A couple of weeks ago Brother #2 spent the week at our place since he’s currently off work thanks to a broken wrist. The weather was overcast and rainy the majority of the week but we did get to visit Willowbrook Wildlife Center where I got a fantastic photo of their resident bald eagle (although you can kinda still see the cage bars in the photo) as well as a few photos of the peregrine falcon outside his cage. We just happened upon a volunteer bringing him back to his cage and had a nice chat with her. Prior to that I was also happy to snag a photo of the eastern bluebird that is housed indoors.
Last weekend Joe and I visited the grand opening of a new nature center at a forest preserve we had never visited before (LeRoy Oakes). Afterwards we saw the butterflies at Peck Farm Park, ate some yummy Pad Thai and lemon bundt cake at the Taste of Wheaton, and finished our afternoon at Cosley Zoo where I finally got a decent photo of their bluejay. I never see them in the wild and the ones at Willowbrook hop around too much and are not in bright lighting making all my pictures turn out blurry.
We contemplated visiting the zoo in Milwaukee on Sunday but the weather wasn’t looking too good so we went down to our old stomping grounds instead and visited the Little Red Schoolhouse and Lake Katherine*, stopping for some unremarkable hot dogs before heading home in a drizzle.
* Interestingly enough, you’ll find my name listed in their website credits as having contributed photographs. I do recall someone emailing me years ago when they were redesigning the website asking for permission to use them, which I granted, but when I visit the site I am hard-pressed to identify any of the photos as mine.