Fall Snowy Owls at Montrose are usually a harbinger of more to come over the winter, so when one showed up in the Dunes in November 2023, some of us thought this might be a flight year for them. A check of eBird shows that, as of January 1, 2024, not another has been seen at Montrose, in Chicago, or anywhere in Illinois for that matter. The November bird was a one off fluke and not part of a hoped for larger movement into the Midwest. We’ll have to spend our winter birding time looking for gulls or Red Crossbills, which are irrupting into Illinois.