CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- One highlight of the Chicago area Christmas-New Year bird count: owls.
The Audubon Society and birders do bird counts every year at this time, from the South Side of Chicago north to Zion.
Naturalist Joel Greenberg has been counting birds in this area for more than three decades.
One of his favorites this year is the barred owl.
"You usually don't find them. But we went to a spot where we've had them in the past. And what was interesting was, we're playing the recording and the bird says, basically, 'Who cooks for you all? Who cooks for you all?'"
No hooting.
"And never - it didn't say a hoot. There was no response, so we gave up in defeat and walked down this little road.
"And by golly, we flushed one out of a fir tree and it landed briefly."
The first bird seen in 2020 was a screech owl. A highlight from Christmas Day was the spotting of a long-eared owl on the Chicago lakefront, Greenberg said.
"Those are pretty cool."
He says the warmer weather on Christmas and New Year's Day made the bird count more difficult because birds weren't concentrated in the usual areas birders expect to find them on the usually frigid winter bird-count days. In other words, the birds were out and about and not hunkered down.
"We're blessed here in the Chicago region with every county having a forest preserve district or conservation district," he said. "But the areas around them are a little less -- or a lot less -- conducive to supporting wildlife."
And those area are shrinking every year.