Author: Nicole

Weekend Recap (10/12-10/13)

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Saturday (10/12) started with an emissions test for the Crosstrek and stopping at Menards to buy $46 worth of bird seed.

Then we headed out to Kane County for a guided bird walk at Kenyon Farms Forest Preserve. The walk was pretty uneventful, so afterwards we decided to check out Muirhead Springs in Hampshire, as I noticed some people I follow on Instagram get photos of some unique waterfowl there.

When we arrived at Muirhead we studied the map and were surprised to discover what a long walk to the water area would be, but decided to forge ahead. We took the path (which is a very large loop) toward the left and then proceeded to walk about 2.5 miles over forty minutes before finally reaching the water.

We saw some cool birds there, though, including nine new species which I added to my life list:

American Bittern – American Coot – Black-bellied Whistling Duck – Greater Yellowlegs – Long-billed Dowitcher – Northern Harrier – Northern Pintail – Pied-billed Grebe – Savannah Sparrow

The majority of birds were too far away to get any decent photos, other than the sparrow, howver.

Savannah Sparrow

It made me wish I had brought my tripod, and also owned a longer zoom lens.

When we were ready to leave, we noticed a dirt path that cut right through all the vegetation and directly back to the parking lot. So you’re telling me we didn’t have to walk miles to get to the water? And that the people I saw walking from the right when we first got there were using that path and had we walked that way we would have saved our poor feet? Ugh, well lesson learned I suppose. It made sense, too, since I even remarked to Joe I couldn’t believe how frequently some of the same people were coming there if they had to endure that walk. Turns out, they didn’t. Too bad the forest preserve district doesn’t include that unofficial path on their map! Overall, though, we felt relieved to learn of the shortcut, otherwise we probably wouldn’t want to go back. That initial trek was brutal! The walk back to the car was a breeze.

We decided to stop at Beef Shack for lunch and enjoyed our food outside on their patio. They truly have the best beef sandwich I’ve ever had. I don’t know why anyone still eats at Portillo’s. There’s just no comparison between the two. Portillo’s beef is flavorless, fatty, and chewy, whereas Beef Shack’s is full of flavor and tender. Their hand cut fries are delicious as well.

Sunday (10/13) we stopped at Home Depot to return the patio umbrella and stand I had ordered online because they are too big and the umbrella didn’t sit snug in the stand anyway and therefore wouldn’t stand up straight. Our current umbrella is the one my parents bought when we are kids and that my mom gave me a few years ago, and is now finally falling apart. Part of that is because when we tilt it, it rubs against the overhang by the patio door which has torn the fabric. I can’t seem to find an umbrella that is short enough to clear that area but can still tilt, which is necessary given the position of the sun in the afternoons. The hunt continues!

We decided to try a place called Blackberry Market in Glen Ellyn for breakfast since they have outdoor seating. Was it a bit cool outside? Yes, but it wasn’t horrible, and it was fun feeding some biscuit crumbs to the little sparrows that were brave enough to get very close to us. We split their Farmhouse Breakfast with scrambled eggs, a cinnamon roll, and Joe got a coffee.

The food was ok. I didn’t realize they used sweet potatoes in addition to the regular potatoes in the breakfast platter. I don’t mind sweet potatoes, but I don’t care for them for breakfast. If we went back I’d request they use all regular potatoes instead. Unfortunately I had just made an apple cake with a cinnamon buttercream frosting at home that week, and the cinnamon roll tasted almost exactly the same, minus the apple, so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have because I was burnt out on that flavor. But let me assure you, it was delicious, and it was pretty big too!

After breakfast we headed to the arboretum for a few hours and swung by Hidden Lake afterwards to look for the Sage Thrasher but could not find it. I was hopeful it had found it’s way back home in the west, but later saw more photos of it being posted, so it was just hiding I guess.

Our final stop was the Danada Equestrian Center for their fall fest.

We got there right at the start at 11 am and were surprised by how many people just kept driving in. We hung out for maybe an hour to watch some of the horse demonstrations.

