Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve - 4.15.12 - Post 5

Alrighty then.  Last post for this new place.

Dandelion (039 - 2012)

So I talked the other day about being more conscious of shooting the common birds.  There are also a few common plants I need to think about too.

One of the more ubiquitous wildflowers out here is the dandelion.  In fact, it's so ubiquitous, it's considered a weed.  But let's face it, all a weed is is a wild plant that's growing somewhere you don't want it.  I love that these are growing inside an old tree stump.

Celandine Poppy (040 - 2012)

I'm getting better with the flowers.  This is a Celandine Poppy.  I find it interesting because I'm not used to seeing flowers with only four petals.  It's the same reasons I find the Trilliums interesting.  They have three.

Nobody new here, just another Blue Jay.  Still working at a *good* Blue Jay shot.  But the reason I'm including this guy is that as I was walking I heard this incredibly loud screech.  I was sure there had to be hawk or an owl or other large predator bird doing it.  I had seen something that looked vaguely hawkish off in the distance over the river.  But when I finally got close, I realized it was this guy.  I could not believe a body this small could make a noise that loud!

He actually moved from tree to tree quite a bit as another photographer and I tracked him, but he stayed pretty well in view despite all that moving.

Bellwort (041 - 2012)

For some reason I got it in my head that I'd already blogged these at some point, but if I did, I can't find it now.  So I'm guessing I didn't.

These are bellwort.  An interesting little yellow flower that hangs upside down.

No actual species here, I'm not even sure what the tree is, but I love the evidence of beavers here.  I'm also slightly amazed that the tree hasn't fallen yet.







So that's Fullersburg!  I want to go back out there in May when migration is more thoroughly underway.  It was a nice park with a lot to see and not an insane amount of people to compete with.


Total Identified Species Sited for the Year: 41
Total Unidentified Species Sited for the Year: 1
Total New Species: 23

Dandelion*
Celandine Poppy*
Bellwort

Rollins Savanna - 9.20.10 - Post 2

Okay, picking up where I left off with Rollins Savanna.

Patterned Feathers

Because I ended up hiking counter-clockwise, I found the area I was looking for sooner than I expected.  Which was a good thing, as the animals were already starting to settle in for the evening.  This duck was eating the duckweed (go figure).  I adore the patterns in his feathers.

Duck in Bubbles

There were a lot of ducks out there from a couple of different species.  This female mallard was in the middle of a ring of bubbles.  I'm not sure what was making the bubbles (I don't think it was the duck ;), but it makes for an interesting shot. :)

Egret in the Grasses

Okay, so my parents live in Florida and they call these things "Florida Chickens" - they're kind of ubiquitous down there.  But in Northern Illinois they're a little more rare. (Did I mention this before?  As I type that I'm having deja vu.) And I was kind of keen on how you can barely see the water, and the egret is such a small part of the picture.

Watching Lunch

I was able to sneak up a little closer as he was looking for food in the pond.  I love the shapes they can make with their necks.

Egret Reflects

This was as close as I could get on the bridge.  Another reflection shot.  Yes, I'm unusually enamored of those lately.

Frog from Behind

As I came around the path and onto the bridge over the second pond, I found this frog.  I have no idea what he's sitting on, but you can see that he's, essentially, not in the water.  And while I was able to see him breathing, he was otherwise very, very still.  I walked up to him, and past him.  And then about an hour later I circled around and he was *still* there.

Can I Help You?

I can't get the color on this one to correct the way I want it too.  I've discovered that the white balance - even the auto-WB setting on my camera is great when I'm shooting in Aperture or Shutter Speed modes, but when I use the auto-settings, like 'sports-mode' or 'portrait', the shots come out much too blue.

Eyes and Ears and Froggy Toes

I think this is from my second pass.  Still just sitting there.  Talk about a great shot of a frog's ear.  Check out how prominent that tympanic membrane is.

Kildeer on Muskrat Lodge

Again with the color correction issues.  Partly it's saturation, partly it's white balance, and I haven't yet completely figured out how to fix that in my post-production software.  Anyway, another new species.  Kildeer!  Talk about skittish birds!  This was as close as I could get, and I spent quite a while trying.  I'd always heard that there were Kildeer in Northern Illinois, but I'd never seen one before these.  They're sitting on muskrat lodges.  I checked repeatedly and moved very slowly, but despite the *large* numbers of lodges (another casualty of kids not being able to handle language - we would have called these dams when I was a kid) and the large number of birds I saw on them, I didn't see one muskrat all day.

Muskrat Casa Es Mi Casa

Speeking of Birds on a Lodge... here's a duck making herself very comfortable.

Sunflowers Stretch into Fall

A few flowers were holding on even though fall was seriously starting to settle in.  These little sunflowers were a nice spot of bright yellow on a gray day.

Dam Lodge

Here's one of the lodges.  Don't get the idea that they've been there for a while, but there's greenery and flowers growing on top of most of them.  I want to head back in the spring, because I would imagine they make great nesting spots for breeding ducks.

Okay... there's more, but I think I actually have more than ten shots in this post, so I'll wrap this post here.