Earth Day at the Chicago Portage

Posted on April 23, 2025 by Lisa Rest

I was working on another post about what’s been going on at the Chicago Portage lately, but it seems only fitting to quickly make note of yesterday morning’s walk as the birds return. And I’m just a little rained out this morning…

The first bird I saw when I walked in was a Palm Warbler on the ground. It flew into a tree for a couple quick photos. I’ve seen a couple of these in other places the last few days, but there seemed to be a few more individuals yesterday.

As I walked in, just beyond the bridge by Harlem, I found a burst of activity in a big Box Elder Maple tree. There were several Yellow-rumped Warblers, and then I heard and saw a Yellow Warbler. This spot is generally where I have encountered the first returning Yellow Warblers who come to stay for the summer.

I always think of my birding instructor’s comment years ago, that Yellow Warblers have yellow on every single feather.

Next a Downy Woodpecker flew in to join the loose flock.

It was hard to tear myself away from the activity in the tree, but I was curious to see what else was going on. I saw only one male Blue-winged Teal in the water, where just a few days ago there were a dozen. Although they are good at hiding, I’d be surprised if the others haven’t left. As things progress it will be interesting to see who’s next.

I heard and managed to just barely see my first Warbling Vireo of the season.

I discovered an Orange-crowned Warbler later in my photos. The second photo is a confusing preening shot which didn’t help much in the poor light.

I took one more photo of the Blue-winged Teal.

Then I saw a hawk flying in the distance. It turned out to be a Red-tailed Hawk. I also heard a Red-shouldered Hawk later, but did not see it.

It was nice to see more species returning, even if there were not many individuals and they were staying high in the treetops. It’s already a bit of a challenge as the tree buds open. Here are a few so-so photos of a Pine Warbler I encountered.

Hearing Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers and not seeing them was frustrating. But eventually I managed to see one or two.

A couple female Brown-headed Cowbirds were low to the ground and making a lot of noise. When I refused to bother looking for them, they flew right up in front of me into the tree hanging over the trail to make sure I couldn’t miss them.

A Song Sparrow had its back toward me until it struck this pose.

After hearing them sing, I found one of a few White-throated Sparrows.

After I turned around to meet Bob on the trail, I saw the Yellow Warbler again.

I had an appointment to take my car in for an oil change, so I had to leave. My walk ended as it began, with another Palm Warbler.

Anything could happen in the coming days. We have several daytime highs in the 70’s and some storm activity is predicted. Strong winds are blowing birds considered vagrants into the area. I will try to keep up with some of this in my little corner of the world. I start leading walks this Saturday. For the moment, the Saturday forecast is for sunshine. I wish you some sunshine in your life.

Elsewhere on Sunday Morning

Posted on April 15, 2025 by Lisa Rest

I decided to visit Little Red Schoolhouse, a Cook County Forest Preserve in the Palos Area, for a change, just to take a bit of a longer walk and perhaps see a different bird or two. I did not see the Common Loon there (at the top of the post), but I’ll get to that later.

Almost immediately as I walked around the back of the nature center along the path close to Longjohn Slough, quite a large body of water, there appeared an abundance of Tree Swallows. These days, an abundance is anything three or more…

Observing the slough from a small platform blind, waterfowl was dispersed and distant, but things perked up quickly when an Osprey flew in. The Osprey picked up something that appeared to be nesting material and flew off with it.

Ironically, there is a nesting platform for Osprey in the middle of the slough, but it was serving as an observation deck for some Double-crested Cormorants. This Osprey must be nesting somewhere else.

A little while later, a Bald Eagle was flying around very distant, I couldn’t make it out until I went through my photographs. It looks like a first-year bird. The cloudy sky didn’t help.

I did manage to capture a couple Wood Ducks that were not out too far.

I also found a female Bufflehead. There were several Common Mergansers and likely a few other species but they were too far away to capture well.

I started to walk the trail through the woods and found a willing Song Sparrow.

I encountered a couple Tree Swallows up close.

I looked back out toward the slough and saw that two Canada Geese had taken over the osprey platform.

After a while I found some Yellow-rumped Warblers. There may have been half a dozen of them in a loose group.

I have seen a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets the last week or so, but they’ve all been hard to capture in poor light and this one was no exception.

Then when it seemed like there was nothing else, a bright Pine Warbler sang and hung around long enough for a few photos. Lack of light added to the fuzziness of these photos, but it was just so nice to see a new bird for the season.

