Birding Adventures

The Herons at the Fox River Rookery, in Montgomery are growing up.
The males and females have been doing a great job.  

It does not appear that any of them have fledged yet, but I am sure it will be soon.

Great Egret
As I will driving along Orchard Road, I saw an area that looked like there were several egrets. It was now or never, so I checked it out.  I am so glad I did.  This is an Egret in breeding plumage.  Those feathers are beautiful.

There was a small stream, and the Herons and Egrets were a bit territorial. There are two Herons and one Egret.

This is what I could see from the other side of the pond.
All of the birds are in breeding homage.

Then in Batavia, I had to stop and check on our resident eagles.
I am believing that is Dad watching out for the two young ones.
The young eagles have not fledged yet, but are close.  They are trying out those huge wings.

The parents when not feeding the young stay close to the nest.

This is their nest, The power even the young ones have in those wings.

Stopped at another forest Preserve and came upon these two Northern Flickers.

Monarch Butterfly

Spiderwort

A dragonfly

Chipmunk was nice enough to stay still while I photographed him.
It was a beautiful day to out and about.  I enjoyed the walk and seeing birds.
Hope you have a lovely day.
Mary

On the Fox River

The other day after my dentist appointment I decided to take a walk along part of the Fox River.
It was so nice and peaceful. I could sit and watch the water travel by.  One place in the river was this Great Heron and several mallard ducks.  The mallards were this years, as they were just beginning to distinguish between males and females.

The dragonflies seem to be quite plentiful. I love it when one lights long enough for me to take a picture.

The Cabbage White butterflies seem to be plentiful as well.

The grasshopper looks so fierce up close.

This mallard is a male.  You can see that his head is beginning to turn dark green.

I think I have finally determined that this is a Downy Woodpecker.
I have had such a time between the Downy and the Hairy.  I am taking more time to read up on the differences between similar birds.  I never was able to get a totally clear shot, as there were a lot of tree branches between him and me.( I really need a longer distance lens!)  These old eyes just don't always see very well.

While I was standing checking out the Downy Woodpecker, I heard another noise.  Look what I came upon. This time it was a Red-Bellied Woodpecker.  He was so pretty

I was able to get a better shot of his back.  It looks like a Zebra.  

This was a different Heron on the river.  I must have seen at least 6 Herons that day.  He was stalking small fish. 

Having a bit of trouble identifying this dragonfly.  There was red on his wings not on the body.

Not sure what this bird is either.  He was very nice for me. I almost think it is a fledgling.

Then turned around, like, "are you done yet?"

Another dragonfly.  Maybe I better find a book, or some sort of reference so I can start to identify them. Some of these are beautiful.  

This is the same Heron in the above picture.  There was another one that had just came out of the tall grasses. I thought it was neat that I could get two for the price of one!

This is the same dragonfly as above with the red on his wings.
I was there about an hour and saw all these wonderful creatures.
I am so enjoying spending time out doors and having the chance to photograph nature at it's finest.

Great day for birds and insects

After a weekend of sewing, decided it was time for a ride in the country.

It was a gorgeous day, blue skies and white fluffy clouds.  We took a ride out to Yorkville, and see what was happening on the Fox River.

We have had Cicada's in our area.  Such a small insect can sure make a lot of noise.  According to my bug guide there are over 75 North American species and can grow to 1.5 inches.  When several of them get buzzing it is very loud.

On the Fox River today we saw this Greater White-Fronted Goose.  We can visit this river any other time of the year and not see this bird.  In the late part of the summer, this goose shows up.  This is not the first time this has happened.  We have seen this goose before in other years.

Always with what I think is a Cackling Goose.  This goose is a bit smaller then the Canadian Goose.

Love this picture.  The White-fronted Goose is at the top of the damn and the Cackling Goose is on the second step of the damn. The white goose was fishing, the other looks like he was just chilling! Can you see how the wing feathers are sticking out on the Cackling Goose.
This part of the river has been very dangerous, in past years.  People think they can boat over it, and must forget about the undertow.  It has been reworked and now has a bypass that you can tube, or kayak on.  Today, a lot of people were on the river.  A lot of men were fishing below the falls,  The river is shallow and you can walk out there to fish.  One family walked across the river to have a picnic on the other bank.  It was fun watching all the folks today.

Caught this grasshopper taking a rest and feeding on this flower.

White cabbage butterflies were all around.  There were 3 to 5 at a time on this plant.

We could see turkey vultures were circling.  I thought there might be a nest around and kept watching this tree on the other side of the river.  If you look close there are two sitting in the tree. (Now I need a longer distance lens.)

On the way back home we came across this hawk.  Do not have any idea of what kind.  Told Ron to slowly move toward it.  He flew up and over to the next pole.

He did that 2 times, but still could not get a closer picture of him. Maybe next time!

Forgot, I saw small dragonfly over by the river too.

It was such a beautiful afternoon.  You can tell that fall is on its way.  Not ready for summer to end.

Dragonflies Oh My

This afternoon I stopped at the Kane County Forest Preserve to check it out.  This one is near our house and I have never been to it..  I caught this dragonfly.  Looks like I am going to now have to get a "bug" identity book.
I did find out this is a Halloween Pennat.

This was amazing to me.

There is a big pond or a small lake on the grounds. I think Water Lilies are so pretty. I saw a lot of walking and hiking trails.  It looks like there is even a toboggan run.

There was this pair of mallards along the edge of the pond.

If you look closely you can see a blue bug.  I could not see any wings, but they have to be there, as he flew around by my feet.  Blue Dasher, male.

Then I got this beauty, which is a Widow Skimmer.

This one stopped by to have his picture taken as well.
Blue Dasher

Can you believe, I caught one on this lily pad.

There was a little bridge over this creek that fed into the pond.  It was such a pretty setting.

There were a couple of fisherman. One actually caught 2 that were at least 12 inches long. When I asked if they were going to keep them, they said no and unhooked them and put the fish back.

Who knew there was such a beautiful setting about 4 miles from my home.

Love the waterlilies.

This was supposed to be the first picture of this series.  Why do they not  post  in the same order they were taken?
All in all, I had a wonderful time watching for "Birds".   Actually, I did find a new one, but have to identify it.
It started out raining today and turned into a beautiful sunny day.
Enjoy your day.