Bird Counts

Viewing conditions were tough this fall – blue dome days seemingly dominated! So we sent an RFP to find the best available technology for spotting and IDing those occasional specks in the blue. Our budget was small, though...passing the hat for funding money raised just $7.86. Fourteen proposals were received. After careful review, the contract went to Katherine H (her state-of- the-art tech solution is shown above); the review committee did note that $6.00 for cardboard seemed a bit high, plus larger type was warranted for the species illustrations used in the ID guide photos.

What did we see/count with this revolutionary tech...not much! 2024 set an all time low Count for the Hill – yearly bird count totals are HERE. Unsurprisingly, no new species high counts were set In this our 19th year of the GVHW, but 5 all time lows were set: N. Harrier (44% of their LTA), Sharp-shinned Hawk (1/3 the LTA), Cooper’s Hawk (5% of the LTA!), Broad-winged Hawk (2% of their LTA) and Merlin (just over 1/3 their LTA) . Though not a record low, even TVs were less abundant than ‘normal’, almost 50% below their LTA. One positive: Our blue dome finder technology worked – we tied our all time low for unknown raptors!

How bad was it? 650+ raptors below our previous all time low set in 2006! Excluding the variable year to year BW numbers, 2024’s 1.88 raptors/hr rate is just 40% of the 19 year average rate of 4.76/hr! Did the weather, and the persistent ‘blue dome’, play a role in 2024’s lack of birds? 40% of our time on the hill in 2024 was under a blue dome; the blue dome plus easterly winds (8% of hill hours) produced just 31 raptors! Blue dome conditions with more friendly westerly winds, did not exhibit the same dramatic lack of birds. Ignoring wind direction, a blue dome situation represented 38% of our season; during those periods, we counted 35% of our raptors. Looking at the numbers, the easterly wind dominance is most closely connected with our poor count – 201 hrs of easterly winds yielded just 209 raptors; the 386 hours w/o an easterly component produced a count of 919 raptors. But there’s another angle to the blue dome effect – it’s harder to find/see those specks. And on a global scale, the cloudless sky – blue dome condition may be increasing, where we hawkwatch, for as yet undetermined reasons!

Some general observations:

• Monarchs were seen in small numbers well into November; we had the expected dragonfly swarm migration days – Green Darners and Black Saddlebags, primarily.
• Our faithful companions were back; Horned Larks, Am. Pipits (1st on 9/7), Lapland Longspurs (1st on 10/1) and Snow Buntings (1st on 11/6); the longspurs and buntings as usual kept us company on a daily basis in good numbers later in the season. 300+ Bobolinks put on quite a show, as they headed S on 9/20.
•  We recorded our last Chimney Swift, on 10/12, 7 days earlier than last year.
• Only 4,760 Sandies flew over during the season, though on a few mid November days we saw large numbers (but uncountable) in the far distance to the east. No Whooping Cranes this year – they’re not ‘annual’ yet! Except for Ichabod, one of Frontier Air’s ‘mascot’ planes.
• On 11/9 a very late swallow passed by, likely a Tree.
• Inclement weather caused count cancellations on just 2 days (9/22 and 11/5); on 11/21 Jeff S. got ‘snowed out’ after 1⁄2 hr, so our low Count was certainly not lack of time on the hilltop!

It keeps us coming back...the birds, the friendships, but perhaps most of all, the genuine feeling of peaceful detachment from that busy world 200 feet below us. See you in 2025! Let’s put our eyes on the sky once again!

One or more of our dedicated volunteer counters/observers were on the hill for 587 hours during 2024; thanks especially to the indefatigable Jeff Smith, who logged 527 hours – up almost daily, scanning, counting, then logging/entering data in real time, including eBird checklists of our non-raptor flybys. Not only that – Jeff captured some great shots of the raptors who did pass by. He was ably supported by the other counters and observers who weren’t able to put in quite as much time, but who all helped greatly in spotting and counting on many occasions. Our GV hawkwatching team registered an aggregated 1590 hours.

As always, thanks to our dedicated team of volunteers, the DuPage County Forest Preserve District, and Waste Management, for their support of our Count!