Done with this location and ready to go home, I looked at my phone and noticed Lori from the Oak Park Bird Walkers had been trying to contact me to tell me there was a Common Loon in the lagoon by the Trailside Museum parking lot at Thatcher Woods. At first I dismissed the idea of going up there to see it, but then I thought it over, realized it was only a 25-minute drive, and that the bird would likely not be going anywhere soon as it was off course and stuck there for whatever reason. So that explains the photo at the top of the post, and here are a few more.

There were plenty of other people with large lenses taking pictures of the loon and I didn’t feel like hanging around. It always upsets me to see a bird that has somehow gotten lost. Lori was kind enough to let me know later that the bird was eventually seen trying to cross Chicago Avenue which is quite a busy street, while being protected by people who thought it might be injured, and was taken eventually to DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center. That was probably the best possible outcome.

Our weather is still on the chilly side of things, but we are starting to green up, and I am still taken by surprise with the ever-increasing daylight hours. This is perhaps a side-effect of messing too much with reality. (/s) More encounters to follow.

They’re Here

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Lisa Rest

I saw some birds this week – in between practicing for the Spring Music Festival which will occur tonight. We had a rehearsal/run through last night and I survived. At least people like the song, so I guess that’s a good indication of something.

We canceled our scheduled walk at Columbus Park this morning because the weather was potentially threatening with the possibility of thunderstorms. We will more than likely have that kind of weather later tonight as we warm up to 70 degrees. But the overnight lows are still predicted to be in the 40’s for the coming week, which delays the yard cleanup even further.

These photos are from Monday at the Chicago Portage. I warn you, there are Way Too Many of them. The warm wave from the two days before brought migrants into the area. It was cooler on Monday so a lot of birds were foraging for food on the ground, like this Pine Warbler sampling seeds on the asphalt path.

Believe it or not these photos are of two separate individuals. I couldn’t capture them close enough to each other for a group photo.

The one Pine Warbler in the trees at first was not recognizable to me, but it turned out to be a Pine, albeit a drab one. The photo of the undertail helped me identify it.

A few more of this bird. Either way, it blends right in with the wood.

Palm Warblers have been all over the place in great numbers. it has gotten so that after taking all these pictures I haven’t bothered much with any of them the rest of the week.

I barely managed a few fuzzy photographs of the Black-and-White Warbler below.

it was delightful to see the return of a Yellow Warbler. One or two always stays the summer at the Portage so I expect to see this species again.

Warblers were not the only thing going on. There were lots of Chipping Sparrows, albeit most of them on the ugly asphalt.

There were a few group photo opportunities.

There were one or two Field Sparrows and then quite a number of White-throated Sparrows through the break in the fence.

I saw my first Baltimore Oriole of the year. My feeder will go up tomorrow. As you can see he wasn’t moving much.

Vocally and actively, the Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers are back. The lack of light emphasized the the Gray half of their name.

Here’s what the sky looked like that morning.

I had a cooperative White-breasted Nuthatch doing his thing.

Male Northern Cardinals are a little easier to photograph these days as they advertise their territories.

But the lack of light kept everything pretty cool-looking.

In her elusive stage, I managed half of a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

My volunteer American Robin. They are all over the Portage now.

The Yellow-rumped Warblers were the first to show up, but now their numbers are diminishing.

The return of water this year is making the place attractive to waterfowl again.

It would have been nice to see the rest of the bird below, but I think after going back and forth between Hermit Thrush and Swainson’s Thrush, it’s the latter.

Northern Flickers are determined to not be seen and this one wasn’t any different.

The Great Egret stopped by to see if conditions were conducive to fishing. I can only assume the sight of me changed its mind. But it was back the next day, on the bank of the stream.

I can only imagine what these Mourning Doves were up to. If that’s the male on the right, his neck feathers are iridescent…

I think these are flowers of a Box-elder Maple Tree. I found them attractive.

So thanks to the canceled bird walk and my nap, I was able to finish this offering. If you made it all the way to the end of this post you are a rock star! I must go back to my chores and prepare for this evening’s performance. I hope to be back again sooner after all this. Thanks for checking in and Happy Spring!

Down by the River After the Rain

Posted on November 1, 2021 by Lisa Rest

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.

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. 🙂

Catching Up

Posted on September 30, 2021 by Lisa Rest

Here it is the end of September and I am just getting around to photos from the 10th taken at – where else? – the Chicago Portage. The activity seemed to die down a bit that day so there aren’t quite so many to sift through. Magnolia Warbler above and directly below.

