12 ILLINOIS AUDUBON BULA 
Report and Results 
Bf fies 75 pring C584 
by VERNON M. KLEEN 
Illinois Departent of Conservation 
The fourth Statewide Spring Bird. Count was conducted on. Saturday, 10 
May 1975—the latest it can ever be held. The late date greatly benefited 
the northern counties as evidenced by the 201 species identified in Cook 
County and 189 and 171 in Lake and Will counties respectively. It may 
be several years before a county surpasses 200 species again. 
Procedures governing the count have. now bacon established and 
are familiar to most compilers; therefore, few problems were encountered 
this year. Use of a standard checklist with computerized numbers next 
to each species was intended to make the compilation easier; however, 
loss of both time and money for the computer made it impossible to 
complete the report on schedule. 
The 1975 Count Day was a near-perfect day, weatherwise, for 
birding and for holding the count. It was a bright, mostly clear, sunny 
day with only light and variable winds throughout the state. The early 
morning temperatures ranged from the low-to-high 40’s in the north to 
the mid-to- high 50’s in the south; by afternoon, temperatures were in 
the high 70’s or low 80’s statewide. 
As in the past, several new records were established. It was the first 
time we had more than 1) 80 counties participating; 2) 200 species 
from just one county; 3) 100 species in over 40 counties; 4) 35 species 
from 90% or more of the participating counties; 5 ) 3000 hours spent in 
the field; 6) 1500 party-miles walked; and 7 ) 13 5000 party-miles driven. 
The total number of species properly identified was 248, just about 
average for the four years of records—but slightly above average when 
considering the recent A.O.U. name changes which were not in effect 
during the early counts. 
