mute swans in outer harbor
mute swans with merganser duck for scale
tree sparrow– rusty cap, eye line, dot on chest
tree sparrow
tree sparrow also has two-tone beak– dark on top, light on bottom
more than great icicles on pier, ice to watch in the water
footprints– more on following post, these are from the tree sparrows
lapland longspur
lapland longspur
peregrine falcon
snow bunting
snowy owl
Best part of nature walk was a glorious sunset. Worst part was one of our participants got a prickly pear cactus spine in his foot. Our local cactus has lovely flowers but nasty spines! The snowy owl and the snow buntings were not seen but we did see a horned grebe, some scaup and a red-breasted merganser using a spotting scope. The peregrine falcon was at 63rd Street beach the morning after the nature walk.
our local cactus– prickly pear
prickly pear flower
peregrine falcon at 63rd Street Beach
and our little white duck (an unusual mallard duck) that we often saw on the summer nature walks was spotted in Jackson Park near the 59th Street Harbor in early December. It was good to see he was still around. He was helping some crows and ring-billed gulls finish off a big bag of potato chips.
Pass It On Chicago! 