I had the pleasure of birding with my 2 nephews along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. We had heard reports of rare birds so we had to check it out. BTW it was odd that there was no snow, but it was cold and windy.
Who says you can't walk on water?Henrey spotted the female Harlequin Duck! (Notice the 3 spots)
She is a small sea duck, usually found along the Canadian coastlines!
We found some Common Goldeneyes also.
I usually am birding out in the forest, but here I was near the urban jungle...
We were all surprised to find this completely black "eastern Gray Squirrel," the first one I have ever seen in Illinois. It was hanging out in the Jarvis bird sanctuary.
We found some Horned Grebes in Montrose Harbor.
We were about to give up when Graham found the SNOWY OWL! It was preening itself on the empty dock. Pretty great camouflage on the white!!! This is an incredibly beautiful creature.
We think the Snowy was feasting on the abundant ducks... like this Red Breasted Merganser.
The Goldeneyes didn't let us get too close either.
This is the male red breasted merganser.
As we were leaving the city, I could not resist this shot of the Willis tower (formerly but always in my mind as the Sears Tower).
The next day we went to the Indiana dunes lakeshore to help with the bird counts, it was only 22 degrees in the morning. Looks like the beavers have been busy!
We did find a Hairy Woodpecker.
It was pretty tough birding, but finally a nice group of Dark-Eyed Juncos came on our trail.
Afterwards we walked around at a different preserve, found several interesting colors and shapes of fungus and a trace of snow in the woods.
Here is a cute little white-breasted nuthatch.
As we walked around the sand dunes looking (unsuccessfully) for northern saw whet owls, I found the dormant scenery quite refreshing!
Wonderful series, Angela. Thanks for "taking me along" on the walk. :-)
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