A bald eagle spreads its wing as it flies from its nest to a nearby cottonwood tree on this leap day of 2020. This Mama bald eagle and her new mate have been getting their nest ready in hopes of a new clutch of eggs within two to three weeks.

Last weekend was beautiful here in northern Illinois, and while watching geese, ducks and swans at a McHenry County lake, I heard a different sort of honking above my head. I looked up and saw three geese flying overhead, and then fly in large circles around the lake before heading off to the north. Sure enough, greater white-fronted geese had graced us with their presence for a short while.

This Great Horned Owl Mama has been busy incubating her eggs for a few weeks now. And on a warmer than normal day she decided to jump out of her cozy tree nest and take a short flight to a nearby branch before shortly returning to her eggs. She is such a beauty, and a sight to behold! Can't wait to see her young'uns.

Our favorite Mama eagle was up in her cottonwood tree looking and waiting for her new suitor on Sunday. After all, it's the time of year for romance and other eagle pairs are pretty "active" already (the ones in Iowa anyway) . . .

A trumpeter swan stretches its wings in a shallow lake in McHenry County Illnois earlier this week. There is a family of 6 trumpeters along with a few others that have made themselves at home, and are enjoying a warmer than normal winter.

It's been gray skies, snow and cold for several days in a row here, so how about we travel back in time a few months and appreciate our little feathered friends that are now vacationing down south.

On a soft, snow February afternoon while giving the fresh snow a quick glance out the window, a red blur and a brown blur caught my eye as they sped across the yard, from the back of our property to the side of our house. By the time I was able to get in position to another window to see what had happened, the red fox had bagged its prey. But not before the hare had put up a fight . . .

There is something mesmerizing about watching the controlled prairie burns in the Spring here in Illinois. As the March sun gets higher in the sky, and the grasses start to dry, the local folks of the Campton Township Open Space team starts scheduling the burns around the local area . . .

Looking forward to the return of the American White Pelicans to Illinois in a couple of months. Locally, the Dick Young Forest Preserve in Batavia is a great place to see them before they head north, usually in the month of March. But there are many places within Illinois you can enjoy them . . .

. . . As I was leaving the nesting area late in July, one of the juvies flew back to the nest and perched above the nest. So I turned around and went back and was able to capture its silhouette against the soft evening sky, a wonderful sight indeed.