Category: Photos

  • The Sandhill Cranes of Jasper-Pulaski

    The Sandhill Cranes of Jasper-Pulaski

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    Every fall one of the most remarkable wildlife spectacles comes alive in north central Indiana at Jasper Pulaski Fish & Wildlife Area. Thousands of sandhill cranes arrive in boisterous groups, circling and parachuting into the shallow marshes and fields of Jasper-Pulaski. The view is reminiscent of a bygone era when humans had not yet impacted…

  • The Nachusa Grasslands, A Jewel of the Prairie State

    The Nachusa Grasslands, A Jewel of the Prairie State

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    The Nachusa Grasslands, owned and operated by The Nature Conservancy, is a remnant and restored prairie. The grasslands 4,000 acres are home to 245 species of birds, over 700 native plants, 280 bee species, multitudes of insects and a herd of 100 bison.  The Grassland began in 1986 when The Nature Conservancy bought nearly 400…

  • Pileated Woodpecker of Spears Woods

    Pileated Woodpecker of Spears Woods

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    Over the course of two weeks in late spring, we watched a mother and father pileated woodpecker feed and care for their two young chicks in a nest hole. Initially, the adults would enter the tree to feed the hatchlings. Eventually, the two chicks would peek out of the opening in anticipation of the parents…

  • Southside Egrets

    Southside Egrets

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    Once again south suburban Chicago lakes, ponds and sloughs are the home to migrating Great Egrets. In the springtime they pass through the area and some even stay all summer long to nest and raise young ones. During springtime, their breeding season, the great egret changes into its gorgeous nuptial plumage. A patch of skin…

  • White Trout Lily, a Magical Wildflower for Spring

    White Trout Lily, a Magical Wildflower for Spring

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    A wonderful surprise to wake up to this morning. One of my photographs of white trout lily flowers is in the recent issue of Horticulture Magazine.The growth of this colony of trout lily flowers, taken near Tomahawk Slough in Cook County, Illinois, had been aided by recent forest preserve clearing and maintenance.

  • Donkeys, Guardians of the Farm

    Donkeys, Guardians of the Farm

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    The donkey, often misunderstood and underappreciated, is instead an intelligent and independent thinking animal. Their stubborn behavior only arises when they perceive a threat to their own safety and self-preservation. A donkey will never do anything that it considers unsafe, rather it will dig its hooves into ground to make itself immovable.

  • It Was Raining Sandhill Cranes

    It Was Raining Sandhill Cranes

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    It was raining sandhill cranes. For a short time in mid-November, flocks and flocks of these magnificent birds flew into and out of the cornfields and marshes of northern Indiana. They gathered, gabbed, danced, ate and rested before flying away like kites in the sky to continue their southerly winter migration. Consolidating into V-shaped flying…

  • A Prospering Colony

    A Prospering Colony

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    John Muir once said “Most people are on the world, not in it”, on a peaceful May afternoon I was truly in the world. At the edge of Tomahawk Slough there is an oak savanna. Within this oak savanna lay a colony of white trout lily. These lovely spring ephemerals spread across the burnt logs and rising…

  • Hidden Gold Mine

    Hidden Gold Mine

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    Like a typical gold mine, this one is brimming with the brilliant, shiny golden objects. Though these gems are not nuggets but instead the yellow flowers of the marsh marigold. A delightful harbinger to spring, the marsh marigold makes a brief, spectacular appearance in late April through early May, then it disappears as fast as…

  • Pelican Pond

    Pelican Pond

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    For approximately one week in early April, Maple Lake in the Cook County Forest Preserve turned into Pelican Pond. Each day there were well over seventy American White Pelicans swimming, flying and foraging at the lake. For this brief week in April these white feathered birds were like angels floating on a small blue heaven…