I’m not 100% sure but I think the bird directly below is a Pine Warbler. One of those confusing fall warblers…

This was the first time I had seen a Northern Parula in a while. A not-so-common warbler around here.

A few other birds seen that weren’t warblers…

For the record, a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird…

Blackpoll Warblers have been everywhere, or so it seems. Below is another.

Never confusing, a Black-and-White Warbler below. I suppose if you couldn’t see them well you might mistake one for a nuthatch as they behave the same way.

This Nashville Warbler could have been in better light…

The other ubiquitous warbler that is easy to confuse with the Blackpoll is the Bay-breasted Warbler, below.

Chipmunks are everywhere too – it seems like a bumper crop this year.

One more of the Northern Parula.

I’m afraid I will be back shortly with another surfeit of something. This birding every morning to make up for not being able to do it while I was working is…almost like going to work. But I am enjoying myself and it seems imperative to pay attention and keep track of the birds while I still can. Learning how to navigate retirement with…a sense of purpose.

Last Saturday at Columbus Park

Posted on October 12, 2018 by Lisa Rest

Great Blue Heron with prey

Columbus Day has come and gone for another year. Even after suggestions that we rename it Native American Annihilation Day, it would be cumbersome to re-label everything presently Columbus. Columbus Park has been around for a long time. According to the Chicago Park District, it is considered the finest example of landscape architect Jens Jensen’s output and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003.

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

I’ve been too busy looking for birds to photograph the landscaping but I’ll try to keep it in mind since I have one more planned visit next Saturday. After that I will be free to go anywhere or not. The morning started out cloudy and wet but improved. We park in the golfers parking lot, where there were many intrepid golfers by the time I arrived. Early on, the birds were not easy to spot last Saturday. They were either too far away to see clearly and/or tangled in dense multicolored foliage. Above is a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet. Below is a photograph that may or may not have a bird in it, to give you an example…

Puzzle Columbus Park 10-6-18-1997 And then when I did eventually find a bird and tried to enlarge the photograph enough for identification purposes…

Baypoll Warbler Columbus Park 10-6-18-1955

This is a Bay-Breasted Warbler. Even after ebird insists nobody can tell a Bay-Breasted from a Blackpoll this time of year, the configuration of the wing bars, the faint rosy wash on the flank and the facial pattern all tell me it’s a Bay-Breasted.

This is a Pine Warbler that we actually glimpsed better naked eye than with the camera.

For one thing I have been able to exercise my desire to see a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker the last week or so. Below is one from Columbus Park…

YBSA Columbus Park 10-6-18-1779 and a couple days earlier, from the park at 311 South Wacker, a block away from my office. Notice all the sap-holes in the bark!

YBSA 10-4-18-1747 Even though Red-Winged Blackbirds don’t migrate far, I think we’ve seen the last of them in these parts until they return to nest in the spring.

RWBL Columbus Park 10-6-18-1968 Another off-site but maybe not off-topic bird is the Ovenbird below. One or two of these have been hanging out at 311 South Wacker. I think I had eight of them at one time in the spring.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include a Nashville Warbler…

NAWA Columbus Park 10-6-18-1982 And the large pond that attracts so much waterfowl…

MALL Columbus Park 10-6-18-1823 Then I was intrigued by the fungus that had adopted a tree stump.

Fungus Columbus Park 10-6-18-2010 We saw the Great Blue Heron early on and then later when it was trying to negotiate a slippery fish.

Our last bird was perhaps the nicest surprise. A Cooper’s Hawk perched directly overhead.

COHA Columbus Park 10-6-18-2055 I am going to Thatcher Woods tomorrow morning for the last walk there, and I have absolutely no idea what to expect. We are currently experiencing cold, cloudy weather. The forecast for tomorrow is sunny and moderately cool. I plan to get in as much birding as possible before I tend to my weekend chores because Sunday is going to be challenging. The choir sings in the morning, and in the afternoon I’m attending a “Soul Connections” group I joined several months ago, then directly after that, my first attendance at a writer’s workshop, led by one of the SC group’s participants – an activity I haven’t attempted in many, many years. I think I’ve come to the conclusion that we have to connect with each other on multiple levels if we’re going to get through this. 🙂

