Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Gray Catbird, Thompson Center 12-30-2014

2014 goes out with a shiver for us. Yesterday the temperature dropped to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (that was the high), and today it’s even colder with a wind chill of minus 15 below. I am blessed to have the day off from work, which turns out to be that much more fortuitous since the trains were not running this morning due to mechanical failure and I would have been shivering at the station shelter trying to figure out the next best way to get to work.

Chicago River Fog

There was ample sunshine yesterday which is often the way with extra cold temperatures, so I stopped by the Thompson Center on the way in with the camera already assembled this time to see if the Gray Catbird was available for a photograph. I found it first shivering under a bush and looking not too happy.

Then when a woman asked me for directions, it gave the Catbird a chance to perch on a twig while I wasn’t looking, and when I turned back to see, it posed for several photos before taking off for the top of one of the small trees planted in the sidewalk by the curb. The next time to check on this bird’s status will be Friday, the second day of the new year.

Later, after noon when the sun was shining full blast, I set out for the lakefront parks to see if I could visit some crows before next year. It’s been weeks. I decided to check out Maggie Daley Park first as it is partially open in time for ice skaters to use the skating ribbon.

While a lot of trees have been planted and there is sod and whatever else, the immediate lack of green space and preponderance of human kitsch is disappointing to me.

I suspect this is the “Climbing Wall”…?

I have no idea what this bodes for hungry migrants along the lakefront come spring, but I suspect I will continue to find more migrants at Lake Shore East Park than at Maggie Daley for quite a while.

Another view – the lakefront is beyond. Are those wooden trunks recycled trees “planted” upside down?

I hated Millennium Park when it was first built, but after I started seeing things like a flock of Golden-Crowned Kinglets on the lawn and the crows adopting the Pritzker Pavilion for a nesting site, not to mention the birds that visit Lurie Garden, it has become bird friendlier with time. So maybe in 5-10 years Maggie Daley will be okay for birds too. But I feel as if the more improvements being made lately to the lakefront, the less friendly they are to any species other than humans. Which in the long run means they’re not really human-friendly improvements either.

“Howdy, Stranger”

It wasn’t until I was practically on my way out of Millennium that I found my crows.

There were some adjustments to be made. Has it been so long since we had peanuts that we can’t remember how to carry more than one at a time to a cache location?

Eventually I was joined by a few Black-Capped Chickadees, and almost out of the park I located the Northern Cardinals I heard earlier but they were not interested in becoming visible. Maybe they’re waiting for snow because they know it makes a better picture.

I think I will stay inside most of today. The sunshine does a good job on the indoor crowd, we all feel a bit more possible. Maybe I can post an update of the indoor birds’ status for the new year.

Happy New Year and Thank You to All Who Visit, Read, Follow, Comment, and Fly By my blog – Who ever thought we’d see a year called 2015? This is pretty amazing. 🙂

A Rare Visitor and a Lifer

Posted on October 18, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Harris’s Sparrow, Lurie Garden, Millennium Park

Wednesday afternoon I caught Joan Norek’s post on IBET (Illinois Birders Exchanging Thoughts) in my email about a Harris’s Sparrow at Lurie Garden in Millennium Park. David Johnson had posted the initial sighting but I was so late checking my email I was unaware of it until I saw Joan’s follow-up. Wednesday was the third day in a row I was not carrying the camera with me because of rain and clouds. But I was also going stir crazy, and I had enough peanuts for the crows, so I decided to walk over to Lurie Garden to see if I could find this bird. I have perhaps been within striking distance of seeing a Harris’s Sparrow over the years but have never managed to see one. It was worth checking out and if nothing else it was good to go for a walk.

Cloud Gate sculpture, Millennium Park

As it turned out it wasn’t raining, just misty/drizzly and yes, overcast. But I had my new cell phone with me and it was probably time to see how much of a picture I could get with it. So I took pictures of various things along the way to Lurie Garden at the southeast end of the park. It seemed hopeless to try to get a picture of anything so small as a sparrow. Even a large sparrow, Harris’s being our largest species.

