Flooding at Emiquon
So as not to forget the biggest weather event of the year so far, at least around here… here are a few more photos from last weekend’s Emiquon expedition, part of the Illinois Audubon Spring Celebration. In the picture above, the water beyond the first row of trees is the Illinois River, which was at 26.8 feet: flood stage is 14 feet. Normally the depth of water on the near side of the trees would not be there…instead there would be more puddles and shorebird habitat.
Spoon River College Arboretum
So Saturday morning instead of the original plan, we visited Spoon River College Arboretum, which is a beautiful 10-acre tract of natural habitat and wood chip trails. I saw my first-of-year Wood Thrush early on in the walk.
Wood Thrush
Brown-Headed Cowbirds, more often heard than seen, but this one was glistening when the sun made it through the clouds for a few moments.
Brown-Headed Cowbird
One of many Chipping Sparrows…
Chipping Sparrow
At some point we found a Blue-Headed Vireo, but he was elusive.
Blue-Headed Vireo
I remember walking through a crop field to get to the parking lot as the walk was winding down, so this must be it.
After lunch we went out again to see as much of Emiquon as was possible. This road was washed out.
Blue-Winged Teal were everywhere.
Blue-Winged Teal
And invariably some were flushed. But then you get to see the blue on the wing that they’re named for…
Not much more than the profile of a Double-Crested Cormorant, but it is distinctive.
Double-Crested Cormorant
Along the side of a road going back to Dickson Mounds, which if the mounds had not been underwater might have made for interesting photographs…there was a lone Snow Goose.
Snow Goose
On Sunday morning, we decided to head home instead of go farther out of our way for yet more flooding… so we stopped by Forest Park Nature Center in Peoria Heights on the way back home. Tufted Titmouses (Titmice? Titmeese?) were everywhere.
Tufted Titmouse
And although this is out of chronological order, maybe it’s a good place to stop: a perfectly-formed flowering Magnolia tree.
Tomorrow morning I am participating in my first Spring Bird Count. Wish me luck getting up at 2:30 a.m. 🙂
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Good luck Lisa! 🙂
Thanks. I keep thinking about the Little Train That Could…or something like that. 🙂
Good luck..you all really had some serious flooding..your pictures are great and love the natural look you have in them..take care and have a great day..I am off to the studio to paint a Black-cap Chickadee…
Oh wonderful, Syl, thank you for your kind comments, and every Black-Capped Chickadee I see tomorrow, I will think of you!
I love your little descriptive narratives along with your ‘tours’. At first, I didn’t recognize the Snow Goose, then realized that it was a dark morph. And yes, “Titmouses” is correct. 🙂
Good luck with your bird count. Sounds like fun. 🙂
Thanks so much, Bob! The weekend was such a bust, in a way, but I felt like I needed to commemorate it for what it was. I hope to go back to these places when they’re more “normal.” As for the bird count, I’ve done Christmas but never gotten around to doing spring, so I may as well try it… desperate as we are to have Spring around here.
Good luck. The national weather service is predicting above average rainfall this year. I hope that doesn’t mean we will follow a year of drought with a year of floods.
No kidding. I thought I heard “average” rainfall with higher temperatures but that may have been a while ago. So far the weather patterns seem to be changing every couple of days. I hope it doesn’t get too interesting!