Winter doldrums… Most of these photographs – at least most of the ones with birds in them – are from December 10 on one of my more regular visits to Riverside. There were still passerines to be seen, even if they all fell into the predictable variety. The deep-seated cold had not yet found its way to us. So maybe December looks a little bit better than January…
By an offer of little contrast, for instance, below is a scene of the Des Plaines River on December 10, with the water still open, and below it, one from January 19, which was my last visit – with a lot of ice.
Here is likely the last Hairy Woodpecker I saw, in December.
I haven’t seen the Red-bellied Woodpeckers lately either, although I have heard them on occasion. In the gallery below this photo, the somewhat strange-looking backside photo of the woodpecker flying away at least shows off a red belly, so to speak.
American Robins are around all winter, but I don’t always see them.
Northern Flickers are around in winter too, but even more scarce.
Northern Cardinals are even lying low in the colder weather. The second photo was more recent, and the bird was much farther away.
It was still possible to see flocks of Rock Pigeons flying in December, but no more.
Even the little “snow” birds, Dark-eyed Juncos, are less visible lately. It was unusual to have the second bird sit in one place for three photos.
Black-capped Chickadees are hiding.
One very cold-looking Northern Cardinal
Mallards in December sunshine… and January freeze
Trail time before and after snow and ice…
A splatter of lichen
I always like seeing the Hofmann Tower on my way back.
I managed to photograph the two Mourning Doves on my last visit when we caught each other somewhat off guard. Only a couple months ago, I was seeing eight Mourning Doves. I hope these are not the only two left.
Today we have had lots of fluffy, white snow to deal with. It’s not a deluge but the total accumulation might be around 6 or 7 inches, I shoveled my walk and some of my neighbors’ early this morning in time for the few parents and kids who walk to the elementary school down the block. We got another inch or so after that. At least it’s not blowing around. Next up, we dive into the deep freeze, which will probably postpone my walks for yet another few days. So I will be returning to this space with more from past ventures.
Here’s a few more scenes around Riverside Lawn before the deep freeze.
It’s another cold, cloudy day with snow in the forecast. The birds have not been flocking to the feeders this morning so much as I expect they are anticipating weather. The thaw was brief and if the ice at the bottom of my back porch stairs is any indication, it’s likely still quite icy at the Portage, so I sat through today’s half-planned walk, sifted through some late summer photographs and will go swimming later.
Late August at the Portage was full of immature birds and a few early fall migrants. These photos are from August 28. Below are two American Redstarts. The paler one could very well be a first-year male, or a female. I tend to forget that some American Redstarts breed in Illinois, they don’t all go farther north, because I have only seen them in migration. But then it’s logical to see them before the other warblers start making their way south. In any event I look forward to seeing them again in the spring.
Juvenile American Robins like the one at the top of the post come in spotty plumage,
American Robin and a Chimney Swift
August is the time of year for spider webs like the one below.
The deer were a lot younger…
and the Portage was lush and green everywhere…
The Yellow Coneflowers were in full bloom, and the Blue Dancer Damselfly was not in a very photogenic location.
I must have gone to the backyard after I got home to see if I could capture any of the birds there. So I managed a shy female Northern Cardinal, a Mourning Dove and what appears to be a Hairy Woodpecker.
But most frustrating of all was trying to capture a Ruby-throated Hummingbird visiting a feeder from too far away. I look forward to more opportunities this year. It might be a little easier to see them now that I’ve had the trees trimmed, but it also might be a little more difficult to hang the feeders!
I will have to decide in the spring how much of this Tall Ironweed I can handle before it takes over the entire backyard.
I have one more post of photos from late August and then there’s still a lot of fall warbler pictures that I took in September – when I had just begun testing the retirement waters with my toe. The days are getting longer…
I will be short on narration with this post – the day after Christmas at the Portage was somewhat more of the same as two days before. There were a couple species of birds I did not see on the previous visit. The Fox Sparrow below, for instance, unfortunately did not give me a better view but it had been weeks since I’d seen one so it was nice to see anyway.
And then months perhaps since I saw my last Kinglet – there was a Golden-crowned Kinglet, not captured very well at all, below.
This was the first time I saw a Red-bellied Woodpecker at the bottom of a tree.
Somewhat obscured but not bothered by my attention to it, a White-throated Sparrow.
More Red-bellied Woodpecker shots through the trees…
I haven’t run into large flocks of House Finches lately but there were a few around.