Fall Warbler Fall-Out

Posted on September 15, 2018 by Lisa Rest

Connecticut Warbler

Last Friday after some rain and wind, I was called down to the front of our office building by a coworker who had gone down for a cigarette. She said there was a little bird in distress. As it turned out there were two birds in distress, the one she saw flopping around almost as if it was having seizures being a first-year Cape May Warbler, and another, the stunned Chestnut-Sided Warbler you can see below on the left. I called the Bird Collision Monitors hotline and got their voicemail. After waiting to hear back for about twenty minutes, I thought I could not leave the two birds alone on the sidewalk surrounded by foot traffic, glass and steel, so I took them both to the park-like setting about a block away at 311 South Wacker Drive. You can see them both on the grass below. I sat with them and observed the Cape May was dead, but when I reached for the Chestnut-Sided, it chirped and flew away, so I felt better for having rescued it. When the Bird Collision Monitors did finally call me, they said they had picked up over 200 birds that day. The little bird you see below on the building ledge wasn’t stunned but it was lost, as it flew up from the sidewalk looking for a way out of the buildings. I believe it’s a Least Flycatcher.

There were a lot of birds in the park Friday, so I went back on Monday afternoon with the camera. But not before checking the potted trees in the front of my building, where I found among other more common species, the Connecticut Warbler at the top of this post.

Blackpoll Warbler

There were a lot of Blackpolls but it was difficult to get a decent picture. Although I am thankful for the landscape architects planting lots of locust trees which are great for migrants, the trees are quite tall and I only carry my 300mm lens around with me during the week, so it was a challenge.

Wilson’s Warbler

The Wilson’s Warbler never got low enough for me to capture his trademark skullcap but there’s something so Wilson’s about the shade of yellow. I really think whoever names colors could come up with an entire Warbler Collection. For as many field marks as my brain has memorized, I think I sometimes recognize these birds by the shade of yellow, if there’s good light.

Magnolia Warbler

There’s a familiar phrase, “warbler neck,” which is what you get looking up at these birds in the tall trees.

How nice of this Chestnut-Sided to almost come down to my level.

Chestnut-Sided Warbler

Then there are the birds that prefer ground level, like the Common Yellowthroat below.

Common Yellowthroat

On the other hand I was surprised to find this Pine Warbler in the grass when I later went through my photographs.

Pine Warbler

Pine Warbler

It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten close enough to get a good picture of a Black-and-White Warbler and Monday was no exception. This was the best I could do.

American Redstarts come in several color combinations this time of year. The second-year or more adult males are black and orangey-red. The young males are yellow where the red would be, but it’s a warmer yellow than the females. I seem to have captured a bird that is somewhere in between the first and second-year males below the pictures of the older bird, judging from the darker gray on its head and back.

(Click on the pictures just below to see how this male’s plumage is changing.)

American Redstart (female)

The biggest surprise perhaps was to see another Connecticut Warbler. These birds are normally hard to find, and here on the same day I had two within a block of each other.

COWA 9-10-18-0060 Suffice it to say that the lure of fall migration is irresistible, especially with nice weather. The birds are taking advantage of the calm skies in this part of the country as well. I have been going back to the park every day this week and as of Tuesday all these birds seem to have left and no new ones have come in. I would like to think they all took off Monday night, navigating well out of the city and continuing their trips to Central and South America.

AMRE 9-10-18-9824 I’ll have lots more to report if I can manage it. Hope you are having decent weather wherever you are.

Suddenly Spring

Posted on May 9, 2018 by Lisa Rest

Northern Waterthrush

I almost could have called it “Suddenly This Summer” because on May 1 we skipped spring and went straight into summer temperatures by noon. But along with the sudden push of warm air from the south came a lot of migrating birds, and after all, it was finally the real start to Spring Migration.

As luck would have it I was near the lakefront for the last part of the stem cell procedure on my right knee, which consisted of a blood draw early in the morning and then having a few hours before a return to the doctor’s office for the final injection. I realized the location’s potential the week before when I had the major procedure done. The medical building is virtually right across the street from North Pond, which is a favorite hot spot with lakefront birders. The week before it was blustery and cold with only a few of the hardiest migrants. But now I had a birder in my friend Lesa to whom I am grateful for being my chauffeur for the day. I was walking without crutches if moving slowly, but I was walking, and slow is generally good for birding. The slower you move, the more birds you eventually will see. And seeing birds was a great distraction from whatever pain I was feeling.

