14 TH Bb A UsDsU).B.O N® BU yl be bere 
Illinois Nesting Records — 1961 
Compiled by Milton D. Thompson, Assistant Director 
and Orvetta M. Robinson, Librarian, Illinois State Museum 
WE ARE INDEBTED to the 16 observers who helped us obtain nesting 
records from twelve counties in Illinois. Even with so few conscientious 
observers going two steps further to record and report their observations, 
the reports for the four years that we have been collecting and editing this 
data are giving a volume of information, enabling us to update our records. 
The coverage in this report includes only Richland County (Olney) 
from Southeastern Illinois; Pike, Morgan, Sangamon, Menard, and McLean 
Counties from Central Illinois; and Bureau, DuPage, Cook, Carroll, Jo- 
Daviess, and McHenry Counties from Northeastern Illinois. The number of 
reports by county and observer is as follows: 
No. of No. of 
County Reports Observer Reports 
McHenry 53 Hopkins, E. AT 
JoDaviess 42 Fiske 44 
Sangamon 37 Williams 29 
Bureau 20 Dyke 18 
Richland 19 Scherer 14 
DuPage 6 Goodmiller 11 
McLean 5 Carroll 9 
Menard, DuPage 4 Mostek 5 
Carroll 3 Peaslee 5 
Morgan 3 Smith 3 
Cook, DuPage 3 Lobik 3 
Pike i} Parmalee Ze 
DuPage i Fetter 1 
Sangamon 1 Coler 1 
Sangamon 1 Hopkins, L. S. 1 
DuPage ul Swink 1 
Special thanks and commendation are, of course due to Ellen Hopkins, 
Mrs. Kenneth Fiske, Mrs. Glenn Williams, Vinnie Dyke, Violet Scherer, 
Elda Goodmiller, and Mrs. William Carroll, Jr., for their many reports. 
This report covers 58 species of birds. Certain observations seem in 
order. Again the reports on birds of prey are dominated by Northern 
and especially Northeastern Illinois, and would indicate good nesting concen- 
trations of these birds in this area. However, it is almost certain that the 
rugged hill country of Southern Illinois would also show good nestings of 
predators if there were reports from that area. 
Also of special interest are the reports of Least Terns on the Mis- 
sissippi sandbars; Bell’s Vireo, Henslow’s Sparrow and colonies of Cliff 
Swallows in JoDaviess County; Blue-gray Gnatcatcher in McHenry County; 
and European Tree Sparrow in Morgan County. 
Some interesting gaps appear in the observations. The almost total 
absence of water birds, wading birds, and game birds and the scarcity of 
reports of prairie nesting species seem to indicate that we do most of our 
observing around home and in certain pleasant woodland habitats. Let us 
not forget that all ecological niches are inhabited. Nature abhors a vac- 
uum. Let us broaden the areas of our observations and increase our record- 
ing activities. 