Always nice to see a Brown Creeper.
American Goldfinches seem to be matching the golden-hued Portage lately.
Some common birds trying to escape attention…
European Starlings in a gnarly oakAn American Robin behind bars
This female Northern Cardinal blends right in.
Often moving quickly in flocks, Dark-eyed Juncos aren’t as easy to capture as they ought to be.
It’s still nice to see Northern Cardinals and Black-capped Chickadees. I see them more often than not.
I will be back with a little New Year’s Eve visit this morning that was short on birds but good to do anyway seeing as how we are under a winter storm watch that starts early tomorrow morning. Predictions are for a lot of snow, and I have no intention of driving anywhere in it. Maybe I can capture some of the birds in the yard in between snow shoveling shifts.
Best wishes and hopes to all for 2022. I will be celebrating by taking down all my 2021 calendars…
Even before I dropped the Canon zoom lens, I was starting to feel like at times it might be more comfortable to go out with the mirrorless camera I purchased a few years ago and had stopped using when I was no longer going downtown to the office. Also I had never really figured out how to get the mirrorless to focus on a bird, so it was a good time to start practicing. These photos are from December 1 and 3, at the Riverside Lawn Trail. I have just figured out that the wooded area across the foot bridge that the county reclaimed which has eventually become part of the forest preserves is called Riverside Lawn.
In spite of the lack of light, I managed to get some fairly decent pictures with this camera. Some well spaced-out starlings were actually all in focus individually. It has a very efficient zoom that managed to get quite clear pictures of the Red-tailed Hawk below from across the river. Invariably I have been seeing a Red-tailed Hawk around 10:00 AM both here and at the Portage.
European Starlings
It must have been windy that morning.
Standing on the first bridge, I noticed a flock of American Robins and the European Starlings hanging out in the shallows and bathing. The camera did a good job capturing the action.
Below is a Hairy Woodpecker, which made four woodpecker species on the 3rd – I did not manage to get a picture of the Northern Flicker. A male Downy Woodpecker is in the second gallery, on the same pole.
And a female Downy Woodpecker.
Red-bellied Woodpecker
I don’t always see Mourning Doves. But on December 3rd, I was standing just hanging out with the mixed flock and a total of eight Mourning Doves eventually showed up.
There are always a lot of Northern Cardinals, and I was lucky enough to figure out the focus on a few of them after many tries.
A Fox Squirrel and a Gray Squirrel.
For as many Dark-eyed Juncos as I normally have seen – up to 30 or more – they are incredibly difficult to capture more often than not. On the ground, they blend right in.
I can always count on Mallards and sometimes Canada Geese.
More dreary views, and the Rock Pigeons that seem to congregate on top of the Riverside Town Hall or the Hofmann Tower.
When it focuses, this camera is great for some really crisp images, so I look forward to using it more often, especially in low light situations. I hope I can get better at focusing all my equipment since I think my ability to determine whether I have the manual focus sharp is diminishing. In this case I gladly welcome artificial intelligence. A wasp nest caught my eye, and I have frequently seen the fungus at the bottom of one tree, which looks like it has been eaten.
I’ll be back shortly with my last visit using my old 100-400mm lens. It’s already proving to be an interesting winter.
I am sure I have heard a Tufted Titmouse at the Portage on occasion, but I have never seen one until, just as I was about to finish my walk on November 2nd, this one appeared. I had been hanging out with a Black-capped Chickadee and the titmouse insisted on having its picture taken instead.
Black-capped Chickadee
More photos of the Tufted Titmouse are below. In all there are way too any photographs in this post. I am trying to empty them off my hard drive so I can keep up with the present. And there are still pictures of the fall warblers from two months ago. Well. You get the picture.
Birds are moving in flocks now, which generally means you can go for a long time without seeing anything move and then encounter several individuals at once. Below is a flock of Cedar Waxwings.
The 1st was a bit sunnier than the second. Northern Cardinals are easier to see now than they were all summer. Even the females allow themselves to be photographed…as long as they are somewhat hidden and backlit.
Although there are lots of White-throated Sparrows, I don’t often see one well enough to get a picture. This one was a challenge.
Another White-throated Sparrow
One sparrow that has been showing up a lot since I took these first photos below is the Fox Sparrow. They are considerably larger than other sparrows and tend to just sit, so even though this one was behind branches, I could still capture it.
