Lakefront Parks Fall Recap

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Ring-Billed Gull, Grant Park

I don’t get out as often as I’d like to during the week, and there are fewer places to go, which should make it easier, I suppose, but it doesn’t. I have been spending most of my mid-afternoons in Lake Shore East Park. Although one morning a couple weeks ago I did get up an hour early and trekked before work through the north part of Jackson Park, Butler Field, and then Lurie Garden in Millennium Park, where the day before Dave Johnson had reported Cape May Warblers in droves. I was lucky to find them still there, foraging in the hazelnut trees.

Cape May Warbler, Lurie Garden, Millennium Park 9-25-14

There were also American Goldfinches plucking seeds from the grasses.

American Goldfinch, Lurie Garden

And an Orange-Crowned Warbler, which at first glance confused me, since I haven’t seem them for a while.

Orange-Crowned Warbler, Lurie Garden

Later that day, I saw a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird at Lake Shore East Park.

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Lake Shore East Park, 9-25-14

And Red-Winged Blackbirds enjoying someone’s discarded rice.

Red-Winged Blackbird Takeout, Lake Shore East Park

And a beautiful juvenile White-Crowned Sparrow.

Juvenile White-Crowned Sparrow, Lake Shore East Park

The day before, at Lake Shore East Park, there were several Ruby-Crowned Kinglets.

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, Lake Shore East Park

And a Brown Thrasher trying to hide behind the branches and almost succeeding.

Brown Thrasher, Lake Shore East Park

This was the last Common Yellowthroat I found this fall.

Common Yellowthroat, Lake Shore East Park

And one of a few Dark-Eyed Juncos that arrived on September 22.

Dark-Eyed Junco, Lake Shore East Park

Also on September 22, the photographs below.

Adult White-Crowned Sparrow

A lingering Blackpoll Warbler.

As the days grow shorter and the weather gets cooler, a new crop of crows has emerged to entertain me with their peanut antics. A short Crow Post is on the way.

Park’s Progress

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Lisa Rest

According to a website complete with site cams I have just discovered, Maggie Daley Park progress is moving apace, and the first trees will be planted, it looks like, before the end of the summer. I suspect that wildlife will start moving in before the space will be open to the public, and am hopeful that at least more green space will attract avian visitors for fall migration.

I have no idea whether this is an observation deck for the construction workers or a permanent fixture in the park, but I suspect the latter, or maybe a little bit of both. It looks too elaborate to function solely for the construction effort.

Going down to Lake Shore East Park which is north of Millennium and the Maggie Daley project, there is a stair-wall to be navigated from the west side. The park looks lush, green, and…pretty birdless.

I did manage to hang out with American Crow families a few weeks ago while the kids were still young and begging, but I have not seen them in recent weeks. I suspect, as always, they have taken the weaned preteens off to learn how to be crows in larger, less-peopled spaces.

Occasionally I encounter a single crow somewhere who shirks its sentry duties and partakes of peanuts.

There was a semi-photographable Red-Winged Blackbird in the Lurie Garden last week.

The only thing that kept me from going to any parks on Monday was lugging two boxes of blueberry coffee-cake scones downtown for Kim’s birthday. Too hard to lug the camera. So I can no longer take a walk without a camera. Tsk, tsk.

I played hooky today (albeit planned ahead of time) and bought a vehicle sticker for the new car, worked in the yard, and put away all my tax receipts for the last 8 or 9 years while still trying to find the title for the old beater. No luck yet, but I will be organized after all this. I also baked pineapple bread and made some delicious cabbage/carrot slaw. Weather-wise it was a glorious day to do anything. I am claiming the entire weekend’s excellent weather for my birthday, so there is no need for anyone to elaborate further on that event, since nothing can top the gift I have already received.

Getting up early to go somewhere. Report to follow. Happy Independence Day to all U.S. readers!

