Once again, it is time to glean through my photo archives from three years ago to look for examples of favorite memes: Fences, Skies. Reflections, Birds and other Critters, images which depict the Seasons and Wordless scenes that need no explanation.
Reflecting upon the month of July, 2014 I remember how the previous month's trip to Alaska disturbed the rhythm of our annual summer "migrations" from Florida to Illinois. If one has a choice, July is not the best month to be in Florida.
We had traveled to Alaska and then returned to Illinois for only a couple of weeks. Many essential doctor and dental appointments had to be kept back home in Florida, and we hate to leave our house untended for any extended period.
Usually I have a hard time finding images of fences, but before we departed from Illinois we visited the Japanese Garden in nearby Fabyan Park. The fences arced along my favorite foot bridge:
I tried to imitate an Impressionist painter on my digital "canvas:"
On our last full day in Illinois, we stopped at Nelson Lake preserve in Batavia, where we saw Cedar Waxwings..
...and an exuberant Common Yellowthroat:
Then, off to south Florida, where the month had started out with lots of rain and mosquitoes. The wetlands were so flooded that prey items were diluted and many wading birds sought refuge in our backyard lake.
Thanks to blown-in Saharan dust we were greeted by a golden sunrise:
Early morning light bathed a Wood Stork as it foraged along our back lawn:
Our long-legged "yard birds" lingered all day. While the tactile-feeding Wood Stork stirred up prey with its bubble-gum pink feet...
...a Tricolored Heron followed along, using its sharp vision, gobbling up any that got away:
A Snowy Egret flew in to join the feast...
...while a stealthy Green Heron waited for a meal to come within striking distance:
A Green Anole, hoping to attract a mate, displayed his dewlap:
Housebound by rain, we often missed our morning walks and watched angry sunrises from our back patio...
...but all the rain was good for our pineapples...
...and delicious tree-ripened Sugar-apple (Annona squamosa, also known by many other names such as Sweetsop or Custard Apple):
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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
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Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display
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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
________________________________________________
The rains came as soon as we arrived in NE Illinois at the end of April, and nighttime temperatures dropped to near freezing the first few nights. In between raindrops and braving high winds, we managed to get a few hours outdoors each day. While not providing much exercise, our daughter's back yard was quite productive.
A double rainbow was visible when an afternoon rainstorm skirted by:
As I was roasting a chicken on their patio grill, I ran for my camera when a colorful House Fince started singing in a nearby tree:
A curious Black-capped Chickadee landed on the fineal atop an umbrella on the deck:
It eyed me from a post on the deck railing:
Agramonte, their 10 year old Tibetan Mastiff, struck a regal pose:
Siboney, from his same blood line, at 1 1/2 years old is now almost as big:
Mary Lou and I visited the Japanese Garden at Fabyan Park in nearby Geneva. The foot brige and its railings cast pleasant reflections:
For the past few years, a pair of Great Horned Owls has raised its family in a tree at Fabyan Park. This spring two owlets were hatched, but only one made an appearance when we visited the nest:
Numerous Baltimore Orioles were present in the park, which runs along the west bank of the Fox River:
Canada Geese were accompanied by newly hatched goslings:
We saw a few warblers, among them a Yellow-rumped *Myrtle" Warbler...
...captured as if suspended in mid-hop:
A White-breasted Nuthatch foraged upside-down:
Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were early spring arrivals:
In the Japanese Garden, a Common "Bronzed" Grackle posed on a rock:
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
________________________________________________
Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display
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