vervet monkey
great blue heron
American coot
cliff swallow
mallard duck
sandhill crane and ostrich
wart hog
northern gannet
Mothers and babies (birds and mammals from USA, Canada and South Africa)
WHO do you have to lose?
Jackson Park along with Montrose Beach are premier nature areas in Chicago. Adding pro-golf courses, music venues or making the area into a Millennial Park South is going to disrupt our natural area and we will lose many of the beautiful creatures that inhabit Hyde Park along with us. I am not against the Obama Library. I just would love to have it built on an area that is currently concrete so we can have BOTH a Millennial Park South and a wonderful, beautiful natural site used by many humans and other creatures I have photographed wildlife in Hyde Park for a number of years. I started making calendars in 2012. Here are the photos from the 2012 calendar. I will post another calendar next week. You can leave comments about how you use Jackson Park on the website: http://www.savethisspace.com or tag a photo you take of yourself and friends @jacksonparkusers.
This red-tailed hawk photo was taken in Jackson Park on 12/21/10
This beaver photo was taken in Jackson Park on 12/29/10
This hooded merganser photo was taken in Jackson Park on 3/3/10
The coyote photo on the left was taken in Jackson Park on 12/3/11
This raccoon photo was taken in Jackson Park on 5/11/09
This black-crowned heron in a mulberry tree was taken in Jackson Park on 6/4/10.
This indigo bunting photo was taken in Burnham Nature Sanctuary on 7/13/09
Clockwise from bottom left: Tiger swallowtail on milkweed, Red-spotted purples on coneflower, Black swallowtail on clover and Buckeye.
Ramp used to rescue animals stuck in a human-made concrete basin: beaver, turtle and ducklings.
These great blue heron photos were taken in Jackson Park in September and October 2009
Cardinal in burning bush photo was taken in Jackson Park on 11/12/11
This monk parakeet (quaker parrot) photo was taken in Jackson Park on 12/8/10
The great blue heron photo was taken in Jackson Park on 9/20/11.
Fall 2019
female blue-winged teal
male blue-winged teal
female red-breasted merganser
male wood duck
ruddy duck
male and female ruddy duck
ruddy ducks
female red-breasted merganser
female red-breasted merganser with male and female mallard
scaup
female golden-eye
male hooded merganser
northern flicker
northern flicker peeking out of wood duck box
northern cardinal
flycatcher
carp
caspian terns and ring-billed gulls
raccoon
great blue heron in Osaka Garden
kestrel
moon rise
tree fungus
murmuration of starlings
starlings
coyote in Oak Woods cemetery
coyote in Oak Woods cemetery
Canada Goose and greater white-fronted goose in Oak Woods cemetery
greater white-fronted goose in Oak Woods cemetery
Summer 2019
turtles
carp in lagoon
indigo bunting
front view of indigo bunting
baltimore oriole
baltimore oriole
great crested flycatcher
dragonfly
red-spotted purple
american lady butterfly
black-crowned night heron
black-crowned night heron
green heron
mallard ducklings and mom
mallard ducklings and mom
Canada Goose and goslings
Migrating monarchs and other fall wildlife in Hyde Park (Chicago)
Migrating monarchs in a roost (or bivouac) on 63rd Street near the Lake
monarchs in silver maple
monarch on michaelmas daisy at 47th and Cornell
monarch on Mexican sunflower in lovely garden at 65th and Cornell
two skipper butterflies mating in garden by the golf driving range
Snowberry clearwing hummingbird moth on zinnia. Other common names include sphinx moth or hawk moth. In the UK they are known as bee-hawk moths. Photo taken at garden around 65th and Cornell
Clearwing hummingbird moth on butterfly bush in garden around 59th and Cornell
An actual hummingbird which I first thought was another hummingbird moth!
crayfish on 63rd Street beach
An itchy great blue heron near the golf driving range
a juvenile black-crowned night heron in the Osaka Garden
Lots of white-crowned sparrows are migrating through Wooded Island
brown creeper at 47th and Cornell
flycatcher from Bobolink Meadow
coyote near 63rd Street not happy to see me
It’s a girl!
It’s a boy! A photo from around 5 years ago
Mostly photos of great garden at 65th and Cornell
Thanks for your help identifying the garden flowers in these photos. Want to visit this garden?: park on 63rd and Cornell and walk south two blocks. Watch out for golf balls.
Cosmos
Zinnias
goldfinch eating sunflower seeds
tiger swallowtail on sunflower
goldfinch eating sunflower seeds
painted lady butterfly
bumblebee
tiger swallowtail
male black swallowtail
female black swallowtail
silver spotted skipper and beetle
hackberry emperor
pearl crescent on black-eyed susan
monarchs
hummingbird moth
male monarch butterfly on Tithonia (Mexican sunflower)
common buckeye butterfly
cabbage whites
crab apple in circle garden at midway and stony island
green heron
last batch of ducklings this year?
cooper’s hawk
Summer herons, beach birds and butterflies
All photos taken in the Hyde Park Area during July and August 2018.
water lily in Columbia Basin in back of MSI building
green heron near Osaka Garden
black-crowned night heron in Osaka Garden
black crowned night heron with waterfall and mulberry tree
great egret in Columbia Basin behind the MSI building
western painted turtle in Oakwoods Cemetery
spotted sandpiper on 63rd Street Beach
One of this year’s hatchlings–spotted sandpiper
Ring-billed gull and Caspian tern on 63rd Street Beach . You usually see Caspian terns diving beak first into the lagoons.
