These photos are from the middle to the end of March by the Des Plaines River. I let the Hermit Thrush at the top of this post fly in from March 31, but I will return to the rest of that day in a later post.

On March 17, the Eastern Bluebirds were watching me from the Swan Pond area.

There have been four Red-breasted Mergansers consistently in the river. That day it wasn’t easy to get them all in one photo.

A Song Sparrow, a female Northern Cardinal and a Dark-eyed Junco put up with me.

On March 19th, a little sunshine made all the difference.

I saw a Ring-billed Gull fly by with something in its beak. I could not determine what the delicacy was. But the gull made things more interesting.

A pair of Turkey Vultures flew over and I managed these photos of one of them.

On March 26th, I heard an Eastern Phoebe sing, then saw him as he sidled up against the wall and then later perched in a tree.

The female Eastern Bluebird was available.

And I had visits with a couple Golden-crowned Kingleta.

The Red-breasted Mergansers were still around. If you look closely to the left side of the group you can see the head of the second female emerging from the water.

I was thinking of stopping at this point, but I decided to stuff one more morning’s photos in here. March 26 was cloudy, nothing new there. By now I was hearing and seeing two Eastern Phoebes.

The clouds called to be noticed.

Then I encountered a burst of color from an Early Crocus. There was a brave insect checking out the right-most blossom,

Two Canada Geese got into a brief disagreement.

Near the end of my walk, I encountered a couple Brown Creepers. It’s the first time I’ve captured one in flight.

I didn’t expect it would take me so long to get around to these photos, but I’m taking a break this morning from most outdoor activities. I have been quite busy draining my sinuses from a cold that started to challenge me on Thursday. I am keeping up with WFMT’s spring pledge drive, and I plan to check out the live videos of the protests. I wasn’t planning on joining a protest today, but it didn’t seem quite right to go for a walk in the woods either if I’m not feeling up to par. I’d rather get over the cold.

In any event I will be back with more recent excursions and maybe I can manage a walk tomorrow, as every day more and more migrants are showing up. The plots thicken on all fronts.