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

Lake Patterson, in Kane County Forest Preserve.

Gray Catbird
Had gone to Lake Patterson which is in one of our forest preserves in Kane County a couple of weeks ago.
He was kind enough to sit which I took a couple of pictures.

Gray Catbird.

Baby robins are still in the area.  They have been gone from our yard for quite a while, but the forests in our area are full of them.

This guy was hiding right along the creek by Lake Patterson

The one cormorant is a visitor everyday that I go to that forest preserve.  He is always swimming.  It is interesting when he ducks underwater.  You try to anticipate where he will come up again.  He does stay down  for what seems like a long time.

I thought we were about done with Monarchs.  They seem to still be around.

The flock of American Coot arrived.  This is the first time I have ever seen them on this little lake.

We have a visitor at our house.  He is getting ready for winter.  There is a hole right behind him.  I had been putting dirt in it all summer, as it settled.  This character showed up,  and actually threw some stones from that hole  out again..  I put the stone and more dirt in the hole, and within a couple of days the stones were back out.

Coot

In the forest that day, this bird showed up.  So far I have not be able to identify him.

One of our woodpecker friends.  Hairy or Downy.

This little guy has shown up too on the lake.  I am pretty sure it is a youngster, but have no idea what.  He is always by himself, and never gets very close to the shore.  I am continuing to go back to see if I see him again. I am not so sure he has left.

Kane County Reserve Part 2

Check out this Giant Swallowtail!  Today I decided to walk along the trail at the forest preserve near out house.
Near a bank I came across this beautiful butterfly.

He was sitting in the mud and looked like he was sucking on something.

He seemed to be rocking in the mud

I was able to get all of these pictures, while it sat for me.  I could circle around it to take the pictures.

 Crescentspot

There are several different Crescentspot butterflies.

Not the greatest picture of the turtle. Just as I moved to try to get a better one, he ducked into the water.

White waterlily

Monarch

He was absolutely beautiful!

I just could not help myself, and kept taking pictures.

This Monarch did a wonderful job of sitting for me.