Harris’s Sparrow with iPhone

Again with the iPhone – you really have to dig to find the bird in this cropped photo

I did find the Harris’s feeding in the beds that have all gloriously gone to seed and are left that way to feed the birds over the winter. There were also very many White-Throated Sparrows, some White-Crowned Sparrows, and a few Swamp and Lincoln’s Sparrows. But when I found the Harris’s I stayed with him and talked with him and made him promise he would be available for photos the next day when I brought the real camera.

Harris’s Sparrow

Sure enough I returned Thursday with my fall migration getup, which basically now consists of a Canon EOS 70D and a 100-300mm L lens, and that’s only thanks to acquiring an inexpensive but practical camera backpack from amazon. The light was again nonexistent but this is a less critical event in an open space such as Lurie Garden. And even though I could not get pictures of the Harris’s without him being obstructed somewhere by grasses or the wild quinine he was eating, I like the way he blends in and contrasts at the same time (“you are what you eat”!). This also reminds me of something I learned from Bill Hilton Jr. on the Belize trip, about birds (and other creatures) getting their feather colors from the plants they consume.

As David Johnson described in a later post, the bird was very tame. But “tame” is not a favorite word of mine when it comes to birds, so I would rather describe the bird, at least when I saw him and took more photographs, as very hungry and nonplussed by my presence. “Go ahead, take all the photos you want, I’m fattening up for my trip to Texas” or wherever he’s going to wind up.

I looked up the distribution range for this bird and the map explains perfectly to me why I am not likely to see this bird in Illinois, even in migration, so I am really thrilled to have gotten such long, loving looks at him and I will remember this bird next time I see it.

Harris’s Sparrow Range Map – Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Also at Lurie Garden on Thursday, many more White-Crowned Sparrows than White-Throated, and this time I did not see any Lincoln’s although they could still be about.

Juvenile White-Crowned Sparrow

Adult White-Crowned Sparrow

White-Throated Sparrow

The goldfinches are still having a great time at Lurie, even if the one below looks less enthusiastic about it.

American Goldfinch

On the Great Lawn close to the entrance to Lurie Garden there were perhaps 100 House Sparrows, and I took photographs of this one whose coloration looked quite different to me. Maybe he was just wet?

House Sparrow, Great Lawn, Millennium Park

I decided not to bother the Harris’s again yesterday. Instead I went to Lake Shore East Park to see what was up there. I’ll (try to) be back with a report about yesterday’s discoveries later on. I would not be surprised if the Harris’s Sparrow hangs out a bit longer at Lurie, given the current weather patterns, in which case I might drop in on him again next week. This is a first-year bird, which means I have yet to see an adult Harris’s Sparrow, but it’s still so nice to get such a good, solid lifer in one’s proverbial own backyard.

Rainy Day Crow Post

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Lisa Rest

As promised, a little update on the Chicago Loop crows. As in previous years I seem to be a trusted source of peanuts and general interest among the juvenile crow population as they head into their first winter.

Juvenile American Crow on the ledge near Lake Shore East Park – particularly recognizable as a youngster by its remaining brown feathers

The interesting thing to me, as their human provider, was the fact that they seemed to identify me in their earliest days of independence just a few months ago, and when a couple crows would approach me, I was unaware of having made their acquaintance previously. There were a couple individuals that I knew from their Lake Shore East Park nursery days, but too many others hanging out in other locations were recognizing me. So this confirms my suspicion that I am genetically imprinted on successive generations of American Crows as a Trusted Peanut Provider. I like to think of myself as an Honorary Crow.

We do peanuts in several places but none are as fun as the cement wall that prevents cars and people from dropping down to the lower level where directly at present there is a vacant lot. I hope the lot remains vacant. It has a couple cottonwood trees and weedy patches where I have seen birds on occasion, albeit from a distance.

