14 CIE eases De UsBrOAN ss be Uae hie telaiN 
THE CHRISTMAS BIRD CENSUS — 1970 
By Mrs. Harry C. Spitzer 
A record number, 36 reports, were submitted for inclusion in the annual 
census compilation. A change in format has enabled us to list all of them. 
A recurring remark in compilers’ comments was that the count “was 
not as good as in other years.” Note that 132 species are listed, as against 
140 in 1969. As to number of birds seen, one cannot fairly compare the 
totals, because so many more reports, observers and counties are included. 
One would have to check figures for any given county with those for 
previous years. 
Some of you break down your Bald Eagle figures into ‘adult’ and 
“immature.” We have summarized accordingly: Of 133 Bald Eagles reported, 
76 have no description, including one seen other than Count Day; 44 
are adult; 12 are immature; 1 is unidentified. 
The lack of winter finches has been well-publicized, but on the other 
hand, a Catbird and Hermit Thrush were seen in Champaign County 
for the first time in 30 years of census reports. Also, in the Chicago 
Lakefront count, 424 Mallards constitute a seven-year high. | 
A couple of questions came up this year regarding uncommon species, 
and again the book, “Distributional Checklist of Birds of Illinois,” by 
Smith & Parmalee (1955) was very helpful in resolving them. The IAS 
Bookshop carries this book (used to be 25c), and I believe every compiler 
should own one. 
In conclusion, to save time and space, we eliminated the names of 
observers (over 600) from the STATION DATA this year. We made some 
inquiries, and the consensus of opinion seemed to be that the names 
really do not matter much, except for reasons of nostalgia — wondering 
which of the old-timers are still around, counting Christmas birds. (Just 
in case you might bring up the point that names are published in 
AUDUBON FIELD NOTES, let us remind you that they charge a dollar 
per name!) We did include the name and address of each compiler, and if 
you have any questions about any particular report, we suggest you 
write directly to the person who submitted it. 
1776 Roger Avenue, Glenview, Illinois, 60025 
ft ft fl at 
Census Editor’s Note: Once again, we thank the compilers and the many 
participants who counted birds in all types of weather. This is the largest 
Illinois Christmas Census on record. More and more, preparation of the 
Census Report has become a cooperative effort; with 36 areas, there is 
just too much work to expect one volunteer tabulator or editor to do it all. 
When I edited my first Christmas Census in March 1951, we had only 
12 reports, largely from the Chicago area (three censuses were taken of 
the same territory — Morton Arboretum — on three different days). After 
about eight years, I began compiling a table of the results. When Mrs. 
Spitzer assembled her first table (the Census by then had become too 
much for me to handle alone), there were 21 areas. 
This year, we jumped from 28 stations reporting to 36. Some of these 
covered parts of Illinois that had not been counted in all of the winters 
before — such as the central and southern parts of our state. Other reports 
represented merely multiple activities of groups in the Chicago metro- 
