I love tree swallows: Part 1

I wanted to share my super cool neighbors that share my yard with me in Spring and Summer. The arrival of these flight masters signals the start of Spring to me!

Stop looking at my toes!

I'm hungry!

It looks like the first year bird is starting to get its blue coloring

Attack! These guys love zooming right up to your head.....

Chow time

Mystery bird - what is it?

I know what this is, but I'm not sure I would know if I just saw this picture. Do you know what this is?

Birding Ned Brown - Chicago

I made a quick stop in Chicago last week to visit with a potential client. I arrived mid day Tuesday and I decided to check out a local park – Ned Brown/ Busse Forest Nature Preserve. I did some research on Google and it looked like a great birding spot although I didn’t find any trip reviews online from either birders or bloggers. I decided it was worth checking out, even if it was a very brief stop in. The habitat is pretty impressive for birding with forest, grassland, lakes and marshland. What makes this park even more rewarding for birders is that they’ve cut the grass at the edges of the forest which makes it easy to scope the forest edges for birds. I spent most of my time on the water, walking along the edge of the lake. The habitat was awesome for warblers and I was literally surrounded by Yellow warblers. Getting a decent picture proofed to be nearly impossible, but I kept trying.

I also saw and heard several Willow flycatchers. Remarkably the birds were VERY similar to what I saw at Hoffman except for a lone Spotted Sandpiper. All in all, it was a quick but nice birding outing.

Spotted Sandpiper - terrible photo of a super cool looking bird......