Poring over my photo archives from three years ago, I reflect that my life is now much less active. Having given up our second home in Illinois, we are more homebound. Excursions are mostly for shopping, choir practice, church and of course, visits to the dentist and various doctors. Our early morning walks into the adjacent Wounded Wetlands highlight each day.
We started out the month of May, 2016 in Illinois. Our son-in-law hosted their traditional backyard Cinco de Mayo pig roast with over 100 people in attendance. Since it is also a birthday party for our daughter, donations to a local charity are requested in lieu of gifts. Spring migration was underway. At every opportunity, MaryLou and I visited the numerous municipal parks and county forest preserves.
At Bliss Woods in Sugar Grove we found Yellow Warblers in full song:
We encountered one Orchard Oriole:
Common Grackles in Midwestern US were formerly called "Bronzed Grackles" as opposed to the eastern "Purple Grackles," as I knew them as a kid in New Jersey. They were originally considered separate species. This photo illustrates its iridescent brown back:
At Jones Meadow Park near our condo in North Aurora, Flocks of Sandhill Cranes were arriving and passing overhead:
This Virginia Rail was a real treat as it posed in a cattail patch:
A Canada Goose tends to its goslings. This photo was taken from some distance away, as they can become violently aggressive in defense of their young:
A male American Goldfinch is reflected on the surface of a brook:
We visited the Japanese Garden at Fabyan Forest Preserve in Geneva, providing some of my favorite photo opportunities:
Blossoms enveloped a small outbuilding in the garden:
There, a Great Horned Owl tended its owlets...
...and a beautiful Yellow-throated Warbler sang in a treetop:
Oh, my-- this only brings me up to the 6th of the month-- So many more photos to review! Scarlet Tanager, a Rose-breasted Grosbeak and an Indigo Bunting on April 12:
On May 15, the day before we returned to Florida, a Baltimore Oriole perched nearby:
Back home, MaryLou is ahead of me as she enters our local wetlands:
A Great Egret takes flight:
A little Blue Heron and a smaller Green Heron interact:
A young doe prances across the gravel track:
Before sunrise, a storm is forming to the west over the Everglades:
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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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Jones Meadow is a small "pocket" park within walking distance of our condo in NE Illinois.
It includes a variety of habitats. Near the entrance is a playground and then a pond which occupies about 5 acres:
A marsh area about the same size is separated from the pond by a levee:
A paved trail leads about 3/4 mile along a strip of woods and wetlands. The entire park occupies about 30 acres and is entirely surrounded by houses, roads and cornfields:
The old barn in the distance was a favored subject, but it has since been torn down to make way for more construction at the periphery of the park:
During my usually brief visits over the years I have observed 59 species of birds in this little park, not a very impressive total unless you weigh this against the minimal effort expended in my search.
This spring, shortly after arriving in Illinois, I visited the wetlands in search of two rail species, Sora and Virginia Rail. I heard and caught fleeting glimpses of a Sora, but was lucky when a Virginia Rail appeared. It can be difficult to see amid the cattails:
A Mallard eyed me suspiciously and then took flight:
A Great Blue Heron foraged along the shore of the pond:
The reflections of a Great Egret and two female Mallards were distorted by the breeze:
A Muskrat nibbled on greenery:
Two Tree Swallows seemed to be disputing over ownership of the park:
When the winds let up, a Pied-billed Grebe reflected nicely:
Overhead, Sandhill Cranes circled as if intending to land...
...but continued on their way:
My archives include over 500 photos taken in Jones Meadow Park. The earliest date back to 2008, when I started taking photos with my first DSLR, a first-generation 6.3 megapixel Canon EOS Digital Rebel 300D. A bicycle staged in a back yard along the trail provided the opportunity for me to do a bit of creative photo processing:
During a visit at sunset, a Great Horned Owl was silhouetted against the sky:
When younger, our Granddaughters begged to accompany us to the park:
An American Robin stood guard over the playground:
New England Asters appeared along the path in August:
Bee Balm bloomed in the meadow:
Thanks so much for visiting! I will be on the road for the next couple of weeks and often away from WiFi and even out of cellular range. Mary Lou and I are celebrating our 56th Wedding Anniversary! Tending to my blog from a cellphone does not work out very well, so I have put my posts on "autopilot" in the interim, but promise to visit you as soon as possible when I get back to my PC.
