Blog
Winter on the Lakefront: Photographing Owls, Ducks and Gulls in Chicago
FIELD NOTES • WINTER
Winter on the Lakefront: Photographing Owls, Ducks and Gulls in Chicago
When the temperature drops, Chicago's lakefront empties of people — and fills with birds. The harbours and stretches of open water that sit quiet in summer become some of the most reliable bird photography in the city, as diving ducks, gulls and the occasional owl settle in for the season.
What winter brings
The stars of a Chicago winter are the diving ducks. Common goldeneyes, mergansers, scaup and buffleheads ride the harbour swells in tight rafts, diving in sequence and surfacing with the light in their eyes. Gulls gather wherever the water stays open — mostly ring-billed and herring gulls, with scarcer visitors mixed in for anyone patient enough to look through the flock.
And then there are the owls. In some winters a snowy owl takes up residence somewhere along the lakefront, and the whole city's birders know within the day. They are magnificent — and they are the birds this page will tell you least about. See 'Photographing owls honestly' below.
The light is the reward
Winter light in Chicago is low from the moment it arrives. The sun never climbs far, so the soft, angled light photographers chase at dawn in May can last for hours in January. Add a shoreline rimed with ice, breath fogging in the cold, and a duck's flash of colour against all that grey — winter is not the off-season. It is the honest season: fewer birds, fewer people, and nothing to hide behind.
Working in the cold
Batteries fade fast below freezing, so carry spares in an inside pocket and rotate them. When the session ends, seal the camera in a bag before bringing it indoors, so condensation forms on the bag rather than inside the lens. And dress for standing still, not for walking: bird photography in winter is mostly waiting, and the bird decides when the photograph happens.
Photographing owls honestly
Owls hunt to survive a season that gives them no margin. A bird that flushes at your approach has spent energy it cannot spare, and a photograph bought at that price is not worth having. So no exact owl locations are shared here, ever. If you find one, keep a long distance and let the bird forget you are there — and if its behaviour changes because of you, you are too close. Back away. The bird's welfare comes before the frame.
See winter's neighbours, all year round
The lakefront's winter visitors join a collection made in every season along this shore.