A couple weeks ago I would encounter a few crows at a time, maybe up to four individuals. But now I have an army of 15 crows attuned to my whereabouts and they are often vying for peanut rights. I take these to be three or four family groups learning how to get along with each other. Or not.

As the weather gets colder and the days shorter, the crows will pretty much have my undivided attention, and that is just how they like it. I like it too, I get to visit with them. In some way they confirm my existence. They know more about me than I do.

It will be fun to try out The Birdz Cookies on a new batch of crows. See if that’s genetically imprinted information too. It oughtta be.

Please pardon a brief weather update. We have had rain for three days in a row. Today it is tapering off a bit but still too cloudy for the camera. I made use of Monday’s rain by taking time to get a haircut. Tuesday’s rain kept me inside working. Today’s rain? I may go out for a drizzly walk with binoculars only, just to see if there are any birds left. This morning I could not even get a White-Throated Sparrow to respond to my call. Monday morning there was a little Winter Wren at 155 N. Wacker that almost looked like a field mouse. But you’ll have to take my word for it as I have no pictures.

Just as well, the light is a challenge now even on sunny days in Lake Shore East Park due to the shadows cast by the surrounding buildings. Might be time soon to check out Maggie Daley Park and see if there is any habitat surrounding the Skating Ribbon.

Fall Migration in the Chicago Loop

Posted on September 6, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Wilson’s Warbler, Lake Shore East Park

I haven’t hit any hot spots yet, but have started seeing a few migrant birds downtown. Tuesday morning I rescued a young Wood Thrush on my way to work. I visited Lake Shore East Park on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. At that location I have perhaps seen only seven warbler species so far, American Redstart, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Ovenbird, Chestnut-Sided Warbler, Black-and-White Warbler, Tennessee Warbler and Wilson’s Warbler, with the Wilson’s being the most frequent. On Tuesday there were a few flycatchers, the most cooperative being a young Yellow-Bellied.

Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher

Below, a couple photos of the Black-and-White Warbler from Wednesday.

Black-and-White Warbler

Also on Wednesday, a Nashville Warbler, most completely seen on the sidewalk.

Tennessee Warbler

A couple more pictures of the Wilson’s Warbler below.

The Common Grackles have been congregating all week, eating acorns and bathing in the water features.

At least it appears they are trying to eat the acorns.

I will be back soon. I’ve been busy, and the weather has been hot and muggy. The longer days must be getting to me, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed. But we are fortunate enough to have some cooler, drier weather this weekend and I plan to take advantage of it Sunday morning.

A Change in the Weather

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Lisa Rest

The weather in Chicago is nothing if not interesting. We seem to be repeating some of the pattern established last summer: extremely hot weather followed by a cool spell, usually following some thunderstorm activity. Last week the effect of all this was one spectacularly foggy morning in the Loop.

By the time I got to the Thompson Center, the pigeons were hanging out on the Jean Dubuffet sculpture which looks like it was made out of paper mache. It’s big enough you can walk inside it, between its “legs.”

Pigeons on the Dubuffet sculpture at the Thompson Center

The lack of green space takes its toll on me and the birds down here. I’m also not fond of crowds and so I tend to stay away from Millennium Park during the summer. But after spending a couple days working through lunch, it’s definitely better to go out and look at anything that doesn’t have to do with staring at a computer monitor. So I visited Lurie Garden one day with the macro lens.

Rattlesnake Master

Probable Margined Soldier Beetle

I’ve just purchased the Audubon app to help identify bugs but I am hopeless when it comes to flowers. I get overwhelmed surfing through pictures. I’ll take any help I can get if you know what these are. The red one on the bottom completely stumps me. Is it some sort of Monarda? (Those of you who are flower experts are allowed to laugh at me.)

Spiderwort – I think

almost looks like a Blazing Star but I don’t think it is

Flower 6-17-14-1764

A female Northern Cardinal found me that day and she got lucky, I had peanuts just for her.