Last Looks in the (Chicago) Loop

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Common Yellowthroat

While taking a break from getting organized and trying to locate the title to my old car… Every morning I look out the back window at the dead Ford sitting on the slab and vow to get rid of it. It’s only a matter of weeks before I will have to buy a new city sticker even though I’m not driving it. I’m sure the cat takes refuge underneath its rusting hulk when she isn’t hiding in the hostas. All reasons to motivate me to tear the house apart, calmly, until I find the misplaced title so I can donate the car to a good cause.

Lincoln’s Sparrow

Here are a few pictures taken the end of last week, which was the last time I saw migrants in the city. Some are from 155 N. Wacker on my way into the office. The others were taken in Lake Shore East Park.

Up until Friday there was at least one White-Throated Sparrow at 155 N. Wacker who would start singing whenever I showed up, but Friday I saw a Lincoln’s Sparrow, which is highly unusual this late in the year. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Lincoln’s Sparrow vocalize, though.

Chestnut-Sided Warbler, 155 N. Wacker

There was a Chestnut-Sided Warbler at 155 N. Wacker as well, but the mainstay had been a male Common Yellowthroat who was on site for a couple weeks. As of Tuesday he was gone.

American Redstart, LSE Park

At Lake Shore East Park among the last migrants I saw last week were the female American Redstart, above, and a Least Flycatcher, below.

Least Flycatcher, LSE Park

But now the newest arrivals are fledgling crows. I think there are two, although I saw only this one being weaned last week. Oddly enough, there was never any sound to go with that wide gaping mouth. Perhaps there is a different protocol at hand for Lake Shore East Park and this youngster was instructed not to draw attention to itself by making a racket.

Crow Fledgling, LSE Park

That wide-eyed look of “now what?” is unmistakable.

A series of photographs as the parents’ body language tells the story: “We are not feeding you anymore.” I think I recognize the crow with the bouffant hairdo as a former fledgling from about 4 years ago. Notice how he tries to look profoundly disinterested in the interaction between the fledgling and its mother.

The ultimate insult, after waving the peanut around in front of the fledgling, she takes off with it!

On Tuesday I had some time to hang out with the crows. As far as I could tell, the youngster had not figured out how to do its own peanuts yet and was still falling into a bit of the gaping mouth routine.

By next year if it survives, this fledgling may turn into a peanut expert like the bird below.

Crow Post

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Lisa Rest

We now interrupt Spring Migration with a Crow Post. The weather has forced us to stay inside today as it rains, sleets, and – dare I say it? – yes – snows.

Actually it occurred to me that we’ve been distracted by all these migrants and we haven’t talked about Crows for a while. The Crows may have been sending me messages seeing as how the fact that I have more peanuts and I have not left the office to visit them doesn’t make sense to them at all. I filled the bag this morning that I would have taken to the park if it was worth going out.

But it’s unfair to write them off as just masterminds of Peanutology.

I want to share with you a marvelous video from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It’s a webinar that I was unable to watch when it was originally broadcast but now it is up and available in the archives, and it’s all about Kevin McGowan and Anne Clark’s research on the American Crow and Crow Behavior. And it’s absolutely wonderful. The talk covers some things I already know about, but I learned a lot too, and felt compelled to comment on their blog (the Crows wanted me to push the cause for hot dogs!). I didn’t know, for instance, about the northerly crows that migrate, although it makes sense. And did you know there are 45 species of crows worldwide?

As The Snow Melts

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Chicago Portage 3-23-2014

Not quite “As The World Turns” — but the passage of time lately seems about as slowly evolving as a soap opera. And it did snow last night. But there are still signs of spring,

Song Sparrow on the sidewalk at 155 N. Wacker on 3-20-14

Not all the signs of spring are inspiring, such as finding my first dead migrant, the Song Sparrow above, on the sidewalk, but for the most part, there is cause for celebration.

