Annual Winter Bird Count Makes Rare Find For This Time Of Year
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Birders out yesterday for Chicago's Christmas lakefront bird count documented a few unusual sightings.
A double-crested cormorant was spotted near Navy Pier, sitting on the ice next to a patch of open water.
"Which is a bird that's abundant in summer in the Chicago area, but it's very rare in winter. Almost all of them go much further south in winter," said Josh Engel, a research assistant at the Field Museum.
Engel has been taking part in the Christmas lakefront bird count since 1995 - when he was 13.
He says the cormorant sighting was exciting.
"They're fish-eaters so they need to have some open water where they can swim and dive under the water to catch fish," he said. "Double-crested cormorants have in recent years became a little less unusual in winter, probably because we've had warmer winters. But we were surprised to see one yesterday, when it's been such a cold, cold winter."
Engel says the birders also saw four snowy owls - three of them way out on ice in the lake - most likely, he says, where they'd been hunting ducks.
