March Is Much More Interesting than February!

After missing most of a month at the pond, Professor Illagni reminded me that we should go down there, and she remembered the camera! It's a beautiful day, sunny and 65 degrees. I asked them to take photos of signs of spring and we found several, even though most plants are not up, and the trees won't leaf out for another 4-6 weeks.

On the muddiness scale of 1-10, the girls rated today a 4-5.

Panda Artist made a really good point. One of the best signs of spring are all of the people out on walks and bike rides. We also saw people fishing.

We also saw some buds on bushes, and best of all, the turtles are out. The turtles spend the winter buried in the mud, and today they were back out getting sun on branches out in the pond. (I have to say the turtles are my favorite inhabitants of the pond). We saw 3 or 4. We'll be keeping count.

At the pond there is an education center that used to be used for wildlife rehabilitation. Now they have a few animals left who are too tame or lame to go back into the woods. Professor Illagni wanted me to share those with you as well: today we got photos of Lucy (the fox), the Barn Owl (he's awesome), and the Turkey Vulture (he spends winters indoors). We didn't get photos of but saw Ethan the Red Tailed Hawk, Kaya the Coyote, and the Kestrel (smallest falcon). I will post the photos separately because I haven't yet figured out how to nicely incorporate all of the photos in a post.

Nothing New at the Pond

Well it snowed again so we didn't think about visiting the pond again. I feel like we're waiting for spring, but mother nature is on her own timeline. Hopefully we'll soon feel intrigued enough to walk back down to the pond. Maybe the weather will turn soon!

The Pond on February 16, 2009

The pond is still in hibernation, and the woods surrounding the pond are extremely flooded. We walked down there today with our friend, Professor Articia. We enjoyed throwing sticks onto the ice and watching them slide. We also picked up cool bits of ice, but unfortunately they don't photograph well.

What Pond?

We live about one block away from Thatcher Glen Pond. A small, very urbanized pond. It sits next to a street, has a larger parking lot than it needs. Yet it is filled with animals and plants all year long. We've seen herons catch fish, and the turtles return to their favorite perches every spring. We've seen ducks, geese and evidence of many deer. And we've noticed it seem low, and very flooded (due to the rise of the nearby river). I thought it would be fun to chronicle a little, out of the way, and easily overlooked bastion of nature only 10 miles from downtown Chicago. We got there a lot when the kids were little, and have gone less and less as they've gotten a little older. I miss it.

I suggested this idea to my kids, known for this enterprise as Professor Illagni, and the Panda Artist. Now I just have to make it look fun to get them to join in. I hope for photos, videos, drawing, descriptions of what we see. Look for a post with photos soon.