Northern Cardinal, Millennium Park

The first fragile days of spring are upon us and while winter has not yet loosened its grip, the birds are arriving and getting down to business, claiming their territories for nesting. The days are getting longer and the wait for warmer weather is nearly over. I hope.

Red-Winged Blackbird

My first-of-year (FOY) Red-Winged Blackbird (in Illinois) was last Thursday, the same day I found the Song Sparrow, and the same location, 155 N. Wacker. But the bird was backlit and light was poor, so I waited until I went out Sunday to photograph this RWBB at the Portage, where he was joined by at least a dozen more males setting up their territories. A song sample is below.

Chicago Portage 3-23-14

All I could see was frozen water, but several pair of Canada Geese saw nesting spots. The pair below, in particular, proclaimed their territory quite loudly. You can hear them by clicking the arrow below the picture.

Canada Geese

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Common Grackle

Adding to predictable spring arrivals, the Red-Bellied Woodpecker (although Red-Bellieds have wintered here for the most part) at the Portage on Sunday and the Common Grackle at Millennium Park on Friday.

American Crow

Crows have been here all winter too, of course, but they seem to have a little more spring in their flight.

American Crow with peanut

Even the commonest Rock Pigeon is all decked out for rebirth. I learned to tell Blue Bars from other color morphs years ago when I tried to monitor Chicago Loop Pigeons for Cornell’s citizen science project. But I found it hard to keep up with them, and then the crows distracted me…

Blue Bar Rock Pigeon

Here’s our noisiest goose couple again. I like the way everything seems to be leaning to the right…

I hope to be back with more from Belize very soon.

A Crow Batik

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Lisa Rest

It was snowing “lake-effect” when I got off the train this morning. Wearily, I looked down at the river where a female White-Winged Scoter fished amongst several Red-Breasted Mergansers. Too cold and raw to stay.

But by 1:30 p.m. the sun had come out in full force and it was a beautiful day to be out. Still cold, but not windy. I was on a mission to purchase cilantro since I had none in the refrigerator the night before and I needed to make guacamole to use up the avocados I bought last week. I packed the camera and peanuts on my back, in case there were crows to visit on the way back.

Sure enough there were crows, even on the way. Something like 20 crows flew way overhead, turning and twisting against the sky. Six landed on top of the Pritzker Pavilion, as if to wait for my return. They were not there when I came back, but it did not take long for four crows to discover me and the peanuts.

After a while I just decided to see if I could focus on the crows’ acrobatics in the air and sometimes almost on the ground.

The picture below mystifies me. It reminds me of nothing, except perhaps a crow turned inside out.

If I didn’t know this was a Crow…

Perhaps we are all more at ease with the slip and slide of snow and ice.

The light was bright against the snow, but the angle of it is much more welcoming, on March 3. Spring is here. We’re not done with the snow yet, but the sunshine helps. A lot.

Offering Sacrifices to the Software Gods

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Lisa Rest

This blog post is totally off-topic, I think — well, given the Endless Winter, maybe not totally off-topic — but I feel the need to vent my frustration and so I am giving space to it.

For years I used to carry around little spiral-bound notebooks, journalling on the train, on a plane, up in my mother’s room when I went to visit my dad and brother after she died, wherever…until communing with a laptop became more expedient. Not to mention that I once left a notebook in the ladies room of the Chicago Theatre the first time I went to see Steely Dan and I never recovered it. I imagine it was simply thrown in the trash, but for quite a while I got slightly paranoid and thought somehow someone had stolen the notebook or would find it and manage to trace it to me, even though my name wasn’t on it. A lot of the early bird-and-music observations are buried somewhere in much earlier notebooks such as the ones pictured above, and someday I have to go through and decipher them, my handwriting not always being legible even to me, since I have always thought faster than I can write, and it still happens to me even as I type at the speed of 120 wpm.

