Peoria Skyline from the point at Spindler Marina on a very windy day.

 

 

 

Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker stopped by the Pine tree outside my office window.

 

Snapping Turtle at Cooper Park

A large Common Snapping Turtle blended in so well with the mud in the stream running through the wetland at Cooper Park in Tazewell County, Illinois that I almost didn't see it. On our return trip he had disappeared without a trace, the pond scum hadn't moved at all, just a space empty of scum where he had been lying.

 

 

A Downy Woodpecker created quite a rucous as it hunted for bugs. His call got my attention before I saw him fly past into a tree near the board walk.

 

Krieder Hawk?

As we drove back into Peoria on IL SR 29 we spotted a very light hawk on the power line. I turned around at the Fire Training ground and drove slowly back towards the bird. Luckily there was no traffic on the highway and I was able to stop and take a few photos. I turned around at Jill's restaurant and headed back, passing the bird again. He was beautiful!

 

Cormorants and Red-tailed Hawk at Emiquon

Hundreds of Double-crested Cormorants were sitting around and swimming in the sloughs on the side of IL 78 at the Emiquon Preserve. All of a sudden they began to leave, filling the sky with their striking silhouettes.

 

 

 

A Red-tailed Hawk soared over Thompson Levee at Emiquon.

 

The Nature Conservancy recently burned a large portion of the newly emerging prairie and the ridge on the Northwest side of Emiquon.

 

 

Thompson Lake is growing. The area surrounding it is becoming submerged. The wetland is returning!

 

Just Before the Rain at Allerton

Friday morning I visited Allerton Park in Piatt County, Illinois. The 1500-acre woodland, garden, meadow, and prairie landscape that surrounds the Allerton Mansion was once the private estate of Robert Henry Allerton. Named “The Farms,” the estate was the center of the 12,000-acre Illinois agricultural enterprise acquired during the latter half of the 1800s by Robert’s father Samuel. In 1946, Robert Allerton gave his beautiful Illinois estate to the University of Illinois for use as “an educational and research center, as a forest and wild-life and plant-life reserve, as an example of landscape architecture, and as a public park.”

I visited the park on Friday, March 21. Clouds were building up and I knew it would rain soon, but I walked the path to the river bottom and found the bottom land to be full of birds: Five Chickadees, four Nuthatches, three or four Brown Creepers, one Eastern Phoebe, one Fox Sparrow, six Cardinals, two Blue Jays, three Crows, one Great Blue Heron, three Turkey Vultures, five Red-headed Woodpeckers, three Red-bellied Woodpeckers, four Downy Woodpeckers, and at least eight Robins. The sky grew increasingly dark while I was there, making photographs difficult. I was able to crop some soft photos of some of the smaller birds.

White-breasted Nuthatch

 

Fox Sparrow

 

Brown Creeper

 

Red-headed Woodpecker

 

Dreaming of Spring

I took this photo with my Nikon CoolPix 995 in April 2006. A Maidenhair Fern with a Bee Fly, at Jubilee State Park. Each year when I hunt Morel mushrooms I find these marvelous ferns. I just found out the name of the fern at my Allerton Corp of Discovery class at the Illinois Natural History Survey. We used some photos their photographer (Michael Jeffords) had taken to learn photographic choices and I recognized the fully grown fern and asked its name. This is a new one, just emerging, with a lovely Bee Fly to form the focal point.

(Click on the Title to link to some information about Maidenhair Ferns.)

 

Eagle Nest

Eagle on Sentry Duty. He sat in a tree downstream from the nest where his mate was sitting low.

 

 

 

 

Blond Squirrel

After eagle watching, we drove past Hamm's Marina looking for waterfowl. In the neighborhood just south of the marina I spotted this unusually colored squirrel. I've never seen a blond squirrel before.

 

Closeup Views: Beavers at Cooper Park

Beavers were busy eating in the thawing water. As I walked over the boardwalk, they moved under it. When I came back several minutes later, they were back in the open eating. An adult and a juvenile. They let me watch them through the slats on the boardwalk as they continued their meal.

 

 

The beavers have taken down most of the willow thicket that was taking over the marsh, leaving little stumps with the characteristic teeth marks.

 

 

 

 

Eagle Nest

We had some nice spring weather on Sunday, which has totally vanished this morning as rain and snow move through Central Illinois again. Scott and I took a drive looking for eagles along the river. We know where an eagle nest is located between the river and a busy highway. There is a blind and a trail leading to it, but it was too muddy and slushy to walk the trail. We walked along the highway from the designated parking lot and yes indeed there was an eagle sitting low in the nest, just barely peering out at me. The light was bad and I didn't have a great view and traffic on the highway (a two-lane) worried me, so we headed back to the car. Then as I drove towards the nest, the sun came out! of course, it comes out then! but no traffic and there was a straight highway for quite a ways both in front and behind, so I stopped and took some shots. With a nasty utility wire across the nest, but the eagle head, eye, and bill are clear. Earlier we had seen another eagle in a field and after we left the nest we saw one flying along the bluffs. The sun came out just in time to kiss the tail as if flew up towards a dark cloudy sky. Of course I was driving and couldn't photograph anything! But my memory! I have that.

 

Woodford State Fish & Wildlife Area

We drove down the entrance road and found the whole area under water, the water came up over the road. I thought we were going to have to back out, but Scott managed to turn the car around.

 

Snow Geese flew over the flooded Woodford State Fish and Wildlife Area.

 

A flock of blackbirds was flying to and fro from one side of the road to the other, feeding in the fields. It was a mix of Red-wings, Grackles, Cowbirds, and of course, Starlings.

 

An eagle was far out in the field