After vacationing in the southwest US or Mexico for the winter, Yellow-headed Blackbirds have returned to their breeding grounds in northern Illinois. It's great to once again see these wonderful birds that have so much character, one of my favorites. Welcome back!

A female Whooping Crane (aka #14-15) takes off in the early morning after roosting overnight with her migrating companions, a flock of sandhill cranes. With the sun below the horizon and the skies beginning to brighten with yellows and oranges, different groups of cranes would begin to chatter and then take off . . .

This Great Blue Heron was pretty proud of his catch a couple of months ago as it was snagged in the middle of the pond and then walked all of the way back to the shoreline where it gave it a couple of thumps with its bill before enjoying the tasty treat.

Can you find a whooping crane hanging out with some Sandhills in this shallow pond? There are now 826 whooping cranes in North America as of Feb 2020, up from a low of 16 birds in 1941 (US Fish and Wildlife) . . .

Wild turkeys tend to break off into female flocks and male flocks, and I found a beautiful group of female turkeys foraging in a field near the woods. There were 20 to 30, moving leaves aside and scratching around for snacks . . .

This Red-winged Blackbird was none too happy with this Osprey flying over his territory, so the chase was on. After a couple of maneuvers, it was Osprey 1, RWB 0.