Winter is a sleepy time in your Lake County Forest Preserves.

Many songbirds have flown south. Snow drifts sand the edges off the landscape. But now is when Lake County’s three resident owl species warm up their voices for breeding season.

“As the mercury drops, owl courtship heats up,” said Education Site Specialist Jen Berlinghof.

Four more owl species are winter visitors. Let’s learn the hoots of all seven owls.

Forest Preserves Mentioned:

• Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve (LakeForest)
• Lyons Woods Forest Preserve(Waukegan)
• Old School Forest Preserve (Mettawa)
• Pine Dunes Forest Preserve (Antioch)
• Rollins Savanna Forest Preserve(Grayslake)
• Winter Sports Area at Lakewood Forest Preserve (Wauconda)

Selected Links and Sources:

• “As Snowy Owls Hang Out Near Montrose Bird Sanctuary, City Limits Access to Area,” Madison Savedra, Block Club Chicago
• Barred owl, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• “Chicago Park District Limits Access to Snowy Owls, Citing Safety Concerns. Here’s What to Know About the Arctic Visitors,” Patty Wetli, WTTW News
• Eastern screech owl, Cornell
• Every Acre Strong
• Forest Preserves calendar
• Great horned owl, Cornell
• Horizons subscriptions
• Long-eared owl, Cornell
• Macaulay Library, Cornell
• Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary, Chicago Park District
• Northern saw-whet owl, Cornell
• “Please Give a Hoot,” Chicago Park District
• Short-eared owl, Cornell
• Snowy owl, Cornell
• Solar-lit trails
• “‘Utterly unlike other birds’: The inscrutable brilliance of owls,” Shannon Henry Kleiber, To the Best of our Knowledge
• “What a Hoot: Listening for Owls,” Winter 2025 Horizons
• “What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds,” Jennifer Ackerman
• “What is an irruption?”, Project SNOWstorm

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If you like what the forest preserves do for you, please consider donating to the Preservation Foundation’s Every Acre Strong campaign for the Forest Preserves.

Your gift will help create a $20 million endowment to protect the forest preserves you love, ensuring every acre of habitat we restore remains ecologically healthy. Forever. Learn more and give at LCFPD.org/endowment.

Subscribe to Horizons at LCFPD.org/horizons.

Have questions or comments? Send them to [email protected].

This episode of Words of the Woods was written, hosted and produced by Brett Peto, environmental communications specialist at the Lake County Forest Preserves. Featuring research and expertise from Jen Berlinghof and Jennifer Ackerman.

We used the following recordings from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library:

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Other sound effects and music from Storyblocks. Audio editing and mixing by Brett Peto. Episode cover art photo © Justine Neslund.

Words of the Woods is a production of the Lake County Forest Preserves in Libertyville, Illinois.