Arabian Horse

We decided not to eat lunch there as the offerings (2 food trucks) were rather paltry. Our parking lot was full when we left and they were directing cars to a huge field nearby. I probably wouldn’t bother attending that fest again because there wasn’t a bunch to do for adults. Plenty to do if you have kids, though.

Extended Weekend Recap (10/04-10/06)

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Joe took Friday (10/04) off so we could join a bird walk at St. James Farm but it was raining when we woke up. We drove out that way in case the rain let up, but it was still drizzling at the start time, so we decided to go to the arboretum instead. They didn’t cancel the bird walk since the rain was light, but we don’t own rain jackets and I didn’t want to chance getting my camera wet, so it didn’t make sense to go on the walk. As for the arboretum, we decided to stop at every parking area along the roads and just wait to see what wildlife might make an appearance. We ended up seeing a lot of squirrels and five hawks!

The rain eventually stopped so we decided to head to nearby Hidden Lake to see if we could find the Sage Thrasher again. Sure enough, it was there, in almost the same spot as before.

This bird is not shy at all, so I got even more photos of it. It has a growth on its toe I noticed when editing the photos, so I contacted an organization to go take a look and capture it if it needs medical attention.

Saturday (10/05) we attended a guided bird walk at Trailside Museum in River Forest with John, the same guide we had last time. The first half of the walk was pretty uneventful other than spotting a yellow-bellied sapsucker (a type of woodpecker) in the distance, but on the latter half of the walk we saw Yellow-rumped Warblers and a Northern Waterthrush which is also a type of warbler.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

After our walk, which ran over the allotted time, just like last time, we headed to K’s house to hang out with her and the dogs she was dog sitting, and J joined us too. I’m sure Joe loved listening to us all afternoon!

On the way to her house we took Harlem Ave and was surprised by how many Starbucks and Taco Burrito King restaurants we passed. We also passed a very large cemetery and one of the street names that ended at said cemetery was Farewell Ave which made my eyes go wide.

We were going to attend a kite glow that evening but by the time we got home we were too tired to go back out so we made ourselves home on the couch and watched Scream instead.

We were unable to visit the Itasca bird sanctuary on Sunday (10/06) because they are doing construction on the baseball diamonds near it and had everything gated so you could not get to the path. We thought maybe we could cut through the big dog park, but the gate on the end where the bird sanctuary is was locked. Bummer!

So we ended up going to Springbrook Nature Center which is also in the same town. We were there about an hour and got to look inside the actual nature center (which we usually can’t since we typically visit much earlier in in the morning before they open). They have some turtles, toads, etc in cages there.

The highlight, however, was adding another bird to my life list – the ruby crowned kinglet! Look at that little red stripe on top of it’s cute little head!

When we were ready to leave we saw an identical Subaru Crosstrek parked next to ours. The owner said “nice car” and started chatting with us about how much he loves Subarus; his Crosstrek was the 5th Subaru he has owned. He asked what year ours was and when we told him 2018 he was impressed with how good it looked. That’s because I rarely drive it! I think it has 8000 miles on it. His was model year 2019 though so they basically look the same.

When we got home we put up the outdoor Halloween decor.

Update: The person I spoke to about the Sage Thrasher went to observe it but didn’t feel the toe growth was affecting it enough to attempt to capture and treat it.

September Recap

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09/01-09/02 – Second half of Labor Day weekend recap

09/02 (Mon) – I put out some new outdoor fall lawn decor I found at Dollar Tree. These metal sunflowers in particular are so pretty!

09/05 (Thu) – I found this super brightly colored squirrel figurine at Dollar Tree and was intending to add it to the patio garden but decided to add it to my inside fall decor.

09/06 (Fri) – I learned Linkin Park got back together and has a new female lead singer. People apparently are losing their minds, and not in a good way. I don’t know much about the singer’s personal life, but from a music perspective, they sound great! Their latest single, The Emptiness Machine is great and actually gets me choked up when I listen. I’m not sure I understand why people are angry at them for reforming. It’s not the rest of the band’s member’s fault Chester committed suicide. Are they not allowed to move on after seven years? If they had formed under a different name but continued with their signature sound I’m sure people would have been angry about that too. If it’s one thing I’ve learned this year is you should do what makes you happy because people are always going to have something to criticize about it anyway. As long as you’re not hurting anyone, you do you.

