Winter Birding Ideas – The Kankakee Sands

Rough-legged Hawk

Rough-legged Hawk (click to see the larger version)

The Kankakee Sands is a complex of prairie and wetland habitat owned and managed by the Indiana chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Birding is excellent all year round. Summer is the season to see the grassland specialties like Henslow’s and Grasshopper Sparrows and Dickcissel, which are hard to miss and fill the air with their songs. Winter brings a different set of visitors, most notably birds of prey like Rough-legged Hawk, Northern Harrier, and Short-eared Owl (the owls are best seen at dusk). The main mammal claim to fame is a herd of about 70 American Bison. These iconic North American animals were introduced to the Sands in 2016 and play an important role in maintaining the integrity of the grasslands.

How to Bird The Kankakee Sands (and look for Bison)

The Kankakee Sands is about an hour and a half due south of Chicago off US41 in eastern Newton County, Indiana. Morocco is the nearest large town and lies about six miles to the south. When I bird the Sands, I drive slowly down county road 200W between county road 675N on the north and 225N on the south, looking and listening for wildlife. These roads don’t get a lot of traffic, especially in winter, and are generally safe to drive. County roads 500N and 400N east of US41 can also be productive for birds of prey in winter. Note that in winter the roads might not be drivable because of heavy snow.

American Bison

American Bison (click to see the larger version)

The Bison are best viewed from the Bison Viewing Area west of US41. To reach it, take 400W south from 400N for about half a mile. Look for a gravel road that goes east and take it to the parking lot. Walk up to the top of the rise and start scanning. The Bison are usually to the south, east, or northeast. You can usually see them with your eyes but binoculars make the experience more enjoyable. This is also an excellent place and vantage point to look for Rough-legged Hawks, Northern Harriers, and other winter birds of prey. I’ve included a link to my January 9, 2021 Kankakee Sands eBird checklist to give you an idea of what I saw on that visit.

To read more about The Nature Conservancy’s efforts at Kankakee Sands, go to this site – Efroymson Restoration at Kankakee Sands.

Kankakee Sands eBird Checklist
January 9, 2021

Black-legged Kittiwake, November 24, 2023

Black-legged Kittiwake

Black-legged Kittiwake flying by Montrose Point (click to see the larger version)

Black-legged Kittiwakes are rare but regular visitors to Lake Michigan, mainly in November. On November 24, a crisply marked juvenile flew north over Lake Michigan past Montrose Point. This is the second Black-legged Kittiwake seen at Montrose this fall, the first occurring on November 4.

If you’re at Montrose, or any other place along the Chicago lakefront this November and December, pay attention to the gulls that are flying by. Most will be Herring and Ring-billed, but you may get lucky and see a Black-legged Kittiwake. Almost all of the kittiwakes we see are juveniles, and juveniles have a distinctive appearance, like someone took a black magic marker and drew a neat “M” pattern on their wings. Try a Google image search for “juvenile Black-legged Kittiwake” to see examples of this plumage.

November Is Also For Owls

November is known for rare waterbirds but it’s also excellent for owls. Long-eared, Short-eared, Snowy, and Northern Saw-whet Owls have been reported at Montrose as of November 12. So, while you’re dreaming about alcids and waiting for a Black-legged Kittiwake to fly by, don’t forget to check the Dunes, woods, and shrubs for owls. Look for whitewash, listen for complaining songbirds, and scan open areas for round white lumps.

Ferruginous Hawk – An Unexpected First Record For Montrose, November 6, 2023

A list of the next ten or twenty new species for Montrose might include a buteo like a Broad-winged Hawk but probably not Ferruginous Hawk. On November 6 the improbable happened and a juvenile dark morph Ferruginous Hawk flew over Montrose Point. Dark morph buteos can be tricky to identify but diagnostic photos taken by an attentive birder confirmed the identification. The bird drifted down the beach and off to the west before disappearing, though it was seen and photographed the next day at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Ferruginous Hawk is a very rare visitor to Illinois from the western United States and southwestern Canada. This is the 351st species for Montrose, and yet we still don’t have a verified Broad-winged Hawk.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, October 14 &15, 2023

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (click to see the larger version)

October is an excellent month for rarities in Illinois. In keeping with this historical tendency, a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was discovered at Montrose on October 14 and refound on October 15. The bird moved around quite a bit and proved challenging to pin down, but spent enough time in the Dunes to delight the dozens of people who came to look for it. This sighting represents about the fifth Scissor-tailed Flycatcher record for Montrose. Also of note is that Montrose has 15 flycatcher species to its credit, maybe the highest total for any location in Illinois.

Limpkin (but not at Montrose), September 10, 2023

Limpkin

Limpkin at the Chicago Botanic Garden (click to see the larger version)

I finally caught up with the Chicago Botanic Garden Limpkin after missing it last weekend and probably walking right by it three weeks ago. The Botanic Garden bird first showed up nearby in the Skokie Lagoons but made its way to the swampy area at the south end of the Botanic Garden and stayed there, gorging on sandwich-sized clams (the spent clam shells are obvious on the bank where the bird has been hanging around). Limpkins are found in wetlands throughout the American tropics and are also common in Florida. The last few years have seen an explosion of them in the eastern United States outside their normal range, with records as far north as southern Canada and as far west as Colorado (from eBird). The Botanic Garden bird is the fourth or fifth Limpkin record for Illinois, the first coming just four years ago in 2019.

Limpkin is a strange, primeval looking bird. As a point of reference, it’s related to cranes and rails, so if you’re familiar with Sandhill Crane or American Coot you’re in the right group of birds. When I see one it always reminds me of a small crane. An interesting tidbit about Limpkin is that its distinctive wailing call is sometimes used as a sound effect in movies. As an example, the scene in “The Godfather: Part 2” where Fredo gets whacked has a Limpkin calling in the background. Obviously the call was added in since there aren’t any Limpkins at Lake Tahoe where the scene was filmed.

What are the chances a Limpkin will show up at Montrose? Pretty slim I’d say. Montrose doesn’t have any marsh or wetland habitat that would be attractive to a Limpkin, and all of the Illinois records have been in this type of habitat. More important than just habitat is that Illinois Limpkin locations have hosted numbers of large mollusks like snails and clams that the birds have been feeding on. Our only chance would be a flyby, so brush up on Limpkin flight identification.