Kane County bird-watchers kick off new year with eyes to the skies

The new year started with hushed anticipation for a group of six bird enthusiasts, who stood in a small circle in the accumulating snow and pronounced their first sighting of 2014.

They then began a several hundred yard hike to the edge of Nelson Lake, west of Batavia, in an annual tradition organized by the Kane County Audubon Society, to see if they could trump what they had already seen early Wednesday morning. The New Year’s Day bird watching hike started seven or eight years ago, according to Rhonda Nelson, who led the group.

“We have done it where we’ve only seen two birds,” Nelson said. “And they were both crows.”

This year, the group was rewarded early when a rough-legged hawk cruised silently overhead, curiously watching the group, who all watched back.

“That’s a great bird,” Nelson said as she quickly turned to lead the now chattering group on the three-mile trail.

The group doubled in number when other veteran New Year’s Day bird-watch hikers caught up from the parking lot in time to see several cardinals, a few juncos, and several chickadees and sparrows in the first half a mile of the trail in the Nelson Lake/Dick Young Forest Preserve, west of Randall Road and south of Main Street.

“I thought it was a great way to start the year,” said Wally Koch of Aurora. “I didn’t stay up too late last night, so I had enough energy to get up and hike.”