A morning at Forest Park

Scott and I went for a walk at Forest Park Nature Center last week. When we walked past the nature center, a turkey was on the feeder. I didn't have my camera set up yet and missed that shot. But I took several of the bird as it wandered up the bluff behind the nature center. Then a doe with three fawns, a band of about 20 turkey toms, and some dragonflies and butterflies and beautiful prairie flowers made it a lovely morning!

Emiquon Grows More Beautiful With Every Passing Day

One morning in August, I visited Emiquon and tooks some photos from Thompson Levee:

Dragonflies, Butterflies, & Skippers--IWIN Class at Lost Mound

The last week in August was hot and humid in Illinois, and that is the week that the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) held their summer Illinois Wilds Institute for Nature (IWIN) Workshop, Dragonflies, Butterflies, and Skippers, at the Lost Mound INHS field station. 40 or so adults from all over Illnois (and one couple from Iowa!) braved the steamy weather to learn more about these wonderful creatures.


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Originally uploaded by jward199

Damselfly Wheel at Mississippi Palisades

Golden colored damselflies mating in wheel position. I couldn't keep them both in the plane of focus. First one, then the other, then the male flew them to another blade, without losing their wheel position, however, it was out of my reach.

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Originally uploaded by jward199

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Is this a Blue Dasher? Those green eyes! I have no notes and no other photos. How beautiful, though unidentified.

Originally uploaded by jward199

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Here is a pair of Common Green Darner dragonflies in wheel position, from the side.

View from below of the mating green darners in the wheel position.

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Originally uploaded by jward199

Common Green Darner Wheel--Lost Mound

Close-up, cropped view of the male, then a cropped view of the male clasping the female's head during mating.

Common Green Darner Wheel--Lost Mound
Originally uploaded by jward199

TreeFrogV0000043

TreeFrogV0000043
Originally uploaded by jward199

A tiny green tree frog hiding in the cool shade of the milkweed plant.

Lily Pads at Mississippi Palisades

Lily pads, each their own little world, floating on the shallow backwaters of the Mississippi.

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Originally uploaded by jward199

Stop the Mine at Banner

Click here to sign the petition.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has issued Capital Resources Development Company permit to operate a surface coal mine on 643.2 acres (Proposed Permit Area) of property south of and adjacent to the Village of Banner.

We believe that the IDNR issued this permit without due consideration of its ecological impact and that, if the mining proceeds as proposed, it will be in violation of Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

We are sending this petition to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to ask them to investigate and stop this mining activity before it destroys sensitive habitat between Banner Marsh State Fish & Wildlife Area and Rice Lake Conservation Area, and area, where Bald Eagles roost in the winter and nest in the spring and summer, where migratory birds, including thousands of Geese, Ducks, Coots, Cormorants, and Pelicans, stop over each spring and fall.

The proposed mining plans include blasting the coal from the ground during the winter months, when eagles would be roosting nearby. The blasting will surely disturb them. Eagles begin their nesting activities in the winter. The blasting at the proposed mining site would surely disturb nesting eagles.

Please help us stop the destruction of Eagle Nesting and Roosting habitat. Sign this petition and then, for even greater impact, send a letter directly to the regional USFWS office:

Field Supervisor: Richard Nelson
e-mail: RockIsland@fws.gov or MidwestNews@fws.gov
1511 47th Avenue
Moline, IL 61265
Phone: 309-757-5800
Fax: 309-757-5807
TTY: 1-800-877-8339

Send the letter certified for even greater impact. Thank you for helping to call attention to this important issue.

Click here to sign the petition.

Great Blue Heron at Bells Landing

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Originally uploaded by jward199

A Great Blue Heron stood still as I drove past the small pond on the way to the boat ramp at Bell's Landing.

Great Egret at Mendenhall Road

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Originally uploaded by jward199

I stopped by Mendenhall road on my way back to Peoria. The water is down again and egrets and herons have returned.

Osprey at Nest

I walked along the dike at Banner Marsh to check on the osprey nest. One of the adults was sitting on the edge of the nest. He or she spotted me and flew out over me in a threatening way. I retreated behind the tree line. After a few minutes of photographing a Goldfinch, I went back for another look at the nest, trying to stay behind the trees. The bird spotted me and again flew out over me in a threatening way. I didn't want to disturb it any more than I already had, so I walked back to the car. I think there must be babies in the nest, although I didn't see them. I'm surprised that they haven't fledged by now. This nest is very large and deep enough to hide the young birds. From the adult's behavior I'd say the babies are still in there.

Eight-spotted Forester Moth at Emiquon

This butterfly turned out to be a moth. It was wandering around the milkweed along one of the old farm canals on the east side of Thompson Lake, near the now under water Pumphouse Road.
Alypia octomaculata; Owlet Moth Family Noctuidae; Forester Moth Subfamily Agaristinae
From eNature.com (Click title above to link to the article).
"Adults fly in bright daylight and are often mistaken for butterflies. The caterpillars spin thin cocoons of silk and litter or wood chips on the ground or in tunnels cut into wood. There is 1 generation a year."

8SpottedForesterEmq_MG_9268
Originally uploaded by jward199

BankSwallowsEmiquon_MG_9380

BankSwallowsEmiquon_MG_9380
Originally uploaded by jward199

Thousands of Bank Swallows were swarming over the waters of Thompson Lake, landing briefly in the few trees and shrubs that still exist along the farming canals in the center of Thompson Lake.

Black-necked Stilts at Emiquon

This summer of 2008 a dozen or more Black-necked Stilts have been inhabiting one of the canals left from the farming where Thompson Lake now resides. I was fortunate to catch a ride on a tour given by The Nature Conservancy after a day of volunteer work planting Cardinal Flowers in the wet prairie around Thompson Lake.

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Originally uploaded by jward199

Emiquon Prairie Road

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Originally uploaded by jward199

As the storm passed through the Emiquon valley, a golden light seeped in over the prairie.

Emiquon Valley Views

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Originally uploaded by jward199

Looking towards Canton from the Prairie Road, just after a great thunder and lightning storm passed over Emiquon.

Muskrat at Emiquon, Thompson Lake

Muskrat at Emiquon, Thompson Lake
Originally uploaded by jward199

This muskrat had his/her eye on me as we passed the den in our pontoon boat.

Spotted Sandpiper with Black-necked Stilt at Emiquon

Spotted Sandpiper with Black-necked Stilt at Emiquon
Originally uploaded by jward199

A Spotted Sandpiper was peeping around with the Black-necked Stilts at Thompson Lake, Emiquon Preserve, on July 11, 2008.