Black-capped Chickadee… and an American Goldfinch
House Finches blend right in to the browns and grays of fall.
Below is a Red-tailed Hawk.
I’ve been delighted to see White-breasted Nuthatches after hearing but rarely seeing them all summer.
Nearly every day I have seen a Brown Creeper.
Here’s about how far away the Brown Creeper was.
American Robins are in flocks too, but every once in a while I spot an individual.
Apologies for Downy Woodpecker overload – it is the start of Visible Woodpecker Season… I love to observe their behavior.
There is a barely-visible House Finch in the two photos below – just to get a feel for how well camouflaged birds can be this time of year.
More Northern Cardinals…
More Downy Woodpecker overload…
Speaking of flocks – Red-winged Blackbirds have been stopping by every day so far, in various-sized groupings.
Some scenes of the fall colors here… The water in the bottomlands has dried up by now, but this was fairly soon after we received a lot of well-needed rain.
Backlit House Finches don’t make very interesting photographs but I liked the surrounding vegetation…
One more Goldfinch…
Below is a well-preserved wasp nest.
This juvenile Red-tailed Hawk was sitting with its back toward me … until it took off.
The Des Plaines RiverThe Portage creek
Thank you for letting me get these off my plate. I will be back soon – either with something more historical or more recent. It’s been exciting for me to go out every day, either way.
These photos are from two visits to the Riverside trail on October 20 and 27 – both after periods of some significant rain. Although the Des Plaines is nowhere near flood stage, it is good to see it looking more like a river.
Activity around the Hofmann Tower on 10-20 consisted of two flock bursts – the expected Rock Pigeons and also a flock of Blackbirds, mostly Red-Winged.
The bridge
A view from the bridge
I saw an Orange-crowned Warbler on both occasions.
Below is a Nashville Warbler I saw on the 20th.
It was hard to get a good photo of this Double-Crested Cormorant through the trees but still nice to see on the 20th. I saw one flying a week later and wonder if it was the same bird…
It’s somewhat easier to get Northern Cardinals to sit still for a photo this time of year. As long as they feel somewhat shielded by a twig…
I saw Brown Creepers on both occasions, and was lucky to photograph this one on the 27th.
A Mallard here and there…
European Starlings are in groups, as usual.
One of those Red-winged Blackbirds still hanging around.
Below on the left is the sign posted at either end of the trail in Riverside that runs along the river. On the right is a sign opposite the western end of said trail, which denotes the Plank Road Meadow which features a boat launch.
House Finches are more visible now.
A tree full of Mourning Doves…
I expect to see more White-Throated Sparrows, but managed to capture only the one below.
I was going to simply add the photo directly below and call it a Tennessee Warbler – even though the face looked a little suspect to me. Then this morning when I flipped over the Audubon calendar hanging over the kitchen sink to November, the photograph of the bird on it looked like the one below, only it was identified as a Pine Warbler. So I took out The Warbler Guide to confirm – because now it was showing up as “rare” on my ebird checklist – and went to the bill shape again. That’s what made the face of this bird not look at all like a Tennessee.
Just to elaborate, I rescued the photos below from my external hard drive and found a few more clues to the Pine Warbler identification. There’s ever-so-slightly a hint of wing-bar showing on a couple photographs, but best of all is the one I brightened up a bit, where the bird is looking directly at me. That’s a Pine Warbler face if I ever saw one. I have to be more careful going through all these photos!
Below is a lovely little Song Sparrow.
The remaining Great Blue Heron is not as visible now from the bridge.
Catalpa tree seed pods on the left, and well-eaten Pokeweed on the right.
An American Robin for good measure…
Not sure whose web this is but I found it interesting.
I saw the Red-tailed Hawk flying below before it landed in the tree.
A few more scenes of this location as the late fall progresses.
We are flirting with overnight freezing temperatures. Indeed, this morning I had to scrape the frost off the windows of the car before I went for a walk at the Portage. Today I will be draining as much water as I can store into empty vinegar gallon bottles, to be used in the now-heated birdbaths all winter.
