Category Archives: photography

In Spite of the Clouds

Posted on by
4

I haven’t been out for a walk the past two days, due to snow of one sort or another. I did manage a few visits last week in the gloom. These photos are all from Riverside, starting with January 18.

it was warmer last week and from time to time there were Canada Geese.

Any bird who sits still long enough to be photographed gets my attention.

There were geese on the lawn by the library.

And then I noticed a lot of American Tree Sparrows in the grass as well.

But then after I crossed the footbridge and started to walk the trail nearest the river in Riverside Lawn, I spotted a Winter Wren.

Seeing I was paying attention to the Winter Wren, a Carolina Wren came out to pose for me. This happened the last time I saw these two characters. I was also happy to hear a vocalization from the Carolina Wren that was new for me. I hope I remember it next time I hear it.

Fitting in with all the brown birds, a Mallard hen standing in a shallow spot.

And I saw 64H again. That may have been the last time I saw him.

My next visit on January 20 was much gloomier.

But there was a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers in the river that made up for the gloom.

I barely caught the Belted Kingfisher in flight and then managed to find it perched later with its back to me.

Backlit gloom did no favors for this White-breasted Nuthatch.

On January 23, there were at least 100 Canada Geese by the footbridge. I couldn’t stuff them all into one frame.

The light wasn’t good enough to capture a Downy Woodpecker in focus, but he brightened up the gloom anyway.

I saw the Belted Kingfisher again. He was quite far away.

A Northern Cardinal was my consolation prize.

It’s been quiet, getting colder, and we are about to dip into the deep freeze. The snow so far hasn’t been too much of a problem as the temperature has been just above freezing most of the time, but it looks like the next few days we will have more snow to deal with in addition to the cold. Such is winter.

Looking forward to singing Sunday morning. It will be just sopranos and altos. We’re singing a lovely little song in Italian and I am looking forward to rolling my r’s.

More winter birds on the way. Hard to believe we’re almost done with January.

More Sunshine?

Posted on by
4

Apparently I lied in my last post, because as far as I can tell from these pictures, January 10 was sunny as well. At least it was sunny early when I was at the Chicago Portage, and although I did not see very many birds, the visit was still fairly interesting.

Here’s how everything looked when I walked in. It was very quiet.

And then, not too far along the trail, I spotted a Red-tailed Hawk sitting in a tree on the other side of the stream. Its presence could have explained at least some of the quiet.

On closer inspection, I noticed it had prey – and that turned out to be a Gray Squirrel.

I think the hawk was flushed from its perch by the man I think of as Mr. Peanut (I think our friend George once referred to him as Peanut Pete, but I don’t know his real name) who was walking the inside trail behind it, because when I encountered “Mr. Peanut” walking in the opposite direction he asked me if I saw “that big hawk”. But I’m sure the hawk hadn’t been too happy with me paying such close attention to it either.

Below is one more photo from the previous series – perhaps you can see the squirrel in the hawk’s talons a little easier.

After that, everything else was less exciting. However, the moss and lichen caught my interest in the sunshine.

A female Downy Woodpecker was busy in the deeply furrowed bark of a cottonwood.

I was trying to follow some movement on the ground for a while before I finally saw the face of a Fox Sparrow. Then the sparrow flew up and perched – and sat and stared at me, as they seem to like to do – but it was too backlit for a great photo.

The Northern Cardinals have not been terribly shy lately. I qualify that, though, by noting these photos were taken at some distance.

It appears it was cold enough that morning for the shallower water to be frozen over, eliminating the possibility of waterfowl. However, looking back on the weather for that day, we got up to 51 degrees at some point and the next day, although totally cloudy, was even a bit warmer. All that is over now, however. We are due for some cold weather in addition to snow.

Waking up to light snow this morning, I’m taking a day off from birding, but there were a few birds in the yard that I managed to capture after I swept off the walks, and I’ll keep the camera loaded for any future opportunities. It’s not snowing heavily yet but it looks like that could change. I like the snow. It’s pretty. It feels warmer because of the humidity. And it’s a little brighter than the constant cloud cover.

I’ll be back later with a few images I coaxed out from the gloom.

