Bohemian waxwing

My intrepid friend, Jane, took this amazing photo of a Bohemian Waxwing when we took a walk at Jackson Park's Wooded Island this afternoon.  It was pretty cold at 19 F. (minus 7 centigrade) but warmer than last week!

Bohemian waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus) is a starling-sized passerine bird that breeds in the northern forests of Eurasia and North America. http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/bohemian-waxwing

Photo: Jane Masterson

On the same trip, we saw a crow eating food scraps:

Photo: Marge Ishmael

And a white-winged scoter (sea duck): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-winged_scoter

Photo: Marge Ishmael

Great Lakes ice growing fast

It is around Zero Fahrenheit in Chicago today but with a much lower windchill. The recent arctic blasts have caused the ice cover on the Great Lakes to increase rapidly. As of Tuesday, February 17, the amount of ice on the Great Lakes was more than the same date last year. See more at link below:
http://www.mlive.com/weather/index.ssf/2015/02/arctic_blast_sends_great_lakes.html

Who's Who?

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/january-february-2015/whos-who

Sue the T-Rex and Tooth and Claw beer

Today was Free Day for Illinois residents, so I trekked through the snow and bitterly cold temperatures to the Field Museum to admire their Native American collection. Here is a photo of the amazing Sue -- the largest, most complete and best preserved T-Rex ever discovered.  She is 67 million years old and 42 ft. tall. More info. on Sue @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_%28dinosaur%29 

The museum even serves its own locally brewed beer "Tooth and Claw" in the cafe adjacent to Sue: http://www.choosechicago.com/blog/post/2014/01/Tooth-Claw-The-Untold-Story-of-A-Field-Museum-Brew/1204/

Photo: Marge Ishmael

To Kill a Mockingbird sequel

I for one was very excited over my porridge this morning, when I read that Penguin Random House will soon publish a sequel to one of my favorite books: To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee's Purlitzer prize-winning book of honor and injustice in the deep south -- and the heroism of one man in the face of blind, violent hatred and racism. http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31118355  This book had a huge impact on me when we read it as teenagers at high school. The sequel, Go Set a Watchman, is about the adventures of a grown-up Scout as she returns to Maycomb, Alabama to visit Atticus.  Lee said in a statement delivered through her publisher that the book's long lost manuscript was discovered by her lawyer "in a secure location where it had been affixed to an original typescript of To Kill a Mockingbird."

Some people, like Hannah Jane Parkinson writing in the Guardian, think the sequel is a bad idea: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/03/go-set-a-watchman-sequels-harper-lee-to-kill-a-mockingbird    She has an interesting perspective but I personally feel the sequel is well timed, dealing as it does with intolerance and racism at a time when both subjects are at the forefront of world events yet again.

February 2nd post blizzard pics.

The Nature Conservancy - forest purchase

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/jan/30/behind-one-of-the-nature-conservancys-largest-ever-forest-purchases

Good news from Montana's Blackfoot River Valley. Nearly 183 square miles of western Montana timber land has been sold to the Nature Conservancy as part of a $134 million multi state deal. The purchase is one of the largest land acquisition projects ever undertaken by this international conservation organization.

For more on this great organization: http://www.nature.org

Sunday blizzard

This was my street at 2 p.m. today: I guess we'll be digging out tomorrow morning, if not sooner: