Crops & Clips: Flashback to April, 2016

It's again time to peer at my photo archives through the retrospectroscope and set the dial back three years to April, 2016. As usual I will search for favorite memes: critters (especially birds), the skies and reflections, flowers and fences, and scenes which speak for themselves. We spent the first half of the month in Florida before traveling to our second home in northeastern Illinois.

Of greatest interest and concern were events at the local Bald Eagle nest which I have been monitoring since 2008. The male eagle (Pride) lost his mate (Joy) in October, 2014 and found a new and young female (Jewel) two months later. Although they copulated, Jewel never seemed to take an interest in the nest and they failed to produce young during the 2014-2015 season.

Then the pair laid their eggs in mid-December, 2015, but 5 weeks later, just as they should have hatched, a wind storm brought down a limb which fell in the nest. One eaglet may have survived as there was evidence that an adult was feeding it two days later. However it was never seen again and assumed to have perished. Undaunted, the pair refurbished the nest and bred again. Two eaglets hatched in mid-March but one was killed or out-competed by its nest-mate. The survivor (P Piney 15, the 15th known eaglet produced at this nest)  fledged in mid-June, 2016.

Pride roosts near the nest on April 2, 2016:



Here is the plucky P Piney 15 on April 2, 2016:



Both eaglets (P Piney 15 & 16) looked fine on April 7, 2016:



The siblings engaged in serious combat. We assume both were females, as they are the stronger and more aggressive of the sexes. Male siblings are smaller and learn to stay clear, but two females "stand their ground" and fight with each other for dominance. After April 10, 2016 we only found a single eaglet in the nest. We presume it is the older female, P Piney 15, here seen on the nest with Pride:



Well, turning to other events in the neighborhood...

On April 7, an unusual sunrise filled the sky east of the entry gate to our local wetlands:



Trying to draw us away from its nest, a Killdeer performed a distraction display:



An immature Great Blue Heron was on the lake before sunrise:



Spring was in the air. A Green Heron tended its eggs in the local rookery on April 8:



On April 13, success!





A Black-necked Stilt was mirrored in the still water:



Two stilts:



A White-tailed buck posed with two does in soft morning light:



This Black-and-White Warbler performed acrobatics as it searched for insects on the trunk and branches:



A Roseate Spoonbill honored us with a visit:



It joined Snowy Egrets, a White Ibis and a Greater Yellowlegs:



Then, we left for Chicagoland, where a Bald Eagle was tending an eaglet in its nest very near our condo in North Aurora, Illinois. Coincidentally, this was the first pair to nest in Kane County after DDT was abolished in 1972, just as the pair near our Florida home was the first in Broward County:



Fox Squirrel at Fabyan Park in Geneva, Illinois:



A Red-winged Blackbird displayed its epaulets as it sang:





This Eastern Towhee has red eyes, unlike the straw yellow eyes of the south Florida population:



A White-throated Sparrow...



...and an American Goldfinch at Nelson Lake in Batavia, Illinois:



Spring wildflowers in Illinois--

Bluebells:



White Violets:



Wake Robin (Trillium):



= = =  = = =  = = = =  = = = = =

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: This week's clicks

Spring is here! As we walk into the local Wounded Wetlands in the predawn darkness, Northern Cardinals are already in full song. It is too dark for photos, but two hours later on the way back home, their clear whistles dominate the soundscape.

Cardinals prefer to to sing from a prominent perch.  A Pond Cypress, beginning to leaf out, provides a perfect podium:









A demure female occupies a branch lower down and sings a duet with her mate:





A rival male, not far away, asserts ownership of an adjacent territory:





His mate is more reclusive, hidden in the shrubs:





The Worm Moon, the third and final Super Moon of 2019, sets on a cloudy morning on the first day of Spring. This was the best photo I could take before it was totally obscured. If you look closely, you will see Mary Lou walking in with her flashlight at the very bottom of the photo:





The next morning the sun rises due east in a clear sky, as seen through the fence in "Sundial Alley:"

 

The Moon is much higher in the sky at sunrise on March 24...


 
 ...and it soon disappears into the haze and clouds:





On March 26 the waning gibbous Moon...



...is followed, on the opposite horizon, by a sunrise peeking out under a blanket of clouds:



Later in the day, a Great Egret casts its reflection in morning light:





Two Mottled Ducks fly by:



There has been a huge hatch of Halloween Pennants (Celithemis eponina). These colorful dragonflies help control the mosquitoes and midges and themselves are food for the birds, especially shrikes, kestrels and blackbirds, as well as orb-weaving spiders:



American Kestrel eats a Halloween Pennant, March 22, 2016:



A Tropical Orb Weaver spider dispatches a Halloween Pennant, March 23, 2014:



Along the path, Castor Oil Plants thrive. Their seeds are the source of ricin, a deadly poison:




Good news: We have been blessed by the birth of our third Great-Grandchild, our first Great Grand-Daughter, Kennedy Lee Schneider, whose name includes elements of those of both her parents, Kenneth and Danima Lee.

= = =  = = =  = = = =  = = = = =

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

________________________________________________

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

________________________________________________