Crops & Clips: Flashback to May, 2018

 As I do each month, I enjoyed looking back over my archived photos, taken three years previously, to remember how things were then and maybe get some idea of what to expect this year. As usual, I searched for images which reflected favorite memes: critters of all kinds (especially birds), skies and clouds, reflections, flowers and fences, as well as scenes which speak for themselves. 

This was our final stay in our Illinois condo. It had served as our second home for eleven years, but keeping two residences was getting to be a chore. We vacated it late in May and closed the sale remotely during the next month. 

Early May is the height of songbird migration in NE Illinois, providing lots of color in the May photo archives. The first entry was a Baltimore Oriole:

Yellow Warbler:

Red-headed Woodpecker:

Rose-breasted Grosbeak:

Eastern Bluebird:

Common Yellowthroat:

Tree Swallow:

Less colorful but nonetheless intriguing, a Great Horned Owl:

A few years earlier, within walking distance of our condo, we had discovered the first nesting Lark Sparrows in the county. To be honest, MaryLou spotted them and noted that they were unusual. 

When I looked at them through the binoculars I  recognized their strikingly bold face patterns. Lark Sparrows were back again this spring:

They can be difficult to see out on the dry prairie:

In the same field were Savannah Sparrows...

...and the smaller Grasshopper Sparrows:

A pair of House Sparrows snuggled on a fencepost:

Bobolink:

Also in the prairie, a Killdeer guarded two chicks:

Along the woodland path, Trout Lilies bloomed:

Wake Robin flowers were opening:

Blue Violets are the Illinois State Flowers:

Our daughter's family had gained two new pups within two weeks, a black Standard Poodle (Casador) and another Tibetan Mastiff (Moncada) to join Agramonte:

Agramonte greets the newest member of the pack:

The last of our furniture was towed away:

Sunset over neighborhood Jones Meadow Park:

On final approach to the Fort Lauderdale airport, we could find our house and familiar landmarks (click to enlarge):

We ended the month in Florida. A back yard highlight was a Tricolored Heron:

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Linking to:

Garden Affair

Fences Around the World

Nature Thursday

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

Saturday's Critters

BirdD'Pot

Camera Critters

All Seasons

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Natasha Musing

Our World Tuesday

Wild Bird Wednesday

My Corner of the World

Timeless Thursday

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Please visit the links to all these posts to see some excellent photos on display
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Birding Bliss

Sunset over the lake at Jones Meadow, a little "pocket park" near our condo in North Aurora, Illinois:



A bit later, the view of the sky from the adjacent marsh:



Mary Lou and I participated with Kane County (Illinois) Audubon in a Global Big Day bird count on May 5. Our assigned territory was Bliss Woods Forest Preserve in Sugar Grove, Illinois, a favorite place to visit during migration. 

This also provided one of the few opportunities we had to get out, due to other more pressing obligations. During our two hour early morning watch, we only saw 36 species, but there was lots of color!

Yellow Warblers were singing and courting:







Newly-arrived Baltimore Orioles dashed through the treetops:







A Rose-breasted Grosbeak provided a study in black and white...



...and red:

 





Mary Lou found another species which continued to carry out the color scheme--

A pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers:







Maintaining two homes and the associated travel has been stressful. Now that we have acquired "two of everything" it is time to let half of them go. We are busy giving away all the furniture in our second home condo. Here are some of the last items being carted off:




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Linking to Misty's  CAMERA CRITTERS,

Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,

Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy

Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James

Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni

Linking to Our World Tuesday by Lady Fi

Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart

Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) by NC Sue

Linking to ALL SEASONS by Jesh

 Linking to Fences Around the World by Gosia

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Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display

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Crops & Clips: Orchard Oriole

Due to the frequent rain, our NE Illinois second home was under a flood watch during the first part of May. The Fox River was quite high. Its flood plain provided some nice reflections:



The skies were either cloud-bound or spotlessly blue. Here is the entrance to nearby Nelson Lake preserve  in Batavia, on a beautiful morning in early May:



The Orchard Oriole is one bird which I have had trouble locating and photographing. It often mixes in with the much more colorful Baltimore Orioles, and seems to prefer to hide amid the leaves in the treetops. Its song is fairly distinctive, and I have heard it much more often than I have seen the originator.

A bit drab, the male can appear to be all black in poor light. Indeed, orioles are members of the blackbird family, but the Orchard Oriole is smaller than any of our other native blackbirds. It breeds over the eastern half of the US into central Mexico but its range generally stops short of Canada and does not include the Florida peninsula. It winters in Central America. It spends relatively little time on its breeding grounds, arriving in May, raises only one brood, and usually departs south in July.

By way of comparison, here is the more conspicuous Baltimore Oriole, which is bright orange rather than chestnut brown:



This was my first decent image of an adult male Orchard Oriole, obtained back in May, 2013:



Last year, also in early May, another male cooperated with me:





Immature males and females have yellow plumage rather than red. Younger males, up into their second year, have varying amounts of black on their face, head and upper breast. I first thought this one to be a female, but the heavy shadows on its chin and chest obscure the markings of a young male (May, 2015):

 

This spring, on May 12, at the Japanese Garden in Fabyan Forest Preserve in Geneva, I documented an adult male in a horrible photo:

 

To compensate for such a poor showing, here is the fenced gateway to the Japanese Garden:



In late may, before returning to Florida, I heard the distinctive song of a sub-adult male Orchard Oriole coming from high in a tree along the trail in Lippold Park. It kept moving from one tree to another, usually flying away just as I brought it into focus. Mary Lou helped me track its meanderings, but continuing my run of bad luck despite my best efforts, I wasted many migapixels on blurry underbelly images and sky shots. 

Here is a typical shot, heavily cropped...



...and a few more:








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Linking to Misty's  CAMERA CRITTERS,

Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,

Linking to FENCES AROUND THE WORLD by Gosia

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

Linking to ALL SEASONS by Jesh

________________________________________________

Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display

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