Baltimore Oriole

The usual disclaimer: this will be a short post because I am still going through pictures and there’s not enough time to get it all together. Having said that I would have posted this a lot earlier if I did not run into a snag with my no-longer-free audio editing program. Below is thia Baltimore Oriole’s song.

Yesterday morning was eventually beautiful, although it started out a tad windy and chilly. I haven’t been to the Chicago Portage for a couple weeks and feel responsible for reporting its inhabitants, so that was my destination. The first bird I heard as I crossed the south bridge was an Indigo Bunting. Below is his picture and his song.

Indigo Bunting

A little farther down the path, I heard a House Wren singing, and eventually located him high up in a tree, blending in with the branches of a trees that hasn’t leafed out yet. There is also a Red-Winged Blackbird singing on this clip, but the House Wren is the chattery one in between.

House Wren

The Portage itself had a dreamy, sleepy look to it, and in the moments planes weren’t flying over and I could forget the traffic noise, time stopped, I joined the alternate reality, and nothing else mattered. I had no ultimate goal but to observe. This is the real reason to spend time in nature, in my book.

There were several Indigo Buntings on site and a while later, I encountered another whose color shone in just the right light.

Indigo Bunting

A lot of trees have come down at the Portage and I am curious how it has affected breeding birds. I could find no trace of the Green Herons or Great-Crested Flycatchers I am used to seeing. But this is the second time in a month I have seen a Great Blue Heron and an Osprey. They are such large birds I suspect the Portage is probably just an adjunct to Ottawa Trail Woods and the Des Plaines River next door. But it’s still exciting to see them.

Osprey

The turtles are still in place.

I was originally going to cover much more in this post, as a lot more happened and there were quite a few more birds – busy birds – yesterday. I will try to return with another installment soon.

Baltimore Oriole