A few pink ring-billed gulls showed up at 63rd Street beach. Juvenile ring-billed gull on the right
A blue Swedish duck or maybe a manky mallard (mix of mallard and domestic ducks) showed up with 2 mallards
chipmunks have moved into Wooded Isle
chipmunk checking out white mulberry fruit
squirrel in white mulberry tree
adult cliff swallow hanging out in nest
cliff swallow nest on 63rd Street beach house wall
young cliff swallow nestlings with white feathers that perhaps fool potential predators into thinking they are bird poop
an older cliff swallow nestling
female or juvenile red-winged blackbird with snack
female monarch on joe pye weed
monarch caterpillar
black swallowtail on butterfly bush
silver-spotted skipper– another candidate for bird poop camoflague
female white form– clouded sulfur–looks blue when wings are open
red-spotted purple butterfly
eastern comma on milkweed
Underside of this butterfly’s wing has a very faint comma. Again, nice camouflage
tiger lily in wooded isle
Happy 4th of July (summer in the city)
single gosling
bullfrog
Osaka Garden irises
male purple martin and fledgling
spotted sandpiper
lots of monarchs this year
pioneer spiderwort (snotweed) on 63rd Street beach
mallard duckling with cottonwood seeds
older mallard ducklings
wood duck ducklings
older wood duck ducklings
older goslings
why goslings can’t fly- look at the size of their wings
starling nestlings
starlings bathing on golden lady statue
nest in Osaka Garden
house wren parent
house wren fledgling
western painted turtle
great blue heron
great blue heron with 3 juvenile black-crowned night herons
adult black-crowned night heron
great egret
fledgling barn swallows
fledgling barn swallows
monarch on milkweed in mini-garden near parking lot at 53rd and Dorchester
moon watch and new groups (natural areas and dogs) meeting this weekend
New groups forming for people concerned about protecting our natural areas and/or the proliferation of “no dogs allowed” areas
The weather is supposed to be reasonable both nights so we’ll meet at The Point in time to see the moon rise. Meeting will occur even if it is cloudy.
Saturday February 11 at 6:18 natural areas
Sunday February 12 at 7:23 dogs
Courting ducks and night camera videos
Most of these photos and videos were taken in Hyde Park (Chicago) during the last couple of weeks.
Even though the groundhog saw his shadow, I’ve seen and heard some signs of spring during the last couple of weeks: chickadees and cardinals singing their spring songs, squirrels mating, and ducks courting in the inner and outer harbor.
Field trip idea: Go to inner or outer harbor to scout for courting ducks and look for signs of beavers. To walk around inner harbor: park on the street just west of Lake Shore Drive at 63rd Street (Hayes) or in the parking lot on the north side of the street. You can walk over to the outer harbor if you park in the 63rd Street beach parking lot and walk south.
Male and female red-breasted mergansers. Just the males are doing courting displays in this video. Females have red heads and more white on their chests.
This is the first video I have where both male and female common goldeneyes are displaying. After the brown female on the left hand side starts displaying, you can hear some of the beeps that the males make when they throw their heads back
At the beginning you can see this hooded merganser raise his crest and make his white patch bigger. He then displays to a female mallard who already has a male mallard mate.
Common goldeneye male courting female common goldeneye. You couldn’t hear it very well in the video but there is also a beep with this move. Male and female red-breasted merganser in the background
I’ve never seen this version of the common goldeneye display before
male and female hooded merganser– male’s white patch is relatively small when his crest is lowered
female is sleeping, male’s white patch is still small
male in sleeping position but he has raised his crest, why?
because a female common goldeneye has hopped up next to him?
canvasback duck
diving
front view
female mallard on ice
herring gull on ice
american goldfinch
coyote on ice at 63rd Street Beach
winter is a good time to see nests in trees and find them on the ground
This northern oriole who nested near the inner harbor used ribbon and fishing line in her nest
I like how beaver nonchalantly steps out of the way of the truck. This video taken in 2011.
beaver with female mallard duck for scale (this photo not taken in last two weeks)
chicken wire wrap stopped beavers from taking down this tree
The saved tree
I’m pro tree and pro beaver. If you remove beavers from an area, other beavers move in. Wrapping some trees with wire and planting other trees for the beaver is one partial solution. I think newly cut down healthy trees from all over Chicago should be brought to places where the beavers live to see if they will use them. Above quote is from the beaversolutions.com website.
