Waukegan Beach: Local Birding Hotspot: Adam Sell

For bird watchers in the Chicago area, Waukegan Beach is a familiar name. Waukegan beach has been a favorite birding spot for ENSBC for decades.  Both new and veteran birders know Waukegan Beach as a migration hotspot in both fall and spring for warblers, shorebirds, and waterfowl.  In winter, the harbors and open water of Lake Michigan host overwintering specialty ducks, gulls, and if luck is on your side, a Snowy Owl.  Waukegan Beach is also renowned as a location for vagrants, with some highlights over the years including Gyrfalcon, Reddish Egret, and Arctic Tern. 

In his presentation, Adam Sell, a guide and tour manager for Chicago-based Red Hill Birding who has called Waukegan Beach his "local patch" for over 15 years, will attempt to distill this knowledge into a thoughtful and engaging presentation on how to make the most of your visit to the Waukegan Beach area. 

This talk is the second in our series about local birding hotspots, following last year’s presentation on Big Marsh in Calumet.

Saturday – April 8, 7:30 a.m.  Meet by the Coast Guard Station to look for ducks and loons, as well as early warblers, sparrows and thrushes.  Enter the south entrance of Gillsson from Sheridan Road and park on Middle Drive or Michigan Ave. A scope is recommended for the first part of the trip.  Leader:  Owen Woodhouse.

Considered by many the most mysterious birds on our planet, swifts are currently one of the most threatened avian groups.  Some species have long migratory routes, including the North American Black Swift and the Chimney Swift, who winter in South America. In her presentation, Renata Biancalana, ornithologist from Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, will talk about her field work and expeditions studying these and other switt species in different parts of Brazil, including the Amazon, and the results of her research.

John Bates, Field Museum Curator of Birds, will present on a January 2022 expedition by sailboat from the Falkland Islands to the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia Island, and back.  The trip was led by five female researchers to gather scientific samples and data on multiple penguin species, particularly Gentoos. Come learn about these captivating birds from Adeles and Chinstraps on the Antarctic Peninsula to Kings and Macronis on South Georgia, to Southern Rockhoppers and Magellanics on the Falklands as well as other south polar birds and mammals. The program will be on Zoom and will be recorded.

7:30 p.m. “What’s that bird?” Ask Merlin, the innovative bird identification app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  Just like magic, Merlin Bird ID will help  you solve the mystery.

Merlin Bird ID helps you identify the birds you see and hear.  Merlin is unlike any other bird app – it’s powered by eBird, the world’s largest database of bird sightings, sounds, and photos.

Merlin offers four fun ways to identify birds.  Answer a few questions, upload a photo, record a singing bird, or explore birds in a region.  Join Matthew Cvetas, eBirdData Reviewer and former president of both Illinois Ornithological Society and Illinois Young Birders, to learn more about how this app works, including a brief overview of its features, integration with your eBird account, and its bird ID capabilities. The program will be on Zoom and will be recorded.

The ENSBC annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) will be held on Monday, December 26, 2022. John Leonard, Compiler, will contact area leaders who will organize groups of field observers. We will hold a Zoom countdown as we did last year. Joel Greenberg will again coordinate the feeder counts, and sign-up sheets will also be available at Wild Birds Unlimited in Glenview.

 The CBC is the premier community science project, running now for 123 years. We send our data to a central repository at the National Audubon Society, and one can easily view historical trends at their website (https://www.audubon.org/conservation/where-have-all-birds-gone ).

For more information, contact Joel Greenberg,

joelgreenberg@gmail.com

Taylor Hains has had a life-long fascination with parrots, a pantropical family with almost 400 species.  He also developed a passion for genomics.  As a graduate student with the Committee on Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago, he is combining these interests.  He will talk about how genomics can help understand how New World parrots have diversified and be used as a tool to help conserve them into the future. o