My Adventures in Lake County, IL
When we we talk about fall color we automatically think of trees turning beautiful shades of yellow, red, orange and brown. But there is a lot of color right at our feet. Many wildflowers save their blossoms for fall, feeding the bees and migrating butterflies.
The asters shown above are seen everywhere, even in our yard. They are always a target for insects. The colors range from white to pale blue to bright purple. The blossoms are very small and numerous.
Evening Primrose
We have had some interesting sunrises lately. The one above was taken when the west wind had blown smoke from the California fires all the way to Lake County. You could faintly smell the smoke in the air.
We are in to fall birding now. The summer species are winding down. Very few birds are singing the easy to recognize songs as they did in the spring. They are now using short chips to communicate.
The American Bittern was a particularly good find by Dad. I was lazy that morning and stayed home from the beach. He texted me about thirty minutes after he got there to let me know. I ran down as fast as I could to see it . I don’t think anyone else saw it after that. Except for the Semipalmated Plover these are all local birds. The Bittern will probably leave soon but the rest will winter here.
I hope everyone is well and staying healthy!
Everyone talks about the beautiful colors of fall. The leaves change to brilliant hues, custom made for wall calendars. The birds change colors also. I’ll show a few examples.
The list goes on and on. The fall birds are often juvenile and female, lacking the bright colors of the male. But many male birds also shed their bright plumage in favor of dull browns and greens. This makes fall birding a head scratcher!
September 13
We had a last minute visit from Doug and Lisa. They had big news. Doug got a promotion and bought a new car! You have probably heard that news already but I wanted to include it here. The car is a Subaru. Doug explained that the name is Japanese for the constellation of the Seven Sisters. That explains the Subaru logo. But wait, where is the seventh star? It is invisible! Doug named the car Celeste.
We had a great visit. Dad grilled hamburgers and we had the usual which everyone enjoyed. We had to eat indoors because the bees are pretty bad right now. You can’t even drink a beer outside without them swarming around you.
I have been hitting the beach again around dawn. There are still shorebirds migrating and the chance for rare gulls is increasing. The sun is coming upper later, of course, so I don’t really get out as early as in the spring.
This is the Bottle Gentian, and it is in my side garden. I got them in an order from the Lake County Forest Preserve native plant sale last spring. I put them in and forgot about them. So I was very pleased to see them blossoming. The are hidden by some taller plants. I will need to move the tall plants and give these guys some more sun. The flower doesn’t open like a normal flower. It stays shut until a bumblebee opens it. The smaller insects are not strong enough to get into it. They grow in the wild in a few spots along the lakefront.
I have been busy trying to help Eloise reinstate her pension. It basically involves looking for documents and making phone calls. We went to see her on Friday. I think I made some progress so I feel relieved at the moment. I’ll be so glad when the process is finished. She’s Doing fine but is bored, like everyone else.
I have been painting. At the moment I am doing hummingbirds. When I get a good one I will post it.
We left early (after birding) on Tuesday morning to go see Eloise in Cudahy. She is on the far south edge of Milwaukee, directly east of the airport. We had a little birthday party on the front porch of the nursing home.
After seeing Eloise, we drove to Sheboygan. On the way there we saw about fifteen army vehicles heading south. I wondered if it had to do with the Trump visit to Kenosha. We got to Ginny’s house about noon. There was a for sale sign in the front yard. I had just by accident seen the listing about a week ago so I wasn’t surprised. She has an offer already. It’s a nice spot. I took some photos of the yard while we were there.
Ginny is going to retire at the end of the golfing season. She is looking at houses in the UP. She wants to be away from things I guess. Stephanie is going with her. Alex will be moving to lower Michigan to live with her boyfriend. Lots of changes.
We were so happy to drive down to Chicago to visit Doug and Lisa. It was a beautiful summer day with cooler temperatures and clear skies. On Sunday it took less than an hour to get there. We stayed outside and spent a lot of time examining the thriving grden in the back yard. The plants were immense and very healthy.
