Considering this is the first day of our little year, I did my best to get up early, but I was still late meeting up with Scrubb. Last night, we had decided to bird the Morton Arboretum, some miles west of Chicago, with an advertised morning bird walk given by the DuPage County Birding Club. This is a top-rated area for winter birds in our region. Not only was I hoping to add birds to our little year list, but with a guided tour, I was also hoping to add a few lifers — birds I had never seen, such as pine siskins or saw-whet owls — to my own personal life list. Well, I was disappointed in my selfish pursuit of lifers, but the little year list has grown slightly.

We added the following common species:

ROCK PIGEON
NORTHERN CARDINAL
CANADA GOOSE
AMERICAN CROW
RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER
EASTERN SCREECH-OWL (a lifer for Scrubb)
RED-TAILED HAWK (I missed it)
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE
AMERICAN GOLDFINCH (Scrubb missed it)
BLUE JAY

Our guide led us to a pine in which a saw-whet owl has been seen roosting, but unfortunately, our group couldn’t find him — though we did find fresh pellets and droppings. We spotted the blue jays after the walk was over, psychotically screaming their jay-jay calls at us at the top of their lungs.

We made one last push to Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, to see a great horned owl that’s been hanging around since November in the same tree by the flamingo pond. Did we see it? Nope. Maybe we can add a robin to the list tomorrow. Good night and good luck.