“We’re not some other generic place — we’re Chicago. We’re this land of prairies and wetlands and Lake Michigan and rivers, and there’s a richness and identity to that we often overlook, over-pave and over-develop.” ~ Aaron Durnbaugh

Merlin (f) -- Falco columbarius

"If people could only abandon the rush of the city, slow down, and observe, they could be taken back to a different time and place and come closer to the natural world." ~ Tom Brown, Jr.

Bald Eagle -- Haliaeetus leucocephalus, near full adult plumage, approx. 5 y.o. By the early 1960s, Eagle populations in the lower 48 were dangerously low. Far more robust numbers today allow our national symbol to hold more meaning in terms of stewardship, recovery, and awareness.

Greater Scaup (f) -- Aythya marila

'How do you like what you have...
I began to think of portraits of any one.
If they are themselves inside them what are they
and what has it to do with what they do.' ~ Gertrude Stein, "Portraits and Repetition"

"If you do nothing else but cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day of your life, and the very last day, you will have spent this day very well." ~ from "Gratitude" by Louis Schwartzberg

American Kestrel (m) -- Falco sparverius, has caught a rodent in a cornfield.

"I relive each day the ancient expectation of the hunt -- the setting out, and the trail at dawn. What will we find today?" ~ John Haines, "The Stars, the Snow, the Fire"

Hairy Woodpecker (f) -- Picoides villosus, woodworkers local #236 rapresentative on the job

"Illumination is the recognition of the radiance of one eternity through all things." ~ Joseph Cambell

buck, White-tailed Deer -- Odocoileus virginianus. Antler size is largely driven by nutritional intake, and they are often dropped in winter. Odocoileus = 'hollow tooth'.

'You speak as though
No sunlight ever surprised the mind
Groping on its cloudy path.' ~ from "Poetry for Supper" by Ronald Stuart Thomas

American Pipit -- Anthus rubescens, far northern breeder foraging on a lakefront algal mat during migratory stopover.

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” ~ Aristotle

Rough-legged Hawk (light morph juvenile) -- Buteo lagopus

"What we seek when we wander usually leads us back home." ~ Gina Greenlee

Cooper's Hawk -- Accipiter cooperii

“Truth isn’t always beauty, but the hunger for it is.” ~ Nadine Gordimer

Fresh bloodstains on this male seem to confirm that the Coyote -- Canis latrans, is thriving in our area. They might look their healthiest during winter as their breeding season arrives, rrr-roughly Jan-Mar.

Ring-billed Gulls -- Larus delawarensis, hunkering down on a blustery day.

'Play louder. You will not succeed. I am
bound more to my sentences
the more you batter at me
to follow you.' ~ William Carlos Williams, "January".

White-breasted Nuthatch -- Sitta carolinensis

‘You must revise
Your bland philosophy of nature, earth
Has of itself no power to make men wise.’ ~ from “Autumn on the Land” by R. S. Thomas

This buck didn't stop here (white-tailed speeds top out around 47 mph). By the late 1800s White-tailed Deer were nearly extinct in IL. Today, with few natural predators, their numbers are higher than when European settlers first arrived, and hunting and other forms of culling are essential.

"The truth, of course, is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time." ~ David Bowie

Northern Mockingbird -- Mimus polyglottus, snacking on rose hips, i think Multiflora Rose -- Rosa multiflora, an invasive species.

"In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer." ~ Albert Camus

Northern Harrier (f) -- Circus cyaneus, endangered in IL

'... to immerse, to have it slide
through us, disappearance
of the skin, this is what we are looking for,
the way in.' ~ from "Marsh, Hawk" by Margaret Atwood, 1978.

Purple Finch (eastern male) -- Haemorhous purpureus

"If you think this Universe is bad, you should see some of the others." ~ Philip K. Dick

Red-headed Woodpecker -- Melanerpes erythrocephalus, grabbing some winter corn

Short-eared Owl -- Asio flammeus, endangered in IL.

'Is this the vision of a higher mind
that shall reveal the kind
of paradigm that frees, sublime,
the spirit of a seer; a poet, whose strains,
in sight of soaring eagle, dancing cranes,
will elevate the spirit beyond rightdoing;
redeem the soul’s wrongdoing.' ~ from "Grasslands" by John Anstie

Northern Shrike -- Lanius excubitor, the 'butcher watchman', returning to hunt after caching rodent prey.

'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?' ~ Juvenal (Who will watch the watchmen?)

Snowy Owl -- Bubo scandiacus, nap-of-the-earth approach barely one foot off the deck of Lake Michigan

Belted Kingfisher (m) -- Megaceryle alcyon, year-round resident keeps plunging through winter where water remains open

'The river is a frozen place
Held still beneath the trees black lace.
The sky is low. The wind is gray.
The radiator purrs all day.' ~ from "January" by John Updike

American Mink -- Neovison vison, are also well-adapted to winter conditions along our waterways

"There's no bad weather, only bad clothing." ~ Alex "Rifleman" Bingman

American Tree Sparrows -- Spizella arborea, winter well south of their breeding range. For them, eating like a bird means consuming around a third of their weight in food and a similar amount of water daily.

‘Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl’d,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.’ ~ Alexander Pope, "Essay on Man", Epistle I.