But now that everything is supposedly secure with my new laptop, it’s only fitting that I find a new cause for paranoia. Somewhere in the last day or two, I think it might have been yesterday morning, I saved and closed everything and let Apple install the latest security update, which I had read about, I think, in the New York Times the day before, and it didn’t seem like an issue I had time to deal with, as far as backing up All My Data before, since I have never, ever lost a text document…

Drivel is sometimes my only verification of existence, especially when the Crows aren’t around. I don’t take it personally with the Crows, they’ll be back as soon as the weather improves.

Well, suffice it to say that I am glad I didn’t lose any of my work I was doing with the photographs, although I do have the original photos backed up externally – but I lost the entire month of drivel for February 2014, whatever it was, basically stuff that I wrote on the weekends, sometimes a comment here and there during the week, nothing terribly important, I don’t think – except that now I will never know.

I guess I’ve been lucky. Just dumb luck. Read about this happening to people all the time, right? The stupid file was saved! I didn’t lose December or January. What happened to February? I lost a month of my life. Not the first time it’s happened (having had an entire laptop stolen) and likely not the last either.

Where the paranoia sets in? Maybe I’m being spied on by the NSA and it’s incorporated into the Mac update. Wouldn’t surprise me. Not that I’m doing anything any more subversive than anybody else. I may have signed a few extra petitions and letters urging people to drop the Keystone XL… but that’s another off-topic blog post let’s hope not in the making.

I am still fried over this lost file, but I will never ever recover it – I’ve been everywhere on the Mac and it does not exist, and yes, I downloaded some free software to look for it which doesn’t help either – it simply got swept up during the installation or restart or whatever it was that went on yesterday or the day before or the night before or whenever it was that I allowed this to happen. Maybe it was last night when I was just too tired to do anything? No, I was falling asleep reading something. It wasn’t last night. Just as well I didn’t notice it last night, it would have pissed me off even more and I wouldn’t have been able to sleep. I am simply going to start saving these damned things on a flash drive. It’s easier and I can always overwrite with the latest version. Period.

Thanks for listening to my rant. I’ll be back soon with an update on the baby birds.

P.S. Arggh!! As I am now restoring the last version of this post…

Well I’d be really annoyed if any of my picture work disappeared along with it so I guess I can live with this small sacrifice. Offering up journals to the software gods. Really.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Hardened by weeks of cold, snow and ice, perhaps we are a bit skeptical of warmer, beautiful weather, but it was present today, and so welcome as a sneak preview of better days to come.

American Crow

Accompanying the bright sunshine and bluer skies were the Millennium Park birds who seemed happy to see me..and my bag of goodies,

White-Throated Sparrow

I have seen White-Throated Sparrows off and on all winter, but today in the bright sunshine they looked brand new.

Lately I have seen male Northern Cardinals alone, which really makes me wonder what the females are up to. A cardinal was singing in my neighborhood this morning as I walked to the train.

The crows have been keeping somewhat of a low or subdued profile in my presence. I think they might feel exposed by all the contrasting snow. Whatever it is, I was surprised by this crow’s grey feathers. Click on the picture for a better look.

Black-Capped Chickadee

Even the Black-Capped Chickadees were vying for my attention today.

Whatever the green material was covering, this White-Throated Sparrow seemed to think it was an interesting perch. Perhaps the color symbolizes spring to him too.

Cabin Fever Blues

Posted on January 26, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Female Cardinal at Home 1-25-14 3437.jpg-3437

Female Northern Cardinal on the sunflower seed feeder

I’ve got the Cabin Fever Blues. Don’t bother watching the news. (Random thoughts after shoveling…)

Chicago Lakefront thru the Office Window 1-24-14 3358.jpg-3358

Chicago Lakefront view from the office

It’s the same old thing. Still snowing.

Snowtracks in the Cancer Survivor’s Garden

I’ve got the Too Blues too.

House Sparrows at Cancer Survivor 1-21-14 3290.jpg-3290

House Sparrows at the Cancer Survivor’s Garden

Too cold, too windy.

