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Thursday, May 5, 2016

Crops & Clips: Flashback to May, 2013

Join me as I peek through the Retrospectroscope, a look at events three years ago during the month of May. As usual I will hope to find photos in my archives which meet the themes of SKY, REFLECTION, FENCE, MACRO and CRITTERS. Of course I am never at a loss finding shots of critters of all sorts, but mostly avian. This time I really had an easy time matching all of the memes. A nice thing about this exercise is that it prepares me for what I might find during May of 2016, God willing!

We began the month of May at our second home in northeastern Illinois.

Fair weather clouds over Nelson Lake in Batavia, Illinois on May 2, 2013

Nelson Lake SW prairie looking south HDR 20130502

The observation deck at the east side of Nelson Lake

Nelson Lake HDR East observation 20130502

A Canada Goose kept watch inside the flimsy fence around the roof of a silo:

Canada Goose on silo 20130502

Yellow Warbler:

Yellow Warbler 20130502

Eastern Meadowlark on budding oak sapling:

Eastern Meadowlark 20130502

Violets in bloom on May 6:

Violets 20130506

Leaves were emerging on the hickory trees:

Tree bud - Hickory? ID please 20130507

Wake Robin (Trillium sp) bud ready to burst on May 6:

Wake Robin - trillium 20130506

Fittingly, a gathering of American Robins:

American Robins 20130502

Rose-breasted Grosbeak, May 8:

Rose-breasted Grosbeak 20130508

Baltimore Oriole in song:

Baltimore Oriole 20130507

House Wren singing:

House Wren 20130508

Wild Blue Flox:

Wild Blue Phlox - Phlox divaricata 20130508

A visit to the Brookfield Zoo outside Chicago to see gorillas and wolves:

Gorilla 20130510

Wolf 2-20130510

Clay-colored Sparrow on May 13:

Clay-colored Sparrow1 20130513

Female Mallard and Spotted Sandpiper:

Spotted Sandpiper and Mallard 20130515

Our granddaughters collected dandelion seed heads...

Dandelions 4-20130516

...and blew on them, dispersing them like little parachutes:

Dandelions 6-20130516

Before leaving for Florida I snapped this view from the front door of our Illinois condo:

Illinois front yard 20130516

Construction of the 74 new dwelling units was well underway. Our dooryard prairie which had harbored so many birds, butterflies and flowers was now extinct. Our unit is in the second building from the left. The open space in front of the camera would soon be occupied by additional homes. The black plastic fence did not contain all the construction debris:

Illinois condo from SW corner 20130516

The next morning after we returned from Illinois we visited the herbicide-damaged heron rookery and found four active Yellow-crowned Night-Heron nests, inclucing this one with sky-blue eggs:

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 10- nonHT female with eggs 20130519  

A Great Egret cast a fine reflection on the still water:

Great Egret reflection 2-20130519

The off-road vehicle vandals had cut through fences and knocked down the signs which provided no barrier to their rampages:

Sign - Trampling on rules 20130519 

On May 27 the night-herons were raising their chicks:

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron nestlings at nest 22 2-20130527

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron nestlings 20130525

28 comments:

  1. Many great photos. I love the sky shots in the first two. I'm a gorilla hugger, too. They are so majestic.

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  2. Hello Ken!:) It's always a delightful experience to visit you. There are always quality photos of amazing wildlife. I love the pictures of the Yellow-crowned Night Heron, and chicks, the Eastern Meadow Lark, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak, but all your bird captures are special, such as the action shot of the Sandpiper with Mallard, and fun capture of the Goose on top of the Silo. Very sweet photos of your grandchildren, pretty flowers, and Zoo images. Thank you for sharing!:)

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  3. Gorgeous series, and your granddaughters are lovely! So nice to see a Canada goose, too. Our Canada geese sure get around! :)

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  4. You did a super job capturing all these interesting sights.

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  5. oh my goodness, these are all so wonderful!

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  6. Wonderful series of photos ~ love the wolf and gorilla ~ birds are awesome as well ~

    Happy Weekend to you ~ ^_^

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  7. smashing bird shots, as always! love the beautiful watery views, too. and your pretty flower girls. :)

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  8. These photos are great. I adore those Heron chicks. Faces only a mother could love.

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  9. Beautiful shots, and I love looking through your Retrospectroscope! Great shots of your granddaughters as well.

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  10. What a great collection of images!

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  11. Another fabulous series of photos!

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  12. So much to see here. It was all wonderful. Loved those fuzzy headed Night Heron babies. Seeing the Wolf and Gorilla was also neat. Your granddaughters looked adorable blowing the dandelions, such fun! A wonderful selection of fences, scenery & birds.

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  13. Hello, wonderful series of photos. My favorite are the night heron chicks. The sky and birds are beautiful. So sad to hear about all the new construction. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!

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  14. Beautiful pictures. I love to see your granddaughters!

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  15. Hello Ken. Thanks for sharing your memories with such glorious images. I would dearly love to photograph a Meadowlark in full song one day.

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  16. Those Night Herons are hilarious looking Kenneth. Great reflection shot of the Great Egret. Lovely shots of your granddaughter and shameful they are building on that land. I left an answer on my blog today. Have a wonderful week ahead.

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  17. Those YCNHerons are incredibly cute!! Awesome.
    Love the Goose Sentry too.

    Your entire post is fantastic.

    Thank you very much for sharing this post with us birders at I'd Rather B Birdin'

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  18. The buildings do not look to be ab adding value.

    That Eastern ML must have a sore throat, I think its the first one I have seen that is not singing!

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

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  19. Excellent series of photos! I particularly like the goose on the silo. :-)

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  20. Fabulous collection of birds and flowers! The heron chicks are so cute.

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  21. Great, great photos! I like most the photo of the night-heron with their chicks.

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  22. Stunning photos, so much to take in and delight at. Lovely photos of your grands. I have never seen a goose on the top of a silo. The new homes, oh dear, I know people have to live somewhere but oh dear. The run-over sign makes me quite cross at the thought of such a rampage, but your bird shots are wonderful and that last shot of the chicks melts my heart. Wonderful collection. Thank you so much for sharing with Today's Flowers and wishing you a very happy week.

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  23. Absolutely wonderful photos of the birds and wildflowers and all! Great post as usual!

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  24. I always love your retrospects. Beautiful birds in both your home States.....those baby night herons are insanely cute. You catch the smaller song birds so well ...a skill I haven't developed...sad about the development in IL , I remember you talking about that habitat loss. The off-road vandalism is even sadder . But still all in all a happy post, because wonderful birds and spring flowers.

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  25. You've got so many great shots! Many interesting meetings have occurred))

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  26. Great post with beautiful pictures :D

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  27. Great shots of all the birds and flowers.

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