For my column this month, I decided to look back on all the amazing things that I saw and photographed over the course of the last calendar year. The year presented me with a few unique opportunities including checking four items off my personal bucket list: 1) Photographing a total solar eclipse (in April), 2) … Read more
Since last month’s Reflections on the Fox column, some very significant events have occurred in the skies over the Fox River Valley. First, on the evening of Thursday, October 10, another magnificent display of the aurora borealis occurred a little after 9 p.m. The aurora displays are a result of solar particles expelled in coronal … Read more
… or A Face Only a Mother Could Love This month’s Reflections on the Fox topic literally kind of flew into my mind one day a couple of weeks ago when I visited the Fox River observation platform at the Hoover Forest Preserve in Yorkville. This spot is one of my favorites for viewing all … Read more
The night of Sunday, August 11 and very early morning of Monday, August 12 was the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower. It’s when the Earth passes through the densest remnant of the tail of the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle and recurs every year in mid-August. As I often do during various meteor showers throughout the … Read more
I thought the opening line of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Feeling Groovy (59th Street Bridge Song)” was an appropriate title for my contribution for this month’s “Reflections on the Fox” column. It’s been my motto in birding and fishing for a long, long time but even more so now that my mobility has been limited lately … Read more
On Monday, April 8, 2024, I travelled approximately 260 miles to east central Indiana to view the first total solar eclipse I have seen. I had been looking forward to this event since the last eclipse in 2017 that occurred while I was working at the College of DuPage. I didn’t have the opportunity to … Read more
Tuesday, March 26, 2024 is a day I’ll remember for a long time! For on that day, I checked off one of the items I’ve aspired to on my personal birding bucket list: seeing and photographing a Whooping Crane! I had seen a Whooping Crane flying with a flock of Sandhills back in March of … Read more
I’ve been blessed to see lots of Bald Eagles over the course of my life. The effects of the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the outlawing of the use of DDT in that same year has led the Bald Eagle back from the brink of extinction to being a fairly common sight in the … Read more
I still am, but not the Snowy Owls! Regular readers of this space know that I enjoy looking for Snowy Owls during the winter months. Over the last several years I have enjoyed searching for, and finding, these beautiful visitors from the Arctic North. This winter has been no exception, at least in the searching … Read more
As I write this column (on January 9, 2024) at a normally quiet time for wildlife in the dead of winter, the Bald Eagles in the area have already begun to prepare their nests for the upcoming nesting season! By the end of February or very beginning of March, most of the nesting pairs of … Read more
