Hello, Blog, It's Been Awhile

Well, despite my best intentions on keeping up here, I've fallen behind. I figure this is bound to happen from time to time. Life is busy as can be right now. But I've still found time to be out shooting. Here's some highlights since January.

To start with, Chicago got hit with a wallop of a blizzard February 2.

My poor snow cocooned car

The Killer Yorkie Dog met her match-- Deep Snow!

Folks playing with their kids in the street

After surviving and digging out from the blizzard, my mom and I had a great eagle watching trip to Starved Rock. We went last year but due to the warmer weather it was a bad year. The eagles congregate around the dam for the open water, but if there's a large thaw then they can spread out more. This years colder temperatures made for a great year for eagles. I got some great shots of eagles fishing.

Bald Eagle Fishing

Juvenile Bald Eagle attempting to steal adult's catch.

In addition to the eagles, there were a mob of gulls diving for fish that were a great diversion while waiting for another eagle to come by.

Herring Gull Emerging with a Fish

Diving

With the grey sky reflecting silver on the water, I wasn't really expecting much of the gull shots with the grey gulls with grey fish in their mouths and silver-grey water. But my favorite shot come from these. The silvery overload works here I think.

Herring Gull With Fish

That was the only big trip, but my weekend outings came up with a lot of shots, even through the winter. Like a flock of Cedar Waxwings feeding on crabapples at the Botanic Gardens.

Cedar Waxwing

Waxwings manage to be elegant and comical

There were also some regular visitors to the feeders at the Enabling Garden, including a Red-breasted Nuthatch and some White-throated Sparrows.

Red-breasted Nuthatch, having a bad hair day

White-throated Sparrow

The waterfowl migration started in early March. And one treat was a group of Horned Grebes hanging out at the Botanic Gardens main lagoon.

Horned Grebe

It's been a pretty good, albeit cold and wet, spring so far. Lots of exciting things coming up as well. We'll be making a trip to Starved Rock in the next week or so for waterfalls and wildflowers. And my trip to Yellowstone is approaching fast. Very excited at the prospects.