After a very pleasant Thanksgiving dinner with friends, by the time I’m done with the normal weekend stuff, albeit at a more relaxed pace, the huge to-do list I planned to revive looks less inviting. Maybe I’m doing nothing remarkable these four days except hanging out with the home crowd and making a serious dent in a hundred pounds of accumulated junk mail, magazines I’ll never read and sizing up my response to those end-of-year donation requests which seemed to start arriving in May.
But I have a few photos from my last visit to the Chicago Portage to share. This was two weeks ago before I spent much of last weekend preparing to sing in choirs and doing so. I have noticed one thing about singing: if I decide to vocalize and practice before I leave, all the birds join in, which means they know a thing or two about singing in unison that maybe I don’t.
Green-Winged Teal
I have plans to go out tomorrow morning, as the best light and weather for the weekend are predicted, and while I never go with great expectations I hope I’m ready for surprises. If nothing else I need to keep in practice holding the monster lens. I am now looking forward to taking it with me to Nicaragua at the end of February for another episode of Operation Rubythroat.
I was happy to see the White-Breasted Nuthatch again, having missed even hearing it for quite a while, even if I didn’t get that great a picture.
Also a very cooperative but backlit Lincoln’s Sparrow.
Many of the birds were too far away even for the monster lens.
American Goldfinch taking a sip of water
And the best I could do with my first American Tree Sparrow of the season was its head.
The Fox Sparrow below was incredibly backlit until it decided to leave.
Perhaps the trees’ reflection in the water says it all.
And if you’re a female Mallard on a dead log you can get away with anything.
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What have you been singing? Did it go well?
Oh, Thanksgiving-y stuff last weekend. There was the Unity Temple service where we sang “Simple Gifts,” the Shaker hymn, and then tried to pull off Aaron Copeland’s “The Promise of Living” – with a fantastic trombone and piano accompaniment. Later in the early evening some of us Unity Temple choristers joined members of a couple other choirs at St. Giles for an interfaith service. I think the service and the children’s choir were the best part of it. The adult combined choir sang “Let There Be Peace on Earth” and something called “Put Peace Into Each Other’s Hands.” This coming Sunday we will be singing Hebrew and Ladino songs for Chanukah. So it’s interesting!
It certainly looks that way.