The plants attract a lot of bees and Lisa is putting them into iNaturalist to get an ID on them.
Doug built some trellises for his cucumbers. Do they remind you of anything?
Lisa made a great Mediterranean chicken by marinading it in a yogurt and lemon sauce. Doug grilled it perfectly. The skewered eggplant was from the garden. We watched them pick it! There were a lot of Cherry Tomatoes and all sorts of fresh herbs. We left with a little goody bag.
We heard all about Lisa’s new job with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. She drives to Schaumberg, near the IKEA store, a morning commute of about 30 minutes. I can’t really explain any other details except that she will be analyzing water.
We had a great visit and an awesome dinner. Thanks, Doug and Lisa!!!
If you’re sitting outside before sunset look up! The Common Nighthawks are moving. They pass over in small groups. They have a distinctive shape and show white bars across their wings.
We are finally getting some interesting shorebirds at the beach. Since the Piping Plovers left a few weeks ago we have seen only Sanderlings and a few smaller sandpipers. Today I went down around 6:30 and just as I was heading out to the beach I got a text alert. Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Waukegan! This is a bird that visits only briefly so you need to get there right away when it appears. I was about five minutes away on foot. Gustavo had found it and he was keeping a safe distance to keep from disturbing it. We both enjoyed watching it and it’s companion, which we hadn’t positively identified yet. After some careful observation I decided that it was a Baird’s Sandpiper. These birds have wings that are long enough to cross in back, over the tail. Two great birds!! Dad soon showed up and enjoyed the show until the bird flew off to the west.
It was time for breakfast by the time we finished at the beach so we went home. I knew it was going to be very hot today so I stayed in. At one point the thermometer said 97º! I had some book keeping chores to do so I stayed busy.
We had another great bird last Sunday. We finally saw a resident Eastern Screech Owl. This bird is near the Dead River Trail at the South Unit of Illinois Beach State Park. You only need to walk a short distance on the trail. There are some widely spaced steps built into the trail. If you stand on the second step and look north you will see a broken trunk that has been burned out. If you are lucky, the owl will be sitting in view. A lot of the time he is in the trunk but sitting too low to see. We never had seen him before in all of the times we hiked that trail.
Dad surprised me this morning by coming down to the beach. I was about half way to the outlet when I looked down the beach and there he was. I told him that I had seen a Northern Harrier over the swimming area. It wasn’t long until the bird circled back and flew over the backwater. It was an immature bird with lots of warm brown tones and narrow barring on the wings. The tail, long for a raptor, had wide bars, dark brown contrasting with white. The white rump is the most obvious field mark.
The Harrier hunts by flying low over the dunes or marshes and hovering over his prey. We didn’t see him catch anything this time.
There was not much more of interest. The shorebirds and warblers haven’t come in yet and the summer residents, though still here, are no longer singing. It seems quiet and empty.
We are very excited for Lisa and her new job!! Good luck!!!!!
There have been no adventures in the last week. That’s probably a good thing. I have been down to the beach almost every morning. I find that if I arrive about twenty after six the other birders already have a head start and I can walk the beach alone. There have been a few new shorebirds but nothing exciting. We had a total of five immature Piping Plovers. They are on their way south now. They have not been seen since the storm. We had some nice photo ops from the resident species.
Do you remember the colored pencils? I finally actually drew a bird with them. This is an unexpected bird that came to our feeder yesterday, the Red-breasted Nuthatch.
I have been out in the garden tidying up. I started a flower from seed in the Aerogarden early last spring. It did very well and I planted in the front yard garden. It is a blanket flower. The seed came from a plant at the beach. This plant seems much more robust than the plant the seed was from. The single stem that holds the flower is about three feet tall.
Outside the library window I had a spider set up shop. I only noticed it when the hummingbird checked the spider web for tiny insects.
I’m sure you are wishing I would post another sunrise photo so here it is! Love, Mom