09/07-09/08 – Weekend recap

09/09 (Mon) – Tried these new to me Bigelow cold infusion teas from Meijer. I usually drink water so they’re a nice alternative when I want something with flavor. I’m sure that’s why people drink sparkling flavored water, in fact, I just could never get into those.

09/10 (Tue) – We decided to check out the Lombard Farmer’s market since it’s in the evenings and let me tell you, it’s small and not very interesting. We contemplated getting food at one of the restaurants in the area but the prices are just outrageous and nothing looked good enough to tempt us to spend the money. We ended up splitting a Blizzard from Dairy Queen to tide us over and went to nearby Lilacia Park. Afterwards we stopped at Aldi so I could get ingredients to make a hearty pasta dish for dinner.

09/12 (Thu) – Warned my Facebook friends not to buy this “apple” scented soap from Softsoap because it just smells like cinnamon.

It’s not actually a bad scent, just not what I was expecting.

09/14-09/15 – Weekend recap

09/16 (Mon) – Joined the DuPage Birding Club

09/17 (Tue) – Ran out to a park looking for migration birds and then to a couple craft stores to look at fall decor. When exiting the last store Joe pointed out the beautiful harvest moon. Luckily I had my camera with me so I photographed it from the parking lot.

09/18 (Wed) – Had my annual exam with my OBGYN where we discussed my birth control (to help with perimenopause yay) and all the health stuff. I love this doctor so much because she’s kind, knowledgeable, and a joy to be around.

Afterwards I stopped at Aldi to look for macaroni because I was planning a surprise dinner for Joe, a dish his mom referred to as Slop In the Pot (a variation of Ghoulash). They were out of it, though, so I had to go to Target. We don’t shop there very often these days so I decided to peruse the Bullseye Playground area and their clothing for the first time in a long time. Ugh, everything sucks! Cropped sweaters/sweatshirts and thick flannels with short sleeves make no sense. Oh and plunging necklines for cold weather clothing. I will never understand it, and even if it’s trendy, why can’t they also include long sweatshirts and sweaters without a low neckline for those of us who dress for the weather? At least then everyone wins.

Added new leaf garland I got at Michael’s to the fireplace mantel. I love the colors! The leaves are made of wood instead of felt like the other garland I’ve seen so it should hold up for many many years.

Tried the Ben & Jerry’s coffee ice cream we had purchased over the weekend and instantly became addicted. It’s too bad the chocolate pieces give me reflux or I’d be eating that stuff daily. It reminds me of Edy’s Espresso chip that I used to enjoy.

09/20-09/22 – Weekend recap

09/21 (Sat) – Wookie’s 8th birthday

09/23 (Mon) – Put the suet feeder up in hopes to draw in the woodpeckers and chickadees.

When Joe got home for work we went out to Churchill Woods and surprisingly it was very busy bird-wise and I got photos of some warblers, including this orange-crowned one I had never seen before.

09/25 (Wed) – I had been anticipating a package from Amazon to arrive between 4-8 am and happened to be up at 6 am when I saw the Amazon guy, via the doorbell app, drop off two packages between the doors, and after taking two photos of said packages, look toward the neighbor’s door and say “have a nice day” before leaving.

I pulled up my Amazon account to check my order delivery status only to see this photo confirmation which included Hank, the next door neighbor’s dog, with glowing eyes. ?

But wait, there’s more…

I immediately went outside to retrieve my package and was so confused – both packages were gone! I’m like “did I just imagine all this, or did the neighbor take my stuff?”. Just then she came out and handed me an envelope, said “I’m sorry!” and quickly went back inside. Apparently she was expecting something too because both my items were in a single envelope.

When I got inside I realized my package had been torn open (and not the right way along the top tear edge either). Damn, that girl is a bit of a savage, lol! I’m not even mad about it.

