Northern Illinois is in the migratory path for American White Pelicans, and usually by late March or early April of each year they'll stop for a spell in a handful of local lakes. This particular group of 50 or so pelicans had split off from the rest of the bunch (up to a couple hundred) and had gone fishin' . . .

A trumpeter swan fans its beautiful wings in the afternoon sun of a late winter day earlier this year. The snowy-white plumage of the trumpeter swan is stunning, along with the six foot wingspan of our largest native waterfowl in North America.

A Sandhill Crane pauses from foraging in a corn field during an early Spring snow. Two adults and a juvenile were leisurely poking around in the dirt while a gentle snow fell around them. They were surely looking forward to sunnier and warmer days ahead, as we were.

Two trumpeter swans pass each other while leisurely paddling around a lake earlier this year. For those familiar with Dr. Dolittle, the pushmi-pullyu is a gazelle/unicorn cross with two heads at opposite ends of its body. Using your imagination, you could see these two swans as a type of pushmi-pullyu swan due to the angle of the capture. But, just in our imagination . . .

Monarch butterflies are the only butterflies known to make a back-and-forth migration similar to what birds do. They can't survive the winters, so monarchs from our region of the country (upper Midwest) head south to Mexico (the Sierra Madre Mountains) around the October timeframe. This Monarch was captured in flight last September as it flitted from flower to flower drinking up as much nectar as it could before its big journey.

A bumblebee lifts off from a flower filled with a little more pollen after stopping and poking around for a bit. Fun fact: Bumblebees can collect pollen twice as fast as a honey bees.

A male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly is captured in flight on his way to the next flower last August for some nectar. This butterfly has a few battle scars from its adventures as it has some scratches and tears, and is missing both of its tails. Nonetheless, still a beauty!

Papa eagle delivers a fish while its mate eagerly awaits so she can feed dinner to the young eaglets. It won't be long before they are poking their little gray, fuzzy heads over the edge of the nest. And they'll be fledging before you know it, within 10 to 12 weeks, as bald eagles are the fastest growing bird in North America.

Two Trumpeter Swans bank to the south during the golden hour of an early March evening. They were so beautiful and graceful as they flew a couple of circles over a lake in McHenry County, Illinois.

Trumpeter Swans are the largest native waterfowl in North America so it is no surprise that they need up to a hundred yards of water to taxi and takeoff. They typically bob their heads up and down and honk a bit right before they are ready to go, and these two swans in McHenry County, Illinois were no exception in early March as I watched them gather at the north end of the lake so they could take off into the south wind . . .