ee ee Uae Us beOUNe Ge Ul tie Wak oly Ni 5) 
Christmas Census — 1956 
Tabulated by PAUL H. LoBIK 
IN THIS FourTH YEAR of tabulating the Christmas Bird Census for Illinois, 
we begin to discern what may be a trend. The total of all birds seen in our 
area is dropping steadily; 201,063 in 1954, 124,341 in 1955, and 73,008 in 
1956. Possibly the severity of this past winter is reflected in these figures; 
possibly not. The number of species has gone up slightly from 117 to 119. 
Another trend that may be due to climate (decreased moisture) is the in- 
crease in Western “strays” in our state. Western Meadowlarks have been 
spreading steadily from the Iowa border, and now are found each spring 
near Naperville, 35 miles west of Chicago. This census reports the Western 
and Eared Grebes; the Varied Thrush, Oregon Junco, Pink-Sided Junco, and 
Harris’s Sparrow — all regarded as natives of the Great Plains or farther 
western areas. 
Once again it was necessary to revise the content of the Census. We had 
no report from Princeton this year, and had to substitute Michigan City, an 
area we had omitted the previous year because we felt it was too far from 
our state borders. For the sake of continuity, we included two areas this 
year which were covered by only two observers, instead of the three that 
should be present. 
Some liberties were taken with the species reported from some areas. For 
instance, we dropped out all “Rock Doves” reported; the National Audubon 
Society does not recognize these escaped domestic pigeons because it is 
almost impossible to make sure that they are truly wild birds. Since it is 
virtually impossible to distinguish between Northern Horned Larks and 
Prairie Horned Larks in the field, we counted these species as one. This was 
done also with the Eastern and Western Meadowlarks, although we are quite 
sure that those from White Pines and Tri-Cities are the Western variety. 
A number of rarities turned up: the Pink-Sided Junco at the Arboretum; 
the Eastern Phoebe, Pileated Woodpecker, and Varied Thrush at Decatur; 
the Barrow’s Golden-Eye and Lincoln’s Sparrow at Evanston; the Western 
and Eared Grebes at Michigan City; the Red-Throated Loon at Northern 
Indiana; the Fox Sparrows at the Arboretum and Olney; the Harris’s 
Sparrow at Seaton; the Hutchin’s Goose and Northern Water Thrush at 
Springfield; and the Pine Grosbeaks at White Pines. Several newspapers 
carried stories this winter about the large numbers of Bald Eagles along 
the Mississippi, as reported by Seaton and Tri-Cities. 
This year we have space again to print the reports from several areas 
which do not appear in the table because of overlapping territory or lack of 
room. The counts from Glen Ellyn, Jasper-Pulaski, Willow Slough, and Clin- 
ton (Iowa) will be found at the end of this write-up. In the summaries 
immediately following, the code names correspond with the names at the top 
of the table on pages 8 and 9. 
CODE: Arboretum; Lisle, DuPage County; entire 800 acres of Morton 
Arboretum (same as last year), adding two other areas within the 15 mile 
diameter, the Saganashkee Slough and forest preserve to the north and Bemis 
