I took a good break from thesis writing yesterday and headed down to Starved Rock State Park for an early morning stroll with my friend Greg. Birds on the canal were few, just a large group of Canada Geese, a few Mallards, and some Ring-billed Gulls. There were two Bald Eagles, however, flying over head when we first arrived at the park. We later found one perched in a tree on a small island in the canal.
The best sighting was a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers pounding away at some snags in a canyon. They didn't seem to mind us watching, so we took our time observing them work the snags. The canyon was a real hot spot for birds: Tufted Titmouse, Golden-crowned and Ruby crowned Kinglets, White and Red-breasted Nuthatches, and Brown Creepers were all present in a small grouping of trees near one of the crevice walls.
We also found a few Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers and some Northern Flickers along the trails. It was a refreshing break from the intensity of thesis writing. Now it's back to work.
On another note, I found something strange while using Google Maps to plan out the next stage of our prairie restoration project at the farm (winter is a great time to plan things). The picture below shows the Google Map satellite view of the Strom Farm. Outlined in red is the property border. Yellow indicates the savanna remnant, and green shows the 2 acre prairie reconstruction project we started last spring. Notice the strange label near the top property border: "Fermi National Accelerator Lab"? Is this a bug in the Google Maps software? Maybe a mistake in the GIS data? Is the Department of Energy is really scoping out our property as a future extension of the particle physics research center? Who knows? I wonder if they'd let me live there if the government enacts eminent domain. It would be a great commute to the office!
No comments:
Post a Comment