Reader Ed Kroc took some pictures in my neck of the woods! (As always, click photos to enlarge.). Here are Ed’s notes:
I wanted to send along some pictures from a trip last month to your part of the continent.
It’s true when they say you often have to leave a place before you can appreciate it. At least, I stand by this claim when that place is one’s place of birth or origin. Although it’s not at all like the beauty surrounding my adopted hometown of Vancouver, BC, there are in fact some amazing natural sights all around the Chicago area, my place or origin.
From Hidden Lake Forest Preserve in DuPage County, a few late summer photographs of the local winged population.
A pair of pictures of a female American Kestrel (Falco sparverius), colloquially referred to as the (North American) Sparrowhawk. These are the continent’s smallest falcons, not much larger than a dove. This female was vigorously hunting and nomming crickets in the prairie-brush near Eola, Illinois. After having had her fill, she took to scoping out her domain atop one of the many power lines strung above so much of that part of the county.
The thunder clouds that had been malevolently gathering overhead all day cracked and the rain came crashing down. All that noise and water didn’t seem to faze a Green Heron (Butorides virescens) that stayed perched atop a dead tree limb overhanging the East Branch of the DuPage River. I think the sheets of rain just adds to the heron’s mystique.
Soon the clouds cleared and a Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) took to a nearby branch to survey the newly drenched landscape. This one is not singing, but panting. We tend to think of panting as something done mostly by canines, but many birds do it too. This particular day was very hot (and obviously muggy), so there was good reason to be panting!
Finally, a male Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) living up to both his common name and his Latin binomial. Predictably, the females are cryptically coloured and tend to stay a bit lower in the brush.
Note: I’m running a bit low on readers’ wildlife photos, so if you have some good ones, send them my way. As always, I can’t promise to put up every photo that someone sends me.
Sub
The first photo of the green heron just went on one of my pinterest boards, photography of course being credited to Ed. A very special shot.
Thanks! 🙂
All lovely. I haven’t been able to photograph and indigo bunting but they do show up here early in the summer, just not around my house.
The photo of the heron in the rain is very nice in its colour, the visibility of the rain & the way the heron is crouching. It would make a good matted photo.
Try to put out bird feeders with the things that attract gold finches. Such as cracked sunflower, thistle, and nyjar (whatever that is).
I have lots of gold finches but not indigo buntings. I think they prefer deciduous forest which isn’t what I have. Where I’ve seen them, there is both deciduous forest, water and grass.
Thanks! I enjoy your pictures too!
Thinking about our earlier discussion comparing cats and d*gs, I’m imagining an alternate reality in which we developed a similar relationship with raptors, more than just the isolated examples of falconry and the like. Would kestrels have been the source species for cute and cuddly pets who happened to keep pests in check, or large eagles for hard work requiring horsepower?
b&
I’m imagining a draft horse sized eagle harnessed to a carriage….I just don’t see them putting up with that. Assuming they were prevented from flying, they’d have to make it so the birds couldn’t turn around and fling the passengers out of the harness. I suppose they would need to be subdued the way elephants are.
Woah! An eagle that big, assuming such is physically possible with today’s atmosphere, etc. would hunt elephants. It wouldn’t fear lions and tigers, and might even prey on them as well. Humans would be a tasty appetizer….
b&
I would start with ostriches, and breed for a lower center of gravity. Or penguins, and breed for giant ones. With those you could strap on wheeled flat carts to their chests so they could scoot forward on their tummies.
For a challenge, I’d want to make giant hummingbirds! 😀
I have a vivid memory of an Indigo Bunting sitting on a barbed-wire fence in 1978 (the first and only time I’ve seen one), having heard my grandmother reflect on the beauty of the “indigo bunting” a few year earlier. I can’t think of the bird without thinking of her.
I also reflect on the Bluebird in connection with the Bunting. I suppose that the Bunting is “bluer,” but were the Bunting called the Bluebird, what would one call the Bluebird?
To add to the voluminous “To Do” List: find out why a bunting is called a “bunting.”
To be correct, birds do not ‘pant’ (comment on the photo of the Cedar Waxwing)/ Birds use ‘gular fluttering,’ a cooling behavior in which birds rapidly flap membranes in the throat to increase evaporation; it is particularly obvious in such birds as cormorants, pelicans, and their relatives, but most birds use the mechanism.
Very cool, I did not know that terminology. Thanks for the information!
I love the Indigo Bunting on the curly willow. A much more electric blue than “indigo” however.
The Green Heron looking up towards the sky is really nice. Looks like it’s taking a shower.
Thanks for the photos!
“I love the Indigo Bunting on the curly willow. A much more electric blue than “indigo” however.”
A bird worthy of Maxfield Parrish (and perhaps equally so the opposite).
The bald eagle pair that have a nest near me are back. (This is ‘close’ to wildlife pictures.) If interested, go here:
dickpritchettrealestate.com/eagle-feed
The nest is in a tree in a front pasture at the Pritchett’s property. Ozzie and Harriet are local celebrities.