And as the days get shorter and I see fewer birds… take fewer photographs… maybe I can start revisiting the reason why I started this blog in the first place: my fascination with bird song and the birds’ reactions to music. For the moment, I would like to share with you a funny incident I happened to record way back on August 29th. I was playing piano – I have been revisiting Schumann’s “Kinderszenen” – and perhaps that day it had become a bit of drudgery – I was likely distracted by the fact that my effective retirement date was 2 days off. In any event, I struck a wrong chord while playing the 9th piece of it (“Ritter vom Steckenpferd”) and my indoor crowd IMMEDIATELY let me know that was not acceptable. Which not only proves they were right, but also that they are always listening! Below is the clip. Enjoy. 🙂
I’m taking advantage of the rainy forecast – we’re not getting much rain yet but it is quite cloudy and we could get more. I needed a morning off from birding anyway as my left foot was complaining about something of unknown origin yesterday. It’s better this morning, but I’ll defer the walking part of my day and swim a mile in the pool later this evening.
These photographs are from my second visit to the Portage now almost two weeks ago – on September 8th. The clear skies gave way to intense light which made for some interesting contrasts when I found a cooperative Black-throated Green Warbler.
I found it hard to resist taking one photo of my favorite shelf fungus which is conveniently located close to the trail.
Two-year male American Redstarts have been few and far between and avoiding me, but I sort of managed a furtive representation of this one. The first-year males have been plentiful, but I think that’s a female below as the flank color isn’t quite orangey enough.
Female American Redstart
I have seen a good number of Blackpoll Warblers this fall, like the one below.
Here’s one of my favorite combinations – Canada Goldenrod and Boneset seem to have an affinity for each other. A closeup of the Boneset is below.
Here’s a European Starling in the Pokeweed berries.
I had a nice look at a light morph Red-tailed Hawk.
Certain birds tend to stand out and the number of Eastern Wood-Pewees I have seen well fall into this category.
Swainson’s Thrushes have been everywhere. Period. But sometimes they look like Gray-Cheeked Thrushes and vice versa…
This looks like a Gray-Cheeked Thrush to me.
Here’s what the Des Plaines River looked like two weeks ago – it’s even lower now.
Red-eyed Vireos were abundant.
Maybe – just maybe – the bird below was a Wilson’s Warbler. Sadly, I have no other views of it. I am still trying to codify warbler colors. This looks like Wilson’s Warbler Yellow to me.
The Portage colors match the birds.
There was a Canada Warbler that day.
And American Robins are so ubiquitous that when one stands out, I sometimes have to capture it. The bird below looks to be very young and quite curious.
It’s been a rewarding fall migration season so far for me, albeit tucked away in my location limits. Eventually I will have to go down to the lakefront and other places a little more far-flung but for the moment I feel like I am enjoying my morning outings around here.
Thanks to a dog walker I met twice last week… I visited a new-for-me place which has been in my backyard, so to speak, all along. I had been meaning to check out the Riverwalk on the Lyons side of the Des Plaines but never realized the other side had a park along the river called Indian Gardens. Many thanks to Ken the architect from Riverside who told me about it. It’s actually closer to home than the Portage, even, by about a couple minutes.
These pictures are from two days’ visits. I parked on the Lyons side and then walked across the bridge and through the Indian Gardens park. I didn’t venture past the tennis courts the first day, but on the second day I walked through them and found where there is an “unmanaged” trail along the river where I will be going more often.
The Lyons side has a fantastic Hoffman Tower which provides a place to hang out for a sizable number of feral pigeons. It occurred to me that I hadn’t seen a flock of pigeons in flight for quite some time.
Walking through Indian Gardens
Blue Jays seem to be everywhere lately. They’re carrying on noisily and are even sometimes visible.
Time to get your fill of Magnolia Warbler photographs because I just barely saw one the last couple days – I think they have moved on, after dominating the warbler migration scene for two weeks. You can click on any of these pictures to get a better view.
Monarch Butterflies are still migrating here and there.
There are a lot of Northern Cardinals at this location, but they are more often heard than seen. I did manage to capture a few females, though. I’ve never seen one capture an insect – it looks like a grasshopper. And then the one perched in a tree with its leaves already turning – she nearly blends in.
It’s absolutely wonderful to see the Great Egrets – even if it’s mainly due to the fact that we haven’t had any substantive rain for at least a couple weeks and it’s been hot, so the middle of the Des Plaines River is very low – perfect for waders.
There were 4 Great Egrets on my last visit – only 3 visible in this photograph
Gray Catbirds have evaded my lens nearly all summer and now they are getting bolder as they prepare to fly south. The young bird amongst all the dead leaves was right at my feet on the Lyons side.
Canada Geese are moving around and I always love to see them in flight.
