A Nessus Sphinx Moth with wings in constant motion uses its prominent proboscis to get a little nectar from a Dame's Rocket flower. Their wings are covered in scales (like all Lepidoptera) and over time they lose many of these scales from patches on their wings; so they are called clearwing hummingbird moths. As this was taken in May, my guess is that not many scales had fallen off so the wings are not yet clearwing.

Ma and Pa Sandhill Crane let out one of their rattling bugle calls with their two little colts beside them. Their calls can travel up to 2.5 miles and are immediately recognizable whether from on the ground or several thousand feet in the air. What a joyful noise!

A tree swallow captured in flight before it lands on a fiercely contested birdhouse this spring in McHenry County, Illinois.

Is it any wonder why these wonderful creatures are called pollinators? Look at all of that pollen!

Two American White Pelicans practice their synchronized flying on an early spring day.

last spring a Sandhill Crane family spent a few days ambling and foraging around on some private land that had some marshes, grasses and open fields; it was a blessing to be able to spend some time watching, observing and capturing . . .

Look at the color of that mouth! Double-crested cormorants usually don't make the list of my gotta-have bird captures, but sure glad I paid attention to this one. It had been sitting in the west end of the lake, and like the excellent diver and fisher that it is, it made a catch and promptly took off flying. It had a precarious grip on the fish, and a few seconds after this capture the fish lived to see another day as it plopped back into the lake.

Look at those feet! This great blue heron had been wading along the shoreline not too far away when it decided to fly to the other side of the lake. I captured a few frames as it flew away, and while reviewing the images later, I was struck by the size of its feet and toes! Further research led me to the fact that Great Blue Herons have pectinate toes. Huh? . . .

Two great horned owlets snuggle in their nest a couple of weeks before they fledged.

This trumpeter swan was coming in for a landing on the east side of the lake during the golden hour but changed its mind at the last minute and banked up and right, then decided to land a little further south on the lake. Captured earlier this year in McHenry County, Illinois.