I have been a bit preoccupied lately. My routine visits to Riverside have fallen off a bit, but I’ve been meaning to get caught up with some previous ones, so here are a few photos from November 1, 3 and 6. The days were getting shorter, the nights were colder, the number of birds has dropped off and their absence is made that much more noticeable with the leaves falling from the trees.

So I have been tempted to chase after another Limpkin about 100 people have seen by now at Fullersburg Woods in DuPage County, but for sure the two times I went there last week I never saw it. You might ask why I bother at all after finding the one that was at McGinnis Slough, but this one has been closer to the Rainbow Bridge which is easy to stand on and view from, so everybody’s getting great photos and the photographer in me was frustrated, to say the least. This is a bird that should be easy to photograph simply from the standpoint of being rather large and rather sedentary. I almost drove over there after singing in the choir Sunday morning. It would have been a good day – sunny, warmer, a lot of people saw the bird and it didn’t seem to be bothered by the crowd, if you will. But I did not go. Instead, I have found this is not too far to travel if I’m also going swimming, so that was my plan to try again yesterday, albeit in cloudy, cooler weather. The Fullersburg Limpkin story is To Be Continued.

Back to Riverside on November 1. It was a pretty day,

I was pleased to see a Great Blue Heron still around.

It was probably the last time I saw a couple Turkey Vultures.

And a couple Fox Sparrows were available.

I managed to barely capture a Northern Cardinal and a White-throated Sparrow as they were trying to hide in less leaf cover.

November 3 was a lot less sunny.

House Finches were foraging here and there.

A Black-capped Chickadee stayed still long enough.

And an American Goldfinch blended into the background.

Things weren’t any livelier on the 6th.

The most interesting birds were a couple tagged Canada Geese. I have seen 64H before and my certificate says he is a Large Canada Goose banded on July 7, 2015. I thought I had seen 68B too but I don’t have a certificate for it, so I just submitted the sighting to get the information on that bird.

There were enough geese to get into an argument.

I managed to barely zoom in on a Cooper’s Hawk flying over.

It was a day when a little fungus became quite attractive.

When I got home after swimming, I took a walk around the yard. It was warm enough for a few bees to be in the later blooming asters. Most everything else has gone to seed.

In the front yard, a grass that I have to identify strikes a delicate pose by the front sidewalk, and the Joe Pye Weed has gone to seed as well.

The sedum in back takes on fall color, and there are tufts of spent tall ironweed everywhere.

I wonder if the drought had something to do with the quality of the berries on my hawthorn tree. No one has been interested in eating them. By now the tree has lost all its leaves but the berries remain. Very mysterious,

I know you can’t stand the suspense, so I will be back very soon with a report from yesterday’s quest for the Fullersburg Limpkin. For now, suffice it to say I did find it.