Sometimes it seems appropriate to pay attention to a Rock Pigeon. They are beautiful, we just take them for granted. But I look at it this way: they confirm our existence. This is one species that would not be here (as much) without us.

Birds on the Brain

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Mourning Warbler, LaBagh Woods

All the research done lately points to people finally discovering that birds are indeed a lot smarter than we ever gave them credit for. My personal theory is that somewhere along the line people realized certain birds were smarter than they were and started on that “bird-brain” campaign to make them appear inferior. Now if somebody calls you Bird Brain, take it as a compliment!

Magnolia Warbler, LaBagh

For all the attention I’ve been paying to birds lately I’d like to think some of their smarts have rubbed off on me… But it’s hard to think about anything else, so I don’t know how that computes.

Female Black-Throated Blue Warbler, LaBagh

This post features photographs of warblers taken late last week downtown and at LaBagh Woods Forest Preserve on Sunday. The Black-Throated Blue above came as a surprise when I was going through the photos last night, as it was in a small flock containing Wilson’s and Magnolias and I was just trying to capture anything that moved.

Wilson’s Warbler, LaBagh

The morning started out very slow at LaBagh, it was cool and cloudy, but I stuck it out and later as the sun came out the birds did too.

Chestnut-Sided Warbler, LaBagh

We had two days of hot spring and now we’re having cold, almost March-like weather. So I’m trying to cheer myself up a little bit with brightly-colored birds.

Cape May Warbler, Aon Building

Perhaps two of the best were downtown last Thursday at the Aon Building.

Blackpoll Warbler, Aon Building

Some of these guys don’t appear fully molted out into their brightest colors, but it has been a long time since I’ve seen a Golden-Winged Warbler.

Female Golden-Winged Warbler, LaBagh

The flowers are all gone from these trees now, but for a moment we had spring.

There are more photos to discover, and I hope to be back with them soon. In a way it’s good the weather is so awful I’m not out taking more pictures, so I get a little catch-up time.

Down by the River

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Herring Gull, Chicago River

Birds in what’s left of the Loop parks have all but vanished, the lake is still frozen, and so I have been walking along the Chicago River lately for my afternoon break.

Red-Breasted Merganser

Although there’s nothing really new going on, it’s still amazing to see so many Red-Breasted Mergansers and White-Winged Scoters in the river.

Female White-Winged Scoter

This scoter swam below me for a while and then she dove for something.

Male White-Winged Scoter

It’s fairly easy to get to the junction where the branches of the river meet. On my last visit there were more Herring Gulls than the usually ubiquitous Ring-Billed.

Ring-Billed Gull

At one point two Herring Gulls got into a match over a fish. If nothing else this proves there is something to eat even in the Chicago River (and it’s not from the fancy restaurants alongside it). I have seen huge carp, perhaps the invasive Asian species, sometimes surface in the spring, but nothing that spectacular lately. However if you click on the images below you can almost see what the gull on the left has in his beak.

The Riverwalk below street level doesn’t extend along one entire side yet, but there is a sign that looks promising. The stairs leading down to it are blocked off anyway during the inclement weather.

Braving the wind, ice on the bridges.

Dirty Snow on the Sidewalk

Turning back toward the office, the elevated train “loops” around the city core, giving it its nickname.

The El forming the Chicago Loop

Beyond the Weather, I think I will remember this winter as the one of White-Winged Scoters and Snowy Owls, from seen very well to barely seen at all.

Female White-Winged Scoter

White-Winged Scoters – Finally!

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Male White-Winged Scoter

As if in answer to my prayer…the White-Winged Scoters that have been reported everywhere I have not been able to get to (namely the Chicago Lakefront where there is open water instead of ice) finally showed up in the Chicago River this week. Someone reported them at the North Branch but since the Loop is far south of that I didn’t know whether to be encouraged or even more frustrated.

