Category: Wildlife

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • American Bird Conservancy Report

    American Bird Conservancy Report

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    I am especially thankful when I see one of my photographs on a magazine cover. This photograph of a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak was on American Bird Conservancy’s 2016 Annual Report. The photographed was taken at Sagawau Environmental Learning Center in Cook County on a springtime rosebud tree. The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is a relative of the…

  • Eagle Visions

    Eagle Visions

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    By looking through an imaginative lens, the allure of unaesthetic images can be freed to create an alternative vision. The different perspective unlocks the unseen beauty of these eagles. Red sky at night, eagles’ delight.

  • Backwards Tuxedo in a Straw Colored Hat

    Backwards Tuxedo in a Straw Colored Hat

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    The bobolink travels over 12,500 miles from southern South America to spend some time at Springbrook Prairie in DuPage County. Its beautiful plumage, often described as a “backwards tuxedo”, a white back and black underparts along with a straw colored yellow hat on its head make it a unique songbird in North America. Like many…

  • Bird on a Wire

    Bird on a Wire

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    A white dove on a wire dreams of places to go and things to see in the wild blue yonder.

  • Country Lane Cranes

    Country Lane Cranes

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    Its meadows filled with gone to seed ironweed, goldenrod and aster, Country Lane Woods was recently graced with the elegance of two Sandhill Cranes. Crimson-capped, slate gray-bodied with stained rusty-orange feathers and long black legs, these birds stood out from the fading colors of the autumn prairie. Gangly in stature, the birds danced across the…

  • August’s Colorful Hues

    August’s Colorful Hues

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    Typically the colors begin to fade in the sun-drenched month of August. While this is true for most it is not necessarily true for all. Two birds, the Sandhill Crane and Baltimore Oriole, display their colorful hues while soaked in sunlight. The noble sandhill crane; crimson capped, grayed bodied and rust colored rump feathers, stands…

  • Birdyard Migrations

    Birdyard Migrations

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    By mid May, migratory birds are well on a northerly path from their winter to summer habitats with the culmination of International Migratory Bird Day on May 11, 2013 (typically the second Sunday in May). As a large variety of birds make stopovers to rest and refuel, there is ample opportunity to view these transitional…