I wonder what she was so excited to receive.

I’m just thankful she realized her error so quickly and didn’t throw the packages inside and leave for work, thus holding my stuff hostage. I was preparing for an upcoming last minute birding trip and needed the SD card to ensure I wouldn’t run out of room in the field.

There’s no chance of that now as the new card should hold over 4000 images and my old card will serve as a backup.

09/26 (Thu) – Our day trip to Chicago’s Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary

09/27 (Fri) – Not only did I hear a couple of chickadees outside, but when I ran to the window to observe them, I saw that there were five taking turns at the suet feeder. FIVE! I’ve only ever seen two at once, so it makes me wonder if it’s the bonded couple plus their offspring? One can hope. I’m so happy my chickadees are back and brought more with them. I love their little songs! Their very existence makes my heart so happy.

09/28-09/29 – Weekend recap

09/30 (Mon) – Got our flu and COVID vaccines from the CVS in Target. This will be the first year I’ve gotten both shots together. I noticed the flu one didn’t hurt but the COVID one sure did. Must be a larger needle.

Weekend Recap (09/28-09/29)

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Saturday (09/28) we had planned to go out to St. Charles to visit a few birding spots but the weather decided to ruin those plans so instead we took advantage of a T-Mobile Tuesday offer and got free food from Tropical Smoothie Cafe for breakfast. We got a mocha madness smoothie (free), acai bowl (free), and the cali breakfast flatbread (paid), all of which we split and enjoyed.

Their food is really good but I wish they had smaller sized smoothies which cost less than $8+. The one size smoothies are huge and I would order from them more if they were half the size and price.

Later that afternoon when the rain let up we stopped at the library on the way to our town’s Harvest Fest. This fest is rather small without much to do for adults, but we knew the Girl Scouts would have a bake sale booth. I was really looking forward to some zucchini bread but they didn’t have any this year; I guess I’ll have to make my own soon. We picked up a few items including some really yummy “monster” cookies that were a mixture of oats, peanut butter, and chocolate.

Sunday (09/29) we went on a bird walk at Danada Forest Preserve with the DuPage Birding Club. We weren’t seeing many migrating birds so our guide, Robert (who looked a lot like Hal Sparks), decided to cut the walk short and said we were welcome to follow him over to the nearby Hidden Lake Forest Preserve where people had spotted a Sage Thrasher, a bird that should not be in this area at all, not even during migration. Its territory is in the western states, so people had been flocking to the area to get a chance to see it. I had heard about it prior to Robert bringing it up, but figured there was no way I’d know where to look, so hadn’t intended on trying to find it. But knowing he had coordinates from eBird (which I still can’t seem to figure out), I was excited to take a look.

When we got there we all ended up in the wrong parking lot (on the left instead of the right) but one of the guys in our group got in touch with Robert to find out where he was and we walked over toward the other parking lot. Sure enough, there was a group of people gathered staring at a bush near a bridge where the bird had been spotted. Then to my amazement it came out so we could all get a very good look at it. It was almost as if it knew it was a celebrity and was coming out to greet its fans, and we were the Paparazzi! I got so many good photos I’m still working on them, but I’ve included this one.

After that excitement we headed to the arboretum for a quick look around. It had starting misting out, though, so we headed over to Lisle Community Park to check out this year’s Barkapalooza. Wow, there were so many dogs there between the rescue organizations and people bringing their pets.

The sponsor, West Suburban Humane Society, had a huge bake sale where we got some really yummy treats.

Note: We tried almost everything and it was all so good, especially the rice krispie treat which was my favorite. The only one I didn’t love was the cranberry bread.

We really love Barkapalooza – it’s where I got one of my favorite photos with Wookie in 2018 – so it was disappointing that it was raining more and ruining our ability to hang out longer.

On the way home we stopped at Trader Joes.

We’ve always loved TJs but prior to rejoining the arboretum wouldn’t go there often, but now that it’s on the way home we’ve been stopping quite frequently. The granola is something we picked up last time we were there and I fell in love with it and wanted to get more before it was gone. I’m pretty sure it’s seasonal. We also got the fish nuggets a week or two ago and tried them on Saturday. I was pleasantly surprised how good they were (I’m not really a lover of fish) so we had to get more. They’re a quick meal made in the air fryer.

