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.
I returned to Riverside Monday morning, after my previous visit last Wednesday. The weather was sunnier on Wednesday than Monday. But on Wednesday, I heard and then saw a Winter Wren, and even managed to get some photographs of it. Which is more than I got this past Monday when I had even better looks at the Winter Wren, but that’s another story.
Since this is a long and somewhat complicated post, I think I’ll revert to chronological order. Below is what the Des Plaines River looked like last Wednesday, for starters. The water level was a little bit higher than it was Monday.
In the raptor department, there was a distant, perched Cooper’s Hawk with its back to me.
American Goldfinches are still seen here and there.
I can remember complaining the last few years about never getting a photograph of a Dark-eyed Junco. Now I have way too many of them.
In good light, Downy Woodpeckers can be good subjects.
The sky was almost too blue a background for this White-breasted Nuthatch.
Shortly after I crossed the footbridge to Riverside Lawn, I had my Winter Wren encounter. The wren was at some distance but on a sunny day I was able to capture it cavorting around.
Perhaps the only bird the sun did not treat well that day was this female Northern Cardinal.
When I returned on Monday, it was cloudy.
Des Plaines River
And the river was low again, with many places for Canada Geese to stand in.
I caught a flurry of Rock Pigeons around the Hofmann Tower, but there was no accompanying raptor so I don’t know what caused them to go into flight drills.
Two Dark-eyed Juncos are below, with a White-throated Sparrow in the middle. Unfortunately they were backlit but I because haven’t seen very many White-throated Sparrows this fall I am including it.
Off Riverside’s paved trail, I found this Red-bellied Woodpecker busily inspecting a stump.
When I got over to Riverside Lawn, it wasn’t long before I realized that another tree had fallen and the trail, such as it is, was now totally obscured and not exactly passable. Before trying to decide how I was going to go around all this mess, I decided to just sit on the first fallen tree that I had been negotiating easily for about almost a month.
Almost simultaneously, the flock appeared. I suspect they were intrigued by the newly fallen log as well. Of course there were Dark-eyed Juncos.
A Downy Woodpecker was present.
For comparison, I was also lucky to see a Hairy Woodpecker.
A couple incidental photos from Riverside Lawn…I think before I sat down on the log.
Some tree fungusNorthern Cardinal male
While I sat on the log, the Winter Wren came in and was so close I could not photograph it with my big lens. Below is the only image of the Winter Wren I managed to capture on Monday.
But soon after that, a Carolina Wren arrived and perched on a stump a short distance directly in front of me and I complied with its request to be photographed. It’s also at the top of the post.
There were also a couple White-breasted Nuthatches not too far away. Directly below is a male, and the bird in the gallery beneath it is a female.
This is the time of year when Red-bellied Woodpeckers stand out against the drab, leafless trees. And this one was no exception.
Sometimes I manage to focus on a busy Black-capped Chickadee.
More snaps of the Red-bellied Woodpecker.
I have managed to find a way to walk around the new obstacle although I am not sure how easy it will be later, in snow and ice.
The most astounding thing Monday occurred hours later on my way home from the pool. I was approaching a busy intersection at 37th and Harlem when I saw a Bald Eagle rise up from behind a strip mall and fly right over my car, and then there was a smaller raptor chasing after it. I suspect they both may have been attracted to some prey which I never saw. I got through the intersection, pulled into a gas station and pulled out the camera.
The smaller raptor turned out to be a Peregrine Falcon. The two birds chased around for what seemed like a few minutes, and then the Bald Eagle eventually headed south, after the Peregrine gave up the chase and sat on top of a utility pole. It’s something to consider, that both these species were endangered not all that long ago and now there are enough of them to spill over into the suburban sprawl.
So it’s been quite a week for raptor action with this going on Monday morning and then the Red-tailed Hawk rescue on Tuesday. Yesterday and today were much quieter mornings. Tomorrow we are due for rain mixed with snow so I won’t be going for a walk but if I can drive, I will go for my swim in the middle of the day.
I’ll try to be back soon with some earlier encounters. Next week will be busy with choir singing and the Christmas Bird Count on the 17th, so blogging may have to wait for a while. ‘Tis the season.
My two days without Internet service are over. With enough access on my phone, I confess I hardly missed it. But now that I am able to publish photos from the camera again, I want to get this post out of my system.
I was thrilled to find a Winter Wren in my backyard on Thursday afternoon. I had been to the Chicago Portage in the morning seeing very little. And after about a week of seeing or hearing Winter Wrens every day I was not encountering them anymore. Then this little delightful creature showed up in my yard. My messy, full of trees, leaves and spent tall native flowers and grasses yard – just the place for a fall migrant. I think the wren was actually attracted to the remaining mess by the back fence where the tree stumps had been removed. When I have encountered Winter Wrens they often seem to be messing around in dead wood.
Fallen leaves from my Hawthorn Tree
Here are a couple more fleeting photos of the Winter Wren.
I had first seen the wren when I went out to refill the birdbaths, so I went back in the house and grabbed the camera. It was a nice enough day to sit in the yard for half an hour or so and observe whatever activity was available. There was a predictable, endless stream of House Sparrows.
But then I saw something moving in the clump of spent flowers that had planted themselves just off the back porch stairs. It turned out to be a Nashville Warbler, which is late and therefore “rare” for this date. It wasn’t easy to see all that clearly but it is definitely a Nashville with that white eye-ring, gray cap and yellow body.
It occurred to me that, after all these years, this is exactly what I had in mind when I moved into my house and began by replacing the lawn with trees and native plants. I just wanted to attract birds. It seemed obvious to me at the time, but it was not initially very popular with City Hall or some of my neighbors. Perhaps awareness of the climate crisis and species extinction is tilting the scales more in my favor lately. I may even be participating in another garden walk next year. I hope so – it will motivate me to work in the yard more than I have been lately!
So was anything happening at the Chicago Portage on Thursday morning besides leaves?
There were a few – very few – birds. I am always excited to see an American Crow, of course.
And there were a few well-camouflaged American Goldfinches.
But in general, flora and colorful leaves provided the most interest. There was a small stand of some late-blooming Evening Primrose out in the middle of the marsh.
It would probably be enough to stop here, but I am going to move on to the next morning’s visit to Riverside, which produced more birds, and by the time I reached the health club to go swimming, a message on my phone saying my new router had arrived.
It is always good to see a familiar face in Riverside. This Great Blue Heron was present again just off the Hofmann dismantled-dam location.
Here’s a view of the Des Plaines River from the Joliet Avenue bridge, looking north.
As I stood on the bridge, I heard and then saw two Belted Kingfishers rise up and fly over. I was able to capture one of them.
The bird species of the morning, though, was definitely Golden-Crowned Kinglet – they were everywhere, in numbers.
By the time I reached the spot where I was about to cross the footbridge, just past the police and fire station, there were Golden-crowned Kinglets hugging the trees lining the path.
Walking along the river, it was hard to ignore Mallard males gleaming in the sunshine.
A couple more photos of the river and trees, which were hard to resist.
At Riverside Lawn, there weren’t a lot of birds, but enough to make a morning. I saw a distant but brightly-lit Red-bellied Woodpecker.
Dark-eyed Juncos were easier to see when they were preoccupied on the ground.
