Late summer birds in Illinois

As our summer sojourn in NE Illinois drew to a close, we enjoyed two weeks of nearly perfect weather. The cool nights permitted us to sleep with the windows open, and days were fair with high temperatures in the mid 70s F ( ~24 C).

Almost every morning we got out to visit local parks and preserves, especially Nelson Lake/Dick Young Marsh  Forest Preserve in nearby Batavia.  The entry path begins at this old silo:



The path leads to a platform which overlooks the lake:



A Mute Swan swam along the opposite shore:



A Red-tailed hawk wheeled overhead:



A migrating Broad-winged Hawk passed high in the sky:



Black-capped Chickadees scolded from the treetops:



A Chestnut-sided Warbler unexpectedly lingered for several photos:







Bumblebees gathered pollen:



A Nashville Warbler foraged for insects in a daisy patch:





Tennessee Warblers were hard to follow as they weaved through the foliage:





Other migrants passing through included a Swainson's Thrush,...



...flocks of Cedar Waxwings, such as these posted next to the observation deck,...



...and this handsome immature waxwing:



The arrival of Yellow-rumped Warblers from the north is a sign the warbler migration has passed its peak, and we can therefore expect that back home in Florida the best is yet to come:



Resident male Eastern Goldfinches were trading their brilliant yellow for somber winter garb:



Late breeders, the goldfinches were still feeding their fledglings:



At Lippold Park across the Fox River from our home, the small boardwalk provided an excellent vantage point for warbler-watching,...



...as a family of Wood Ducks in eclipse plumage dabbled in the duckweed-coated pond:



This Blackburnian Warbler perched next to the pond, ...



...followed by a somewhat similar Black-throated Green Warbler:



A Ruby-throated Humnmingbird sipped nectar from the flower of a pond-side Pickerelweed:



A pair of Northern Flickers (the male has the mustache) acted as if it were six months earlier. Perhaps the autumnal equinox triggered a "second spring:"



Back home in Florida, the uniform white FENCES pierced the pre-dawn darkness along the 196th Avenue Canal:



On the still waters of the canal, the lily pads seemed to float in the air amid the REFLECTIONS of the clouds: