op een stevige manier 37 graadochtend in Noord-Illinois besloot ik mijn camera af te stoffen en de voortgang van “voorjaar”. I hit Rollins Savanna Forest Preserve door 6:30op, net op tijd voor het eerste licht om de fragmentarische vorst te doen smelten. A week and a half ago temps were pushing the upper 80’s and summer felt in full swing. In typical Chicago fashion things didn’t last long, the weather returned to its fickle spring form with storms and (what now seemed like) bitter cold.
Despite a 3 hour hike I only came across one butterfly – a red admiral, Vanessa Atalanta, and about a half-dozen dog ticks (Dermacentor sp.). Beggars can’t be choosers, there was hardly a single insect out. I might as well take photos of birds…
The very first and most abundant birds were the Tree Swallow, Tachycineta bicolor. These two were just greeting the dawn and stretching out their little legs. They seemed to be rather patient subjects, a good first-bird-to-ever-photograph!
A prairie isn’t complete without a chorus of Redwinged-Blackbirds.
Despite my best efforts this is one of the better Sandhill Crane images I could get. If you click through my Flickr set you’ll find one more, but sneaking up on them in the marsh was rather difficult. I don’t get birds yet…
This Coyote let me get pretty close, looks like they are fed well in suburbia.
All of the birds seen on March 29, 2012:
(at least the ones I can ID)
American Robin
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Black-capped Chickadee
Eastern Meadowlark
American Woodcock
Sandhill Crane
Tree Swallow
Eastern Bluebird
Liedmus
Blauwvleugeltaling
Wilde eend
Knobbelzwaan
Canadese gans
Killdeer
(en andere eenden…)