Common Goldeneye (m) -- Bucephala clangula -- nickname 'whistler' for the sound its wings make in flight.

'Pursue not the outer entanglements;
Dwell not in the inner void;
Be serene in the oneness of things;
And dualism vanishes by itself.' ~ Verses on the Faith-Mind.

Long-tailed Duck (m) -- Clangula hyemalis.

'I don't mind the cold or heat
And I've got a reason
Love when it's spread all around
Can tackle any season' ~ Nikki Giovanni, "A Statement on Conservation"

White-winged Scoter (m) -- Melanitta fusca, largest of the Scoters

'One man practicing kindness in the wilderness is worth all the temples this world pulls.' ~ Jack Kerouac, Dharma Bums

Greater Scaup -- Aythya marila, adult male in foreground, 1st winter male aport

"Animals are such agreeable friends -- they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms." ~ George Elliot

Ring-necked Pheasant (m) -- Phasianus colchicus, non-native introduced as a game bird to the US in the 1880s.

"Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language." ~ Aldo Leopold

Ross's Goose -- Chen rossii, smaller relative of the Snow Goose.

"We are not going to change the whole world, but we can change ourselves and feel as free as birds..." ~ Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras.

Red-winged Blackbirds (m) -- Agelaius phoeniceus

Migrating males flock in before females. Don't ask the groundhog.

White-winged Scoters appear to like the Zebra Mussels, and may overwinter on the Great Lakes partly because of their abundance.

“Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it afloat.” ~ Audre Lorde

North America's only marsupial, the Opossum -- Didelphis virginiana, welcoming the snow melt

'He's hauled himself out from a stranger place,
Unnoticed and in turn unnoticing
Of high-beams drifting down the cul-de-sac
Or shafts of street light angling through the limbs...' ~ Daniel Anderson, "A Possum's Tale", 1998.

Eastern Bluebird (m) -- Sialia sialis

'...tell her I'm stuck here in Chicago
And I'm just as blue as I can be.' ~ Barkin' Bill, "Bluebird Blues"

Great Blue Heron buzzes the tower

“Art is only a means of seeing. It is as though reality was always behind a curtain… the great adventure is to see each day in the same face something new surge forth.” ~ Alberto Giacometti

Long-tailed Ducks -- Clangula hyemalis, i think adult female on left and juvenile right

“You must not know too much, or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and water-craft; a certain free margin, and even vague-ness – perhaps even ignorance, credulity – helps your enjoyment of these things.” ~ Walt Whitman, 5/14/1881.

Blue-spotted Salamander (f) -- Ambystoma laterale, about 3.5". During winter they may become frozen to a state where their heart and lungs cease functioning. But they had me at amphibian.

Redhead (m) -- Aythya americana

"The study of the earth and its shaping opened up new vistas to me, and when finally I was aware of the intricate relationships of all forms of life in the area, my understanding grew to the point where I felt more at home in the wilderness than ever before." ~ Sigurd Olson, "Songs of the North", 1987.

Ground Beetle -- Chlaenius spp., Family Carabidae, often appear metallic despite a covering of fine hairs.

‘Only with winter-patience can we bring
The deep desired, long-awaited spring.’ ~ Anne Morrow Lindburgh

Chicago Garter Snake -- Thamnophis sirtalis semifasciatus

‘The world’s great age begins anew,
The golden years return,
The earth doth like a snake renew
Her winter weeds outworn.’ ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, Hellas.

Red-breasted Merganser (m) -- Mergus serrator, catches a Yellow Perch -- Perca flavescens.

‘Time is but the stream I go a-fishin’ in. I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars.’ ~ Henry David Thoreau. Walden

some Buffleheads -- Bucephala albeola, drop by on their journey north

'...listen: there's a hell of a good universe next door; let's go' ~ e.e. cummings, "pity this poor monster,manunkind," 1944.

Common Snapping Turtle -- Chelydra serpentina, apex predator

"By dredging, damming, channeling, tampering with (and in some cases eliminating) the ecological niches where water cleans itself, we have simplified the pathways that water takes through the American landscape, and we have ended up with dirty water." ~ Alice Outwater, 1996

pair of Muskrats -- Ondatra zibethicus. Genus name owes to the Huron name 'ondathra'. "Muskrat" comes from Algonquin 'muscascus' -- "it is red." Some native creation myths hold a prominent role for the muskrat.

"Nature loves partnerships." ~ Paul Stamets

Jack O'lantern Mushroom -- Omphalotus illudens, poisonous but not deadly. gills are said to be bioluminescent, emitting a pale green glow in darkness.

'And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid,
But even so, honoured still more
That he should seek my hospitality
From out the dark door of the secret earth.' ~ David Herbert Lawrence

Horned Lark (interior west male) -- Eremophila alpestris, a bird that avoids trees and bushes, here in cornfield stubble.

DYK: 'horn' and 'corn' have etymological commonalities -- what a lark is language!

Loggerhead Shrike -- Lanius ludovicianus, endangered in IL.

“I think there’s a kind of desperate hope built into poetry now that one really wants, hopelessly, to save the world. One is trying to say everything that can be said for the things that one loves while there’s still time. I think that’s a social role, don’t you?” ~ William Stanley Merwin