Summer In The Valley – The Pond

It’s still summer at Spring Valley Nature Center in Schaumburg and the pond is like a gently simmering soup. At first glance it would seem that all the wildlife is hiding but the longer you look, the more you see.

We haven’t had much rain lately, although that could change tomorrow but, for now, the water levels are quite low and the frogs must be wondering how long they can hold out against the sharp eyes of the great blue heron that is standing on a partially submerged branch in the water.

On the far side of the pond is a convenient bench underneath a shady tree and I sit looking at some kind of heron that is perched on a branch at the water’s edge, staring right at me. It doesn’t seem to be bothered by our close proximity and continues to eye me as I click away with the camera. Those of you who have been reading my posts for any amount of time will know that I have a terrible bird phobia. I’ve had this fear of birds, which is a distinct problem for someone who enjoys doing wildlife photography, ever since childhood, but for some reason, larger birds don’t scare me quite so badly. That much becomes evident when a mallard duck creeps up behind me and proceeds to practically walk across my feet, while I merely let out a stifled “Arrg!” I’m not saying I wouldn’t have uttered a piercing scream if it had started flapping its wings, but I am quite proud of myself when two more show up and I do no more than make a slight movement with my foot to ensure they don’t get too familiar.

Autumn is fast approaching but, for now, the summer soup of Spring Valley pond continues to stir and bubble with activity.

Summer In The Valley – Part 1

Every season at Spring Valley Nature Center in Schaumburg has something special to offer and summertime means, amongst many other things, flowers. The new garden by the Visitors Center is flourishing with all kinds of plants that attract butterflies and bees.

The wealth and variety of wildflowers in the prairie areas is simply astounding! This doesn’t come without a lot of work on the part of the Nature Center’s dedicated staff, I’m sure. And they have done a magnificent job.

There was, however, one cause for concern. Even with all these lovely flowers, there were very few butterflies. By this time I would have expected to see monarchs, swallowtails and cabbage whites fluttering about all over the place. This may change in a week or two. I hope so.

Summer In The Valley

The past few weeks have been hot and humid for the most part, a fairly typical Chicago summer, but despite the heat, it was enjoyable to get out for a walk at Spring Valley Nature Center recently. The renovations to the visitor’s center are almost completed with just a few bare patches in the landscaping that will no doubt fill in with time.

The lake was one mass of waterlilies. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so overgrown before. There was a heron standing atop what I take to be a beaver lodge, and there were frogs aplenty.

Walking over to the farm, the air was very still and everything quiet. It appears that they have not yet become fully operational after closing for a time because of COVID. There were only two cows munching hay in a field that I have not seen used for some time.

Continuing on, along the prairie paths I spotted a chipmunk among the wildflowers, and a lonely monarch butterfly. Butterflies have been scarce this year both here and in the gardens.

With the days passing so quickly, it will probably be autumn by the time I return to Spring Valley. By then it will be cooler and maybe I will feel a little more energetic. These hot, humid days really slow me down and make me lazy.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Summer

This week, Amy is kicking off a month of seasons with Summer for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. What would summer be without a trip to the Chicago Botanic Garden.

In my own garden, summer means dragonflies, flowers and butterflies. Heavy rains and fierce winds knocked a lot of plants down yesterday, so I will be spending some time in the garden propping things back up.

And finally, I had to include this scene, captured as we took an early evening boat ride around the lake on the 4th of July. It seemed so typical of a summer day with everyone, even the dogs, enjoying the sun and taking time to sit back and relax.

A Summer Walk

Last week I decided to take advantage of some slightly cooler weather to take a summer walk at Spring Valley Nature Center in Schaumburg.  Ever since they built the beautiful new children’s play area here the place is always busy and it’s good to see that parents are also walking further afield in order to introduce their families to the fascinating world of nature. And Spring Valley is just the place to do it.

As well as seeing all the flowers that are still blooming among the grasses on the prairie, I was interested to see this growth spiraling around the stems of some of the larger plants. I have no idea what it is even though I tried Googling it later with no success. If anyone has any suggestions I’d be glad to hear from you.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this before.

Meanwhile, over at the pond,  waterlily pads cover the surface of the water and the frogs take advantage of these comfy seats while a family of ducks look on from a slightly less comfy place on the shore.