First Crow Post of 2023

Posted on by
6

Last weekend I was determined not to let another cloudy day deter me from having some fun, so on Sunday morning I drove downtown to visit the American Crows on the Chicago lakefront – armed with peanuts in the shell and a fresh batch of Crows Favorite Cookies I had baked the day before.

Since Crows always know ahead of time what is bound to happen, it didn’t take long for my followers to find me. But when I first rode the elevator up to street level from the underground parking garage, the sky was not inviting.

Yet within a moment or two I saw two Crows flying overhead. I crossed Columbus Drive and entered that section of Grant Park just north of Buckingham Fountain that does not have its own name, as far as I can tell. But it has a statue and a garden and other features that differentiate it from some of the other sections. Unfortunately those features did not invite photographs in the winter gloom.

Grant Park, north of Buckingham Fountain

I was soon joined by one Crow.

And within half a moment I had three – then four – Crows coming to see me.

It had occurred to me that photographing black birds on a gray day was not going to be fruitful, but the Crows gave me plenty of opportunities anyway.

The first Crow seemed to remember the cookies. But the others went for the peanuts initially. There was one Crow who decided to approach a piece of cookie by first jumping back from it in case it was a trap – or a bomb – and when the cookie did not attack it, the Crow bravely took the sample.

I took too many photographs of the Crows, but I haven’t visited with them for a year, so I couldn’t help myself. I just have to visit the lakefront more often this year.

A Crow observing a Gray Squirrel who went straight for the cookie

It was time to cross Jean Baptiste Dusable Lake Shore Drive and move toward the lakefront. The Crows came with me.

I should perhaps mention that the Crows were cawing in the key of B minor which matched the music playing in my head. I take for granted that they read my thoughts, but I had forgotten they also seem to be able to listen in on my ear worms.

Crows are great birds to feed, in no small part because they are fastidious in gathering their food and carrying it off to stash for later consumption. No mess!

At some point I noticed the sun was trying to come out from behind the clouds.

Once I was at the lakefront, the Crows followed me a bit but did not go beyond the Chicago Yacht Club. Unlike my visit last year, I had only about 8 Crows total this time with no others north of the yacht club at Monroe Harbor. So I brought home the extra cookies and peanuts. Cookies for me, peanuts for the squirrels.

There were not a lot of birds in and around the lake but I had a nice walk and it was just good to be on the lakefront again.

Monroe Harbor

At least I got to see a couple Red-breasted Mergansers for a change.

Sunshine, which had been absent all week, began to return by the time I was already on my way home. The next day, Monday, was The Sunny Day of the Week. Tomorrow, we are promised, sunshine returns. It will be colder than it has been, but it is January. I will likely visit the Chicago Portage.

I have more of the usual local visits to report and will be back. Looking forward to singing with the choir Sunday morning. Our three selections are all in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Oh Foggy Day

Posted on by
4

We are experiencing a brief, wet warmup. Due to the forecast, I spent most of this morning indoors. As I sat on the futon and began to assemble this post, I wondered if the precipitation outside inspired a number of my indoor birds to bathe in the pie-plate birdbath that sits atop the third finch cage. Furious after-bath feather shuffling and preening aside, the test of the emergency broadcast system on WFMT brought on the usual immediate response of the Zebra Finch Chorus as they yelled back at it collectively. Yesterday they all responded briefly to what sounded like a child’s vocalization outside. But earlier this morning when I heard the municipal alarm tests in the distance, the birds did not comment. Perhaps only certain frequencies elicit their response. One thing is certain. They never seem to find a reason to protest the noise of fireworks that drive me insane every year.

Since the first few days of 2023 have not afforded any notable sightings and I am weary of trying to focus the camera in this gloomy weather, today’s post reflects previous gloomy visits to the Chicago Portage on December 29 and a smidgen from December 13.

On the 29th, I first spotted a distant Downy Woodpecker

There’s probably no good reason to show three nearly-identical photographs of the Fox Sparrow below, which I encountered on the 29th, except that it insisted on sitting still for so long I had to comply with its request to be noticed. I had been walking the trail encountering no birds whatsoever after the Downy for at least fifteen minutes when I heard a sparrow call from the vegetation on the slope next to the trail. I wasn’t sure which species it was, but I decided to stop and respond to the best of my ability in kind with the call. Soon, this Fox Sparrow came out from where it had been hiding and sat directly in front of me. We stared at each other for a moment and then I slowly raised my lens to see if it was possible to get its photograph. Little did I know the bird would be so starved for attention from anyone that it would sit and sit and, well, you get the idea. I finally had to give up my stillness and cause it to move because it might still be perched there if I had not.