Perhaps the first warblers to greet us were four or five Ovenbirds poking about in the grass. Even though the weather was warmer, the trees and accompanying insects had not caught up with it yet and so a lot of birds were foraging on the ground for something to eat. The ground is an Ovenbird’s preferred foraging spot anyway. Ovenbirds can be nearly impossible to see on their breeding grounds, but in migration on the lakefront they are all over the place this year. I have seen them since everywhere I go for midday walks near my workplace.

Then it seemed there were Black-Throated Green Warblers everywhere.

Predictably, especially in the grass, were Palm Warblers. A note about these pictures, being my first warbler photographs of the season. The morning started off a bit overcast, and then I had only my 75-300mm lens as it seemed ridiculous to be carrying around anything larger in my compromised condition, so I didn’t get quite the clarity I wanted for many of these birds. But it was just such a joyous way to spend a medical day and provided an extra therapeutic perk altogether.

I am always so happy to see a Lincoln’s Sparrow. It’s not quite rare, but you never see more than one of them at a time, and they’re such delicate-looking little birds.

Yellow-Rumped Warblers were predictable, but not easy to capture as they frantically searched for food.

Our look at the Pine Warbler below was brief, but this is a more unusual species in migration so I am glad I got this shot.

PIWA 5-1-18-1893 The three species below are Yellow, Black-and-White, and Nashville Warblers.

Another spring migrant that seems to be showing up in force is the Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher.

Meanwhile, on their way out were Golden-Crowned Kinglet on the left and Ruby-Crowned Kinglet on the right, below.

Then there are the migrating Thrushes. Two below are a Swainson’s Thrush on the left and a Gray-Cheeked Thrush on the right.

Swainson’s Thrush

Gray-Cheeked Thrush

I have been out since last Tuesday and have a lot more pictures to process and share with you, but it’s been really difficult to get caught up. All I can say is every day I’m a little bit better and there have even been a few moments when I’ve forgotten about my knee altogether!

White-Crowned Sparrow

Below, two glimpses of a female Eastern Towhee…

I will be back soon with more from Instant Spring Migration. Until then, spring on!

Tennessee Warbler

Jewels Hidden in the Trees

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Chestnut-Sided Warbler

I think I have finally been through all the pictures from the Memorial Day Kirtland’s Warbler weekend with the Chicago Ornithological Society. While I want to put a more representative selection up on my flickr page, for the moment I am sharing some warbler pictures here. Most of the birds were far enough away that I had to use manual focus to follow them around as they flitted through pine needles.

What bird, where?

With some photographs it was like reliving getting on the bird in the first place – where is it?

Wilson’s Warbler

After our visit to the Kirtland’s Warbler on Saturday morning, we drove to Tawas Point State Park and spent the afternoon hours wandering the trails for migrants. These pictures are from that outing as well as other locations in Iosco County, Michigan, visited on the weekend. Some species were the first I saw this year. Indeed by Memorial Day it was almost “Now or Never.”

Black-Throated Blue Warbler

A Black-Throated Blue male was definitely on my list of must-sees and although he proved a bit difficult to photograph in the bright light against the sky, he stuck around for more photographs than I care to admit.

Cape May Warbler

The female Cape May Warbler above caused a little confusion until we could be sure all her markings were in the right place. Here is a picture to prove it.

Yellow Warbler

Yellow Warblers abounded, even windblown ones.

Golden-Winged Warbler

It seems increasingly difficult to find Golden-Winged Warblers, and the sunlight proved to be a challenge, but if you click on the second picture above you might be able to see the golden wing field mark a little better.

Magnolia Warbler

Magnolias and Redstarts are common enough but each individual has something different to offer. I like the way there is a hint of black coming in on the first-year American Redstart below. Next year he will be all black except for the orange on his breast, like the male below him.

American Redstart – First Year Male

American Redstart

I have never seen a Pine Warbler well enough before, which makes me think until this trip I never really saw one. Now I can add it to my list!

Pine Warbler

Black-Throated Green Warblers are always welcome.

Black-Throated Green Warbler

As are Blackburnian Warblers.

Blackburnian Warbler

And another species that had eluded me this spring finally came to light: the male Canada Warbler. I did not break into the “Oh, Canada” refrain from “A Case of You” by Joni Mitchell as is my wont whenever I see one of these birds, but he might have heard me anyway.

Canada Warbler

Goldbird Variations

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

Tag Archives: Pine Warbler

Earth Day at the Chicago Portage

Elsewhere on Sunday Morning

They’re Here

Down by the River After the Rain

Catching Up

Last Saturday at Columbus Park

Fall Warbler Fall-Out

Suddenly Spring

Jewels Hidden in the Trees