The past two weeks have been challenging and I can’t seem to find a breather anywhere. Yet we race ahead into spring, even if temporarily yanked back to winter by strong winds, so I’m here with a few local images from a couple recent outings and the yard. This morning my cardinal was singing before sunrise… likely the same guy pictured below.
Male Red-Winged Blackbirds have been coming back to claim their breeding territories for the past couple weeks. The one below was at Miller Meadow.
Also at Miller Meadow, tossed around in the wind, was a distant Red-Tailed Hawk. These pictures are cropped extensively but I liked how they captured the hawk’s maneuvers and the confirming red tail.
There was a somewhat leucistic American Robin at Miller Meadow and it was really hard to get a picture of it but it seemed worthy of documentation. I’ve never seen this before.
Below is what the Chicago Portage and the Des Plaines River nearby looked like last weekend. There were maybe 60 Common Goldeneye on the Des Plaines. I managed to get a closer view of one through the trees at the back of the Portage.
American Goldfinch in my yard
House Finches (female) 
(male)
White-tailed deer at Miller Meadow 
Downy Woodpecker 
I keep getting distracted by this shelf fungus every time I see it at the Portage.
Song Sparrows are returning to the Portage to set up territories too. I heard one singing, might have been this one.
Hadn’t run out of “winter” sparrows yet, there was a sizable flock of American Tree Sparrows at the Portage.
American Tree Sparrow 
I will never run out of House Sparrows in my yard.
More windblown photos of my Cardinal visitors.
I never get tired of Canada Geese flying overhead in formation. People are reporting Sandhill Cranes and I hope to see some of them soon as well.
My plan is to get through a very busy weekend and return here soon! Something keeps pouring extra salt on my chaos… lately I’ve been surprised to land on two feet.
In spite of the ‘chaos’ you have seen a good selection of birds and captured them very nicely for us. I hope that things calm down both in the weather and in life.
Thanks. In spite of everything I have these moments when I feel intensely grounded and they surprise me. It could just be the additional light, longer days. Whatever it is, I can’t expect it but I should try to accept it. 🙂
Great shots of the hawk. Funny thing that we haven’t seen many cardinals this winter. Plenty of goldfinches, though, and a decent number of woodpeckers.
I agree about the local Cardinals and abundance of Goldfinches. Although there are always a lot of Cardinals at the Portage, so it must be their flock preference in the winter. And I think Woodpeckers tend to be solo opportunists so they show up everywhere.