Ghostly Wildlife This time of year, I visit Crabtree Nature Center as often as I can. Today was one of those days that I could only stop by for a few minutes. Although there were numerous turtles captured, this image just struck an artistic chord in me.
A Turtle’s View Ever wonder what a turtle sees as it moves along? Well, this is it. This guy was moving along pretty fast, for a turtle, as he headed for the lake. Most people, myself included, don’t realize just how long their neck can be. It’s nice to have Spring back.
Storm Coming Spring rain means storms. This storm blew up very quickly. I grabbed the closest camera and used the lens on it. It was spitting rain as I captured this image; 90 seconds later, it was pouring. By the way, the airplane is a Beech Bonanza. The owner got pretty wet putting it into the hangar.
Huge Turtle at Crabtree Now, that is a turtle. Yep, he’s 500 pounds of pure Snapping Turtle and he’s just one of the reasons to visit Crabtree Nature Center in Barrington Hills, IL, a northwest suburb of Chicago. He may not be the cutest turtle in the pond, but he’s got to be the biggest. In this image, he dwarfs the Painted Turtles in front of him. To be fair, you don’t see him often. In the spring, he seems to be more visible.
The 2013 Illinois Flood The big news in northern Illinois today is the flood or floods. This image shows the Vermillion River at Streator, IL. The waters kept rising all day. By 3:22pm when this image was captured, the water was close to flooding out the bridge. If the bridge floods so will several of the lower riverside neighborhoods where a relative lives.
Red-Tailed Hawk After all the bad Red-tailed Hawk images, we deserve a good one. In between showers, a drive through Morton Arboretum yielded a few nice images of this hawk. He was a young hawk out hunting and did not seem to care much about the vehicle traffic. The arboretum in the spring provides a welcome nature break where new life abounds.
The Red-tailed Hawk was out hunting again. Yeah, I’m a little obsessed with the hawk. As you can see, even with a 810mm lens, I was still not close enough, but it’s getting better. On the brighter side, this guy was a football field, more or less, away from me. The autofocus system on the Nikon V1 really does a nice job even when you can barely see any detail of the subject through the viewfinder.
Wet Canada Goose Spring rains have come to northern Illinois. There are new “lakes” where none were before. Everyone got wet in today’s walkabout; even the goose. Although I must admit, the goose seemed to be enjoying his day. The Nikon V1 has continued to become my “go to” walkabout camera.