Snow-capped Dirt Pile 1-21-14 3320.jpg-3320

Snow-capped temporary hill made from dirt removed from Daley Bicentennial Plaza

Too many Toos to handle.

Dark-Eyed Junco at the Cancer Survivors’ Garden

(I did manage to get down to the lakefront once last week, but after that, it wasn’t possible.)

Sub-zero has many faces.

American Robin, yews, Cancer Survivors’ Garden

Ice and hard, sculpted snow.

Slipping and sliding, or crunching and sinking.

The sun looks like the moon

And the clouds like an ocean.

I guess this red hedge sculpture by the yacht club is designed to brighten up the place. This was a couple weeks ago after the thaw…

White-winged Crow 1-22-14 3323.jpg-3323

There’s even a little white in the left wing of this cold snow-crow…

I See The Light(room)

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Lisa Rest

Millennium Park Crow

Over the past few days I’ve been struggling to figure out the new laptop and its operating system/software…making illogical mistakes as I go, losing sleep. I hanker for some of those missing keys like “home” and “end” while I’m typing too but I suspect there are substitutes to be discovered later. Oops, just found one – control-arrow.

Lurie Garden in Winter

It’s the kind of annoying stuff I dream about as the unsolved problems keep recirculating in the background of everything else I do. Reminds me of years ago when I first learned how to type on a PC, I was blocking and copying in my sleep…

Yesterday morning on the way in to work, my brain muddled with questions about why this or that wasn’t working logically, after a frustrating session trying unsuccessfully to move photos from iPhoto into Lightroom… suddenly about two blocks away from the office came the clarion call: “CAW, caw-caw.” One of my Loop Crows. My mind cleared immediately. I stopped to smile because the Crow’s presence put me directly in the moment. When I first looked up, I could not see him. He cawed again, with the same phrase (“CAW, caw-caw” has been the Crows’ announcement of my presence for years). Then the Crow flew to the top of the nearest lamp post ahead of me. As it happened, I was carrying peanuts, so I removed my gloves and laid a few choice nuts on the sidewalk next to the trash bin. He would have to wait until rush hour had subsided before he could fetch them, but somehow I knew he would. I had to thank him for clearing my mind. And confirming that I am so well-trained.

Millennium Park Crow with Peanuts

The photos are from the last two days’ afternoon excursions to Millennium Park and have nothing whatsoever to do with the post, except that I am so excited to be able to process things again. And I have no one but yesterday’s Loop Crow to thank, because he cleared my mental block.

Of course I purchased books to learn all the new stuff and started reading online help forums, but in the end I managed last night to intuitively figure things out myself, maybe nudged slightly by things I had read. But in general I tend to resist direction and submit to trail and error. Whatever it is or was, I am now in control of the photos I loaded on to the new laptop and looking forward to taking on the Trip Photo Task this weekend.

House Sparrows

I still credit the Crow for enabling me to stop my circular thinking long enough to find a solution.

American Robin

It was a sign, too, last night after I realized that the San Francisco symphony concert was playing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, which is one of my all-time favorite pieces of music. Although not what I might have chosen to accompany my victory over the software problem, it still confirmed my elation.

Female Cardinal

The Loop Crows were waiting again for me this morning on the way in: there were two of them this time. I crossed the street to where they were hanging, but thought better of leaving peanuts on the sidewalk, crossed back and was on my way when one reminded me loudly that I could still leave some peanuts somewhere. I put a few on top of a transformer box. It just occurred to me that there are cameras on every corner recording traffic and pedestrian activities. “Look at this. There she is again. Leaving peanuts.”

White-Throated Sparrow

We are experiencing a bit of a thaw. The warmer temperatures are welcome.

House Sparrow

I hope to return soon with safari snapshots.

P.S. Elation made it no better, I was up late again. My indoor birds would like you to know that they have had enough.

Goldbird Variations

Why Birds Sing in Key with Music, or how I finally put perfect pitch to use.

Category Archives: Crows