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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 Today's Flowers Friday by Denise
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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A favorite birding site near our NE Illinois home is the 175 acre Bliss Woods Forest Preserve in Sugar Grove. A bike trail connects Bliss woods with the 402 acre Hannaford Woods-Nickels Farm Forest Preserve, forming a complex known as the Bliss Woods-Waubonsee College open space assemblage. This protects a varied habitat including hardwood forest, open prairies and wetlands. Most of this section of Illinois is flat land, planted in miles and miles of corn and soybeans, but thanks to preservation of the remnants of the Kaneville Esker, this preserve is a green gem, with rolling hills and valleys. Ridges (eskers) and prominent mounds (kames) interrupt the monotony of the prairie. These features, as well as prairie potholes (also known as kettles), were produced about 13,000 years ago by retreating glaciers. Many have been disturbed or removed, as they are a convenient source of gravel.
Blackberry Creek as it courses through Bliss Woods:
Woodland path in Hannford Woods:
This barn, surrounded by a white rail fence, is on private property just across from the entrance to Hannaford Woods:
We visited the preserves several times before returning to Florida on May 24. On the first visit to Bliss Woods we obtained only distant views of a Scarlet Tanager, one of our favorite birds. Two days before returning to Florida we tried one last time. The morning started out windy and quite chilly at 46 degrees F (7.8 degrees Celsius). The tree limbs were moving so much that we held little hope of seeing many birds at all. Some of those which took flight actually flew backwards!
A male Northern Flicker was not affected by the wind as he searched for ants on the mowed lawn in the picnic area:
The winds subsided and the skies brightened, though the temperature dropped a couple of degrees. Yellow Warblers were already gathering nesting materials. This one sang in a small tree on its territory:
American Goldfinches bounded about, carefree, as they will not breed until later in the season:
Indigo Buntings had arrived en masse:
A White-breasted Nuthatch seemed to be exploring a nest hole. It kept poking its head in but never entered. I wondered if it might be occupied by another creature such as a squirrel or chipmunk:
High in a nearby oak tree, I spotted a White-breasted Nuthatch fledgling:
As a parent approached with a grub, it started begging silently:
"I still want more!"
This first year male Orchard Oriole was the second we saw this week:
A male Orchard Oriole in full breeding plumage flew by but I was unable to get a photo, so here is one from May 14 a year ago. It is smaller than a Baltimore Oriole and has brick-red plumage rather than bright orange of the latter species:
A Red-tailed Hawk swooped in low. Not a threat to small birds, it was probably hoping to surprise a rabbit or squirrel:
We have been watching a pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatcher build a nest which straddles a low-hanging limb of an old oak. Now the bird is sitting tight, surely incubating its eggs. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the fragile-looking nest had not been disrupted by the high winds and rain:
Finally, we were rewarded when a male Scarlet Tanager suddenly flew into full sun in a tree just above the trail:
His coat is deeply scarlet except for black wings and tail. The sun was high and the leaves cast strong dappled shadows. Nearly all of my dozen photos were spoiled because of the sharp contrasting patches of light. This one better illustrates the problem, as the red color (and the green on the leaves) is washed out in the highlights:
Speaking of highlights, my final visit to Hannaford Woods produced a Life Bird! This does not happen very often these days, as I have lost interest in chasing after target birds. While walking the trail I heard a very loud warbler song coming from close to the ground nearby. I simply could not identify the song and tried to find the bird for the better part of half an hour. The understory was so dense and it was so tantalizingly close by!
Before continuing down the trail, I recorded the song on my iPhone, hoping to research it and identify the singer. On the way back I replayed the song and the bird responded immediately. I caught a glimpse of it, singing a few inches off the ground. It had a brown back and a distinct eye ring, but it flew off in less than a second. It continued to sing in the distance, but to my surprise a second bird appeared and sat still long enough for me to capture a 25 second burst of images before it flew off. My photos confirmed that it was a Connecticut Warbler, the first I had ever seen, and the first County record this spring.
This seclusive but not rare warbler breeds in the far north Central US and central Canada. Despite its name it is rarely found in the NE United States, and then only in the fall. The few winter records are from South and Central America.
Connecticut Warbler (May 19, 2015):
Another "first" occurred early in our stay. I was looking for a Sora in Jones Meadow Park, a small wetlands near our home. Sure enough, I saw two Soras and heard one or two others:
Then, a Virginia Rail started calling and suddenly strutted out at the edge of the marsh:
A damselfly, which I believe to be a female bluet species, allowed me a close-up shot:
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
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 I Heart Macro by Laura
________________________________________________
Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display
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