to limit building collisions.

By the way, you may be wondering why Park 566 is just a number and doesn’t have a name. It’s an old industrial site now owned by the Park District. People are allowed to bird there, but otherwise it’s fairly inaccessible land with little management. Some 256 species have been observed near the South Works site.

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A ‘friendly’ Snowy Owl

mprnews

A post shared by @mprnews

Usually Snowy Owls are seen in Minnesota at places like the MSP Airport. But here’s one that caught an early-season ride on a freighter in Lake Superior as it approached Two Harbors, Minn. Migrating birds find the big boats a convenient place to alight and take a break on their journeys. And why not? They’re essentially floating islands surrounded by hundreds of square miles of water.

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Opt outside

A Great Blue Heron rookery at Kensington Metro Park.

Black Friday has expanded so much in recent years (Black Friday sales began as early as two weeks ago) that the tradition almost seems quaint. I was an early adopter of REI’s #optoutside campaign going back some years. The idea is to go outside on the day after U.S. Thanksgiving rather than focusing on the traditional frenzy of mass consumerism. Last year, it was a walk at Kensington Metro Park near Milford, Mich., for me. Where will it be for you this year?

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