Female White-Winged Scoter

But Wednesday morning I caught my first glimpses of them – they were catching naps all the way over on the other side and at first all I could see were small patches of white on their wings. But they eventually woke up and started diving. Still they were too far away to get decent pictures.

Female White-Winged Scoter

Yesterday I packed my better lens, and feeling optimistic (there was actually a little sunshine early in the morning) I attached it before I got out of the train station. I walked to the railing, looked over the side, and the White-Winged Scoters were there – on my side – as if they had been waiting for me. Even though the light was still a problem, the river being almost black, it’s so dark, and the birds being black themselves, I managed to get these few shots from some very cooperative birds.

The Red-Breasted Mergansers are still in the river in numbers, too. Sometimes within good view.

Female Red-Breasted Merganser

And more often not.

Male Red-Breasted Mergansers

And as it always is with diving ducks, they disappear.

Diving White-Winged Scoter

Frozen in Time

Posted on February 1, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Why, why, why do I

Always think I

Have more energy

Than I do?

Ice on the Chicago River

Why, why, why do I

Think I’ll do

More than I’ll ever

Get around to?

Thursday’s heat wave

Twenty-four seven

Four-thirty a.m till eleven

The days are way too long

Ring-Billed Gull, downtown Chicago by the river

And yet they fly

So quickly by

Can’t help but live them wrong

Chief Nemesis on my feeder

It’s only when the clock stops

And I am in the moment

That life comes by

Looks me in the eye

Red-Breasted Merganser on the Chicago River

And says what it so meant

American Robin, Cancer Survivors Garden 1-31-14

Life is quick

Life’s a kick

Life can be expendable

What we share

Can take us there

And always be commendable

OH NO not more SNOW

During the week and even into the weekend, I find myself distracted by too many multi-tasking thoughts. So to stop and be in the moment is priceless and irresistible. I think it must be what I love about taking pictures. I am trying to freeze a moment in time, in memory. I am also paying attention, so that inhibits the clutter of distraction. So that must be why it felt so good to pull the camera out on the way in to work the last two mornings–after two weeks of working through lunch or barely getting out at all–to stop and shoot at the river’s edge. It’s a creative process, too; the excitement of seeing something that looks like a potential photograph and trying to capture it with the camera, it’s a vision, however momentary. But it also takes me out of myself and I focus on the subject. And that is why I love birds so very much: they make me forget about me. Reminds me of that line in Joni Mitchell’s song, “All I Want” from the Blue album, “Oh I love you when I forget about me.” But with the birds it’s different. They also remind me of who I really am, without that act I have to put on during the work week.

The ultimate peace is to be relieved of one’s constant mind. I think they used to call it “Nirvana.” (No, this is not intended to be a musical reference this time. 🙂 )

Mourning Doves in my neighbor’s tree

P.S. This House Finch was supposed to be in this post but she somehow didn’t make it.

Female House Finch

“What Am I – Chopped Liver?”

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Lisa Rest

Fox Sparrow

This beautiful Fox Sparrow was the bird that most intrigued me Thursday morning and then I forgot to put him in the previous post because I was so distracted by the rarer sightings that day. I don’t see Fox Sparrows enough to take them for granted, so I was initially as excited about the Fox Sparrow as the Catbird. I have added a short video of the Fox Sparrow doing his scratch dance at the bottom of this post.

The Lincoln’s Sparrow from the previous post is also in the video but for some reason the lens only wanted to focus on the Fox. It could be that the Lincoln’s didn’t appear all that distinctive to the camera as the available light kept decreasing. But it’s also user error, I’m sure.

Lincoln’s Sparrow

The traffic noise is authentic.

Goldbird Variations

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

Tag Archives: Chicago Loop

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Rainy Day Crow Post

Fall Migration in the Chicago Loop

A Change in the Weather

Birds on the Brain

Down by the River

White-Winged Scoters – Finally!

Frozen in Time

“What Am I – Chopped Liver?”