Red-breasted merganser shake-off in the Des Plaines River 🪶

A common goldeneye - one minute she's placidly paddling upstream, then suddenly she's outta here 🪶

Mourning dove in the bird sanctuary 🪶

Foggy sunrise over Lake Michigan, late winter

"Hereby claiming the entire sanctuary as my territory" 🪶

A red-headed woodpecker, shortly after successfully grabbing some tidbit it was pursuing 🪶

Poodle moss provides a bright pop of green in the winter woods

Tufted titmouse, one of the birds that just looks like it should be a character in a Disney movie 🪶

Some major scampering was afoot at Ryerson Conservation Area. The chipmunks have emerged from their underground dens. They seemed to be delighting in the chance to run around, and who can blame them?

This red-bellied woodpecker found a secluded spot for breakfast 🪶

A broad-winged hawk, in the slammer for crimes against Rodentia. Actually, a beautiful rehab bird at the Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center 🪶

Florence Nightingale. The International Museum of Surgical Science is an interesting place.

Portrait of a house sparrow with a crumb at the end of his beak 🪶

The courtship display of the common goldeneye is not exactly suave and sophisticated 🪶

Horned grebe in Lake Michigan, giving me the eye 🪶

A pair of mallards, doing their head-bobbing courtship dance. They were both bobbing very enthusiastically, so I think it's on. 🪶

A pair of ring-necked ducks patrolling the harbor 🪶

Back to the Orchid Show. Spring is coming.

Back in town and staking territorial claims. 🪶

Bufflehead at North Point Marina in Winthrop Harbor 🪶

Close-up of a bugling Sandhill crane. The nictitating membrane is closed, which is commonly the case when they vocalize. 🪶

The Des Plaines River in Lake County, up near the Wisconsin border. It's little more than a creek at this point, but it becomes a major waterway by the time it reaches Will County.

A leucistic Canada goose in the Des Plaines River 🪶

Eastern bluebird found a February caterpillar and gulped it down 🪶

One more picture from the Goose Wars 🪶

It's that time of year when the Goose Wars are getting underway. Months of peaceful co-existence degenerating into Canadian-on-Canadian violence 🪶

Mallard arrivals 🪶

A pileated woodpecker in the woods abutting Lake Chautauqua 🪶

Snow geese as abstract art 🪶

Eagle enjoying an icy breakfast picnic 🪶