Juvenile Pied-Billed Grebe, McGinnis Slough

I would be out visiting with the Crows but the entire week is going a bit insanely so I am finishing up this post I started last night. When it takes days to write a blog post I have to keep revising those optimistic references to “yesterday” and put them in the proper perspective.

The pictures in this post are from the Chicago Portage and McGinnis Slough, both Cook County Forest Preserves, taken this past Sunday.

Chicago Portage

Encouraged after I managed to fold the back seats down Saturday morning in the Prius (a first!) to accommodate my birdseed order from Chicago Audubon, and then carried all several hundred pounds of it from the car to the back porch without throwing out my back, I ventured out Sunday morning with the Tamron 150-600mm lens attached to the 5D, just to see how it handled the lens. I decided the weight difference between the 5D and the 70D is minimal.

Wood Duck, Chicago Portage

Because I was looking for the turkeys at the Portage, I decided to walk in from the opposite direction than what I usually take, which was a stupid thing to do from a photography perspective because I was walking into the sun, but I persisted anyway, and never encountered any turkeys. It was an otherwise beautiful morning, starting out a bit chilly but quite clear and later becoming warm.

Canada Geese, Portage

Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Portage

Downy Woodpecker, Portage

Monday was heralded as our Last Likely Warm Day. Monday evening was opening night for Il Trovatore at the Lyric Opera, so I met my friend after work, we went to dinner, then attended most of the pre-opera lecture which was helpful and amusing, and then we saw the opera. The production was stunning, Stephanie Blythe was magnificent, as was the entire cast and chorus. I have not heard so much beautiful and strong singing from every cast member in a long, long time. It was nice to renew my relationship with the art form if not my subscription.

(Below, probably the last warblers I will have seen around here this year.)

Orange-Crowned Warbler, Portage

Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Portage

I did not get home until 11:15 or thereabouts after the opera, so I managed to get only about 5 hours of sleep or less. In the meantime at work we endured almost two entire days without the ability to communicate by email or Internet. Now that the problem has been resolved we are playing catch-up with a lot of work. The trip to Costa Rica, in the back of my mind for months, is now racing to the forefront, making almost every waking moment into a decision about to take place.

McGinnis Slough

Most of the birds at McGinnis were too far away to identify even with a scope. There were several hundred American Coots and it appeared there were Scaup but I could not identify whether they were Lesser or Greater. I thought I could see three Harlequin Ducks, but I could not see enough of them beyond telltale white patches on their cheeks so I did not report them. They would have been lifers for me, I think, but not really if I couldn’t see them completely (they don’t look very fancy this time of year anyway, yet). Plus people get excited about Harlequin Ducks and I didn’t want to get them started on a wild duck chase…

Northern Cardinal, McGinnis

Except for the Pied-Billed Grebe at the start of the post (there were several of them) and the female Northern Cardinal above eating buckthorn berries, I did not get many photographs at the Slough. But the seasonal landscape changes attracted me.

McGinnis Slough

White-Throated Sparrows, so common in the Chicago Loop, are special to see anywhere else. There were several at the Portage, along with a few White-Crowned Sparrows, and also some Fox Sparrows who continue to evade the lens.

White-Throated Sparrow, Chicago Portage

I will be back with a post or two before my trip to CR.