Also at the water’s edge are signs that a beaver has been at work, and when I say signs I mean literally as there is a notice nearby pointing out that beaver have been spotted at the lake.

I sit for a while along the woodland trail and watch chipmunks scurrying about finding food, and then, walking back down the path towards the parking lot, I see reminders that it won’t be too long before autumn is upon us once more.

 

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Animals

Part of the itinerary during our granddaughter’s visit a few weeks ago was a trip to Brookfield Zoo. I think the temperature was in the nineties so we didn’t stay long. Summer is never the best time to go to the zoo.  I don’t know who was feeling the more lethargic, us or the animals.  We didn’t get to see everything this time but you can bet that I will be making the most of my senior membership later on this year when the weather cools off a bit.

A Day At The Races

Summer wouldn’t be complete without at least one day at the races at Arlington Park.  Our granddaughter loves animals and especially horses so Arlington was high on our list of things to do during her visit.

I will say this, however, that a trip to Arlington may, on the face of it, seem like a cheap day out – parking is free and entrance to the Park is reasonable on certain days – but once inside, beware.  Apart from the obvious temptation to have a bit of a flutter on the gee-gees, the price of food and beverages is ridiculously high! I could have bought a decent bottle of wine for the cost of a small bottle of water and a thrifty shopper could have fed themselves for a week on what I shelled out for ice cream (the first thing the kids ask for when we go somewhere like this.)

Still, the high price of feeding and watering the troops was well worth it, just to see these beautiful creatures step daintily past as they made their way out of the paddock, hopefully with the winning jockey on board.

The horses aren’t the only things racing about at the track.  There isn’t an awful lot of time in between each race so we must decide which horse we like according to name, color of the jockey’s silks or the even more scientific method of sticking a pin in the list of runners, then run up the steps to place a small wager, out again and down the steps to view the horses in the paddock to make sure our choice is still alive and kicking, then back up again so we can go down to the rails to cheer the winner home. It’s quite exhausting!

Things usually go very smoothly at Arlington.  I’m always impressed by how efficiently everyone does their job, from the stable lads and the people who maintain the track to the person who plays the bugle (or is it trumpet?) before each race.

We did quite well that day. Three winners out of seven races which, for us, is about par for the course. And the pleasure we got from seeing our granddaughter meeting one of the horses face to face so to speak, rounded out our trip to the races very nicely.

A Day At The Zoo

We recently hosted two of our grandchildren for a visit during their summer vacation and the first place our granddaughter wanted to go to was Brookfield Zoo. We’re always happy to put our membership to good use, so off we went.  The zoo covers a large area, some 216 acres, so there was plenty of walking involved, with lots to see and do.

 

The giraffes, largest animals in the ‘Habitat Africa! The Savannah’ exhibit, are always a favorite. The last time we were here we caught one of them in a scuffle with a pair of geese. Things were more peaceful this time. I’m always fascinated by the way these graceful creatures deal with the advantages and disadvantages of their height.

The featured attraction at the zoo this summer is the ‘Amazing Arachnids’ exhibit.  Display cases housed in a large tent hold a wide variety of these scary spiders most of them well hidden from view. Only the larger ones were easy to spot, if you could get near enough to get a look in.  The zoo is especially busy just now and a certain amount of patience is required if you want to see these creepy-crawlies up close.

The bears, meanwhile, were snoozin’ and cruisin’ in the summer sun, which was kind of surprising given how hot it was. You would think that they’d be favoring the shady areas (like the rest of us) with those thick fur coats they’re wearing but that didn’t prove to be the case.

When the ‘Tropic World’ exhibit opened in the 1980s it was, at that time, the largest indoor zoo exhibit in the world. It’s still a popular feature at Brookfield especially when there are young Western Lowland Gorillas getting up to all kinds of antics.

Large birds were much in evidence in all areas of the zoo, including a penguin that wasn’t the least bit camera shy, a couple of pelicans taking it easy by the Formal Pool, an emu that we got to meet up close and personal at the Hamill Family Wild Encounters exhibit, an eagle that appeared to have discovered something interesting in the undergrowth of its enclosure and a peacock that was just showing off in all directions.

After spending many hours walking around the zoo, our pace had slowed down to that of this tortoise so we figured it was about time to call it a day.