
While contemplating more recent outings for posts, I took a peek at my Chicago Portage photos from May 25 and there are some interesting ones – now that almost everything has changed three weeks later. From the looks of the birds in the photographs, it appears to have been quite cool, and according to the Weather Channel it was indeed cooler than now with a high of high of only 61 degrees F. and a low of 45. I found no mention of the weather in my drivel for that day. I was still getting over the previous night’s performance of Manuel de Falla’s Serenata Andaluza at the Unity Temple Choir talent show:
I am just barely maintaining my sanity. I have reflected on yesterday’s performance, such as it was, of the De Falla. It was a total out-of-body experience. I did not have any idea whatsoever of what I was doing until the second half of the piece. Luckily it finished well, so that likely erased the audience’s memory of what went before it. But I couldn’t tell you what happened in the beginning. I may as well have been playing on glass. It felt totally foreign and strange. I had to rely on my muscle memory to get me through the beginning. I missed notes here and there but did not lose my place, which is totally amazing, because I don’t know where I was or who was playing. I may as well have been sleepwalking.
Speaking of performance, of a sort… I finally figured out how to edit videos once I have uploaded them to my version of Lightroom, so below is a very short but concise and clean video of Tadziu, the Indigo Bunting, at the top of the post – singing.
The first photos I took were of American Robins. The middle photo below appears to be of a very young fledgling.



Then by the water, there were some chilly-looking Barn Swallows.

I also found a few Northern Rough-winged Swallows. One was sharing a fallen tree branch with an American Goldfinch.
It’s that time of year when some birds defy easy identification. It seems awfully early, but I believe the nearly unidentifiable bird below is a fledgling Indigo Bunting.

Merlin couldn’t identify it properly. It suggested it was a European Starling. I know better than that. In the last photo below, a female Indigo Bunting showed up beside it, so that’s how I determined it was likely a fledgling.




I spent some time watching a Green Heron hunt for food.

It couldn’t have been a great day for flycatchers but I saw two.



And this might have been the last Veery I saw.


Gray Catbirds were still out and about but lately they have gone into hiding.

House Wrens are abundant and very vocal.

Distantly viewed from the bridge, this was likely the last Northern Waterthrush I saw this spring.
It also may have been the last time I saw a male Orchard Oriole here. Even more frustrating was after I took these photos, he sat still for a while, but for the life of me I could not focus on him so all those photos were useless.



I did manage to capture a female Baltimore Oriole on the move.
That’s it for May 25. I will be back next with more recent photos before I go back in time again. I am looking forward to opening the windows tonight to cool off the house a bit. We are experiencing weather more common in desert locations. It’s hot and dry during the day, with no humidity to hold in the heat overnight. Our drought is now considered serious. But that’s a subject for another day.