That encounter was enough for me to feel like the visit that morning had certainly been worth it. Anything after that would be icing on the cake. As it turned out, there wasn’t much.

One distant falcon flew over and at first I wrote it off as a Cooper’s Hawk but the bend and angle in the wing and the shape of the head suggested otherwise. I’ve decided it was a Merlin.

Just one gray sky background after another. I kept trying to see if this Hairy Woodpecker would finish preening and decide that he looked okay.

Were it not for this Northern Cardinal’s color I might not have seen him at all.

Here’s how various parts of the Portage looked on the 29th. Absolutely nothing happening in the water either.

Except for the melt and the water draining out under the bridge closest to Harlem Avenue.

One struggles these days to find a couple distantly perched American Goldfinches.

Another Hairy Woodpecker chose a better background. He was a lot closer too than the preening one.

And then right before I left, an adult Bald Eagle flew over the parking lot.

On the 13th the sky appeared even darker.

But things hadn’t gotten quite so cold yet and there was still duckweed – and Canada Geese – in the water. Not much else to report from that day, but it is nice to see a reminder of how much water can accumulate in the stream.

So today has been on-and-off drizzle or light rain, intense fog and even a brief – perhaps for one or two minutes – thunderstorm. Every once in a while the sky gets a bit lighter and I think it’s over only to collapse into utter gloom again. It is turning out to be a good day for cleaning. I cleaned the dining room, I’m doing a load of laundry and I’ll clean cages in the basement later.

Playing a little music for the service on January 1 was somewhat fun, with all the attendant miseries and mishaps of live performance kept to a minimum, and I think I have finally let go of it. All in all it went fine and if I wind up doing it again I’ll know the flow of things better. At the end of the day, to paraphrase a line from the interview segment of The Goat Rodeo Sessions – Chris Thile reiterated what Stuart Duncan said – it’s just music.

The River’s Slow Thaw

Posted on by
8

One result of the cold snap – frozen water – resulted in diving ducks looking for open water deep enough to, well, dive in. Although much of the Des Plaines River remains frozen around Riverside, there is open water closer to the Joliet Avenue bridge on either side. On Wednesday morning, I saw some Common Goldeneye, and yesterday morning there were several Common Mergansers. To be expected, there are a lot of Mallards up and down the river, and I saw a few of them diving too, although they don’t stay submerged very long.

The Des Plaines River looking west from the Hofmann Tower in Lyons

Below are some groups of Mallards on the ice.

It looks like there were Canada Geese here before the Mallards.

As I started to walk along the paved trail, I saw these two male Common Goldeneyes.

And then a female.

And below is a first-year male Common Goldeneye.

The rest of the river from any close vantage point was still pretty much covered in ice and snow.

The snow on the fallen logs across the worn foot-trail in Riverside Lawn adds a layer of interest.

But I really didn’t see any passerines until I got back to where my car was parked in Lyons by the Hofmann Tower.

Dark-eyed Junco – a true snow bird

Close to the wrought-iron fence by the Hofmann Tower, where the landscape descends toward the river, I spotted a Song Sparrow. And then under the feeders, another Song Sparrow and a Junco, and then an American Tree Sparrow and the Song Sparrow.

Yesterday, the view looking west from the Hofmann Tower was a bit gloomier.

There was more open water, but much of the river is still ice.

This time close to the Joliet Avenue bridge were some Common Mergansers. Below is a first-year male.

Look closely inside this bird’s open mouth and you will see a fish it has caught.

Below is an adult male Common Merganser.

The next surprise was a first-year male Hooded Merganser – farther away, and determined not to be photographed, but I kept trying in between dives and managed the images below.

I don’t know when, if ever, I have noticed first-year male ducks, so this was an educational extra benefit from winter birding. You may see fewer birds, but notice them more.

Sometimes I just have to settle for the beauty of a big, slow-moving Canada Goose.

I noticed a Mallard hen trying to eat something that seemed to keep sliding onto the ice, but I had no idea what it was until I developed the pictures. It looks like a small crayfish or maybe a piece of one.