When we got home Sofi Tukker was still live streaming on Twitch so we turned that on while we ate lunch and beyond. I want to say they streamed two hours, possibly longer. The more I listen to their new album, the more I love it. Even though we have Spotify, I plan to buy the album on CD as well which I always do for my favorite bands.

The chickadees also came by to visit the feeder briefly, so it was an awesome afternoon!

Chicago Trip 9/26

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I’ve been wanting to visit Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary (MPBS) in Chicago for a couple of years now and we finally made the trip! Joe took the day off work so we could avoid the weekend crowd which I hear gets pretty bad during migration.

We got up super early (4:45 am) for the drive into the city.

Joe decided to take Lower Wacker Drive to Lake Shore Drive, the former of which I had never traveled on.

Sure, I spent a lot of time in the city back in my twenties, but I always took public transportation, so it was an interesting experience driving “under” the loop.

Once we made it to MPBS and secured parking (which by the way has to be done via an app these days), we walked over to Lake Michigan to watch the sun rise which was spectacular.

Afterwards, we walked around the back of the sanctuary where a lot of palm warblers were gathering.

Much to my delight, there was also an abundance of black and white warblers throughout the sanctuary. They move so quickly it’s really difficult to lock focus in a timely manner. I was getting quite frustrated with myself, and my camera, which has issues losing focus at critical moments. Between that and my not so quick reflexes, I’ve missed many great shots over the years. But I digress…

Despite the challenges, I did get some cute warbler shots such as this one.

In addition to warblers, we saw a few lifers – a brown thrasher and a yellow-bellied sapsucker, but I didn’t get good photos of either unfortunately.

At one point we came across a hawk hunting a squirrel. It was so focused on chasing it around that it paid no attention to us, just mere feet away while it hopped into small bushes and trees and back to the ground in hot pursuit.

The squirrel got away.

The trails within the sanctuary are all over the place so even though I thought we hit every single one, based on my path tracking app, we missed a few spots.

No matter, we plan to go back in the spring during peak migration to hopefully see even more birds.

When we had about a half hour left on our parking, we headed back to the car to eat some snacks before moving onto our next stop – Bill Jarvis Bird Sanctuary, a short drive south along the lake.

When we first arrived, we were going to park in front near an entrance but they wanted $17 for two hours of parking. Insane! The sanctuary is pretty small, and I was worried it wouldn’t be worth it. We started to leave, but decided to check the parking lot by the nearby tennis courts. I’m glad we did because the parking there was a more reasonable $7 for two hours and a short walk to another entrance into the sanctuary.

We didn’t even spend an hour there because most of the sanctuary is fenced in; you can only walk around the perimeter and up a single overlook.

We also didn’t see anything exciting other than this racoon that didn’t seem too worried about us.

I’m really glad we found the other parking area as I would have been angry spending $17 on parking for that lackluster experience. It’s not a place I’d visit again. There are other birding hotspots I’d rather check on our next trip into the city.

That being said, I like this photo I took where it looks like there’s nothing beyond the trees. You have to walk closer to see the lake.

On the way home we stopped at Smoque BBQ to pick up lunch. Everything was good, although I was bummed they no longer have peach cobbler on the menu.

As I was leaving the restaurant with our takeout, I heard a jingling noise and suddenly a cute cat ran up and plopped down for pets. Of course I had to oblige!

Overall I enjoyed our trip into the city. My only regret was not staying longer. Our hunger and desire to avoid crazy afternoon traffic won out though.

I think it’s been nine years since we last ventured into Chicago (not counting my parents house which is nowhere near the loop or northside) and I missed it. Even Joe changed his attitude about it as we discussed the experience driving home. He had a more negative view of the city after having to work and drive in it for years. Now that he’s on board, we’d really like to go back soon to visit Lincoln Park Zoo, Chinatown, and a few parks south of MSI.