Not as many Great Blue Herons as Great Egrets but they are also taking advantage of the shallow river.
On occasion, a Double-Crested Cormorant. Since they are divers, I can’t imagine this bird was too happy with the shallow water situation.
European Starlings are not in huge flocks like they were several years ago. Here’s a few staked out on a dead tree.
I was delighted to see a Belted Kingfisher fly by noisily on my second visit, as I crossed the bridge.
A sneaky closer view of this Great Egret.
Below is a busy Blackpoll Warbler, blending in with the leaves.
Blackpoll WarblerAn American Robin – I liked its perch choice
I saw the Osprey on both visits. On my second visit, just as I discovered the access point to the trail closer to the river, I inadvertently disturbed the Osprey – it was perched in a large tree right past the trail head, until I approached – so I will be more careful to look for it before I venture forth next time. The bird flew across the river to perch on the tree below. It was quite something to have a bird with a 63″ wingspan take off right over my head.
I was happy to find a Canada Warbler and took advantage of its willingness to stick around for several shots, albeit at a distance. This looks like a first year bird, with a faint necklace.
Swainson’s Thrush
I was trying to capture the Gray-Cheeked Thrush below and was photo-bombed by a Magnolia Warbler.
I thought it would be easy to combine all these photos into one post but it seems I have overshot my limit again.
Many more photos to come – if I can keep up with it. I have to get used to my new routine, while it lasts anyway. I have a feeling I will be delving into the archives over the winter months playing catch-up. This morning started off cool and cloudy at Columbus Park where we had a scheduled walk. We didn’t see very many birds and those that we did were not easy to capture in low light. I feel like I’ve been given the rest of the morning off to finish this post.
To celebrate August 31st being my last official day of work, I went to the Portage two mornings in a row, to look for the first signs of fall migration. I didn’t see an awful lot of species on either visit, but there were some nice looks. Best of all was feeling really free to take my time and not worry about checking my work email. I still have to get used to waking up in the dark, though, because I have walks to lead every Saturday in September and October.
Of course the obvious draw this time of year is the fall warblers passing through on their way south from their breeding grounds in the north. I didn’t see a lot of species and missed a couple, but so far I have seen a few warblers each day. They behave differently on their way back to their wintering grounds. They are not foraging in flocks and they are in less of a hurry. So while they may be harder to spot at times, it’s easier to concentrate on one bird at a time. Below are a couple American Redstarts.
American Redstart tails…
are unmistakable.
I felt lucky to find this Bay Breasted Warbler in my photographs.
Magnolia Warbler, also at the head of this post
One of my favorites, a Chestnut-Sided Warbler, was being rather coy.
Not a warbler, but a nice to see Red-Eyed Vireo both days. The bottom photograph was taken the second day when the Vireo was eating poke berries with the Cedar Waxwings.
Thursday morning I managed to capture enough photographs of the Orange-Crowned Warbler below to justify my claim that I had seen one, since it’s very early for this species.
I just barely captured this Nashville Warbler.
Wednesday was cloudy.
Large flocks of Cedar Waxwings were present on both days.
Some closer views of the Waxwings Thursday, when they were busy eating poke berries.
Below is a beautiful wasp’s nest. I have a slightly smaller one in my crabapple tree this year as well…
Something else that I had a lot of in my yard before I removed nearly all of it, below, is Common Beggar Ticks which is native, and an annual – but doesn’t bloom until now.
On the first day I did manage to capture the Swainson’s Thrush below. I also saw a Wood Thrush but that photograph isn’t presentable.
Robins are looking scruffy this time of year. Most of them are juveniles.
When I first walked in on Thursday, there was a deer at the end of the paved path, and then a Cooper’s Hawk with prey landed in a tree above me, but I didn’t see what it had captured.
Unfortunately this Ruby-Throated Hummingbird was completely backlit in bright sunshine but it was still nice to see it perch right in front of me.
There were still a couple Indigo Buntings around.
Juvenile Indigo Bunting
Female Indigo Bunting
For once, there were more than one or two Monarch Butterflies. I realize this is probably the last I will see of them but it was nice while it lasted.
Below is a Chipmunk foraging in a tree.
A few scenes of the Portage and one quick look at the Des Plaines River where not much is happening at the moment.
Black-capped Chickadees are around all year but I don’t always see them. Sometimes I don’t even hear them. This one didn’t mind being seen or heard.
