Sunday, November 7, 2010

Yawning void


For whatever reason, I've historically spent little time at Montrose Point in November. So it was nice to get out today and explore at this time of year. One of the first things we noticed was that, like on our block, there's a surprising amount of greenery around. Many trees and shrubs have green leaves even though it's the first week of November.

The prairie at Montrose continues to be bursting at the seams like never before--the grasses and forbs and other plants are incredibly tall and dense, overrunning trails in places. The dunes are always changing, and this was evident again today. The tallest of the dunes continues to get taller. There are more grasses than ever--marram grass, and I believe little bluestem. There are dense stands of equisetum in one of the swales. And the cottonwoods and willows appear to have grown. Not to mention the black oaks that were planted last year.

There wasn't a whole lot of bird activity, save for a flock of goldfinches looking more like grayfinches at this time of year. And a group of herring gulls and ring-billed gulls, including the first-year ring-bill pictured with its tongue out. There are a few other pictures here.

3 comments:

Daily Chicago Photo said...

Phil and I were there this afternoon as well. We were walking back from the beach and I thought I saw you, your wife and the little owlet taking photos. You were kinda far away so wasn't sure. So belated "Hello!" Although we did see a bird of prey (possibly a kestrel?) swoop through in addition to the goldfinches and gulls. Have you wandered over to Foster for the Harlequin Ducks? We found them yesterday.

Karla said...

Great photos!

UptownRooster said...

Ha! I haven't seen the harlequins, though I did at North Avenue a couple years ago. Yesterday morning saw a female purple finch at Montrose and lots of grebes and coots in the harbor.