Midwest Birding in December

I’ve spent the better part of the last month in the South suburbs of Chicagoland and for this current trip, I found room in my luggage for my camera and zoom lens. These work trips usually lead to a lot of downtime when my facility is closed so that allows for a good amount of exploring.

I started my weekend with a lucky break. I got out of work with some sunlight still available to me, so I took the backroads through a nature preserve as I headed back to the hotel. I came around a corner to see a truck stopped in the middle of the road, stocking the prairie with pheasants. It is pheasant hunting season, and the preserve has many designated hunting areas, so it all adds up, but how fortuitous is it that a slew of elusive birds were literally being dropped in front of me? Sometimes life just works out. I jumped out of the truck and snapped a few shots of the pheasants as they explored their new home. Godspeed to you guys.

The next morning I explored a wetlands reserve in Joliet and basically got shut out as far as birds go. I saw a nice deer though.

I realized Saturday evening that Indiana Dunes National Park was only an hour away, so I got up early Sunday morning and headed across the state line to the park. It’s late in the season for some really good birding but I was able to find a few different species across the park, with the highlight being tracking around two blue jays for half hour. My pics from the jaunt are below.