I am trying to navigate this new feeling of almost endlessness. Well, it doesn’t last for long. There is much to do, but less of a feeling of urgency or hopelessness as my work duties have all but vanished. I have agreed to remain with the firm as an independent contractor to help out with various projects while they still try to find and train my replacement. My stipulation was to assume any given morning with nice weather would be off limits for my attention as I will likely be out looking for birds somewhere.
I went rather late to the Portage yesterday morning. I chalked it up to being tired after swimming late Friday night and not happy getting up in the dark. I have been to the Portage a few more times that I haven’t written about yet, but I didn’t take too many pictures yesterday so this is about the size of a blog post I can handle at the moment.
Sometime this past week, after picking up my new prescription glasses, it occurred to me that the viewfinder on my camera might be dirty. I have had a snap-on cover over the LCD display since 2013, and I don’t think I ever removed it to clean it! There was dust and dirt and who knows what else, and while it doesn’t exactly cover the viewfinder, it snaps onto it to align with the LCD display. So after ordering another cover in case I messed up trying to remove and clean, I cleaned the cover, the LCD display and the viewfinder, replaced the cover and solved the main reason why I haven’t been able to focus the camera. One of those “Duh, is it plugged in?” moments…
There weren’t many birds to see yesterday, and for the most part those that I did see were very far away. But now that I am able to focus…sometimes it’s easier to see them with the camera than my binoculars. Two distant male American Goldfinches below…
There were several male Baltimore Orioles about but they didn’t sit still for long.
I was surprised to find what looks like a juvenile Blue Grosbeak in my photographs. I was listening to chip notes that sounded very metallic like a cardinal’s but wasn’t exactly sure who I was following with my lens in the photos below, due to the backlighting making it difficult to see. Blue Grosbeaks are not common at the Portage.
Just when I was about to give up on Robins, I did find the flock as I was heading out of the woods. I caught this one on its way to join a few others in the bare tree branches below. And way in the upper left is an Eastern Kingbird which otherwise would never have made it to the list. So it pays sometimes to take pictures of distant backlit birds.
Pretty well-disguised, I had to look at this photograph more than a few times before I could find the bird in it, which appears to be a young Gray Catbird. I heard several along the trail, but did not see the ones I heard.
My best close encounter was this juvenile male House Finch.
I have been looking for these Damselflies on the back trail that leads out to the train tracks and runs parallel to the river. This one was nice enough to stop and pose for me.
Blue Dancer Damselfly
More pollinators…
Wild Indigo Duskywing
Silvery Checkerspot
Goldenrod Soldier Beetle
This young-looking House Wren was quite far away…
Even farther away was a flock of birds that, until I could blow them up on my laptop later, I couldn’t identify. They turned out to be Cedar Waxwings.
My favorite shelf fungus…
I have become more interested in the plant life that seems to be forever changing at the Portage as more and more invasive species are removed. Having said that, there’s still a potpourri of natives and non-natives. The distant fruits on the left appear to be Pokeweed. The pink flowers in the upper righthand corner are persicaria longiseta which I have been pulling out of my yard for years, as it is non-native (it seems to have a million common names, among them, Oriental Lady’s Thumb). The white flowers are White Snakeroot which I have also been pulling out of my yard before they ever got to bloom. It’s native but weedy.
We’re in a moderate drought again, with periodic promises of rain that so far have not amounted to much.
The Des Plaines is low again.
One more photo of the Silver Spotted Skipper which, in this cropping, at least, makes me appreciate Giant Ragweed a bit more.
Silver Spotted Skipper
I have seven more days of work. It seems hard to believe.
I didn’t go out this morning because I wanted to be home for the “live” videotaped broadcast of Unity Temple’s last virtual service. My friend Linda Rios and I contributed with our musical offering recorded about a month ago, after several false starts and some procrastination. We played Schubert’s Sonatine in D Major for the Prelude and two other shorter pieces: Hommage a J.S. Bach by Hans Andre-Stamm for the anthem and Wait There by Yiruma for the postlude. We will be going back to live services which to be streamed online, but without the congregation as originally planned. The choir also had its first rehearsal outdoors in another church’s garden, complete with chairs set up, a keyboard for the accompanist, new music to learn and a cicada chorus which never stopped singing. We are going to continue to rehearse in this format until we run out of daylight, I guess. See what happens…
I know I am always making promises but I will be back with more from previous Portage visits – before fall migration clamors for my remaining disk space.
