Crops & Clips: Birds and a Japanese Garden

With rain threatening, Mary Lou and I decided to drive over to Fabyan Forest Preserve in nearby Geneva, Illinois. There we could park in the middle of the preserve and take short walks to see two target birds. A pair of Great Horned Owls are raising a single owlet near the parking lot, and a Yellow-throated Warbler had recently been reported in the Japanese garden.

The garden is a beautiful feature, open to the public on a limited basis and also provides a setting for small private functions such as weddings. A footbridge is reflected in one of the ponds: 





We started at the owl tree. Sure enough, both a parent and the owlet huddled in their "doorway." Since the nest is so accessible, its fame has spread among the general public and there are barriers and signs which keep visitors at a safe distance from the nest. My telephoto lens compensated for the distance, yet even though I was only one among the crowd, the adult looked surprised when I pointed my camera:



They relaxed and snuggled together for a nice portrait:



Despite intermittent sprinkles, we walked over to the garden. Almost immediately we heard the distinctive song of the Yellow-throated Warbler. At first all we could see were his undersides, but he briefly alighted on a lower branch to quickly catch and devour a caterpillar. I fired a burst of photos during the couple of seconds he was in plain sight:







This is one of my favorite warblers. Its bright yellow throat contrasts beautifully with a smart black and white body. Rather uncommon during migration here in Illinois, I have seen it at almost this same spot during three past years. It has also appeared during autumn migration in our local Florida wetlands several times. I saw this one last fall:



They seem to enjoy showing off their bright throat, as this one is doing (September, 2012):



Once satisfied with my views of the warbler, I enjoyed peeking through the shrubs at the Japanese Garden, taking photos at every angle. Looking over this fence, I felt I was seeing an oil landscape created by a Master Painter:



Indeed, I treated a portion of this image as an oil painting in Corel PaintShop PRO x8. Here is the crop before and after editing (click on images for more detailed views). The plantings and even the  placement of rocks are very artful.:

The skies were too gray for this week's sky shot, so I am showing one I took on April 25 at Nelson Lake, shortly after arriving in Illinois from Florida. The trees had not yet started to leaf out:


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Linking to Misty's  CAMERA CRITTERS,

Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,

Linking to GOOD FENCES by Tex (Theresa). 

Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy

Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James

Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni

Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart

Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) by NC Sue
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Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display

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