All photos and videos taken in the Hyde Park (Chicago) area during the last month. Join us for a nature walk this Tuesday at 6 pm. Meet at the east door of the Museum of Science and Industry.

Nesting killdeer, see video below of killdeer defending her nest by pretending to have 2 broken wings. She lures a potential predator away from the nest by making the predator thinks she will be an easy catch. Once she is away from her nest, she flies away

Very happy to see the draining of the lagoon didn’t decimate our bullfrog population! This one found at south end of bobolink meadow path near the golf driving range

Turtles using the new turtle habitat and so is a beaver! How wonderful it would be if we could protect this key stone species in the Paul Douglas Nature Sanctuary on Wooded Isle. Perhaps in addition to protecting our trees from the beaver’s teeth by wrapping them with wire, some local tree care companies could bring in some recently cut trees for our beavers to use.

Compare the size of this great blue heron to the green heron. Notice this is a different green heron than the one in the previous photo because it has the bright red legs of a breeding bird

We had some interesting shorebird stop by during migration this spring because the lagoons were drained, including this red phalarope
And finally, a mockingbird has been singing from the top of a tree at 63rd and Lake Shore Drive. In this video, I can hear the mockingbird mimicking a cardinal, a robin and a phoebe.