A walk through the wetlands area turned up quite a few things to photograph. One of my favorite subjects in the spring is backlit leaves.
There were a variety of birds in and around the ponds. This year the Canada Geese only had three goslings.
Mallard Duck
Belted Kingfisher
Canada Geese
Tree Swallow
The fruit trees were in bloom.
Spring Blooms
Pond Reflections are always a good choice.
Pond Reflections
Walking around Hoffman Hills we noticed these flowers were blooming.
Prairie Smoke
Pussytoes
There were quite a few birds around.
Belted Kingfisher
Eastern Bluebirds
Tree Swallow
Canada Geese Goslings
As we were leaving a Muskrat swam by.
Muskrat
We were fortunate to be around when the fall colors at Hoffman Hills were near their peak. The following day a fall hike was scheduled but the weather indicated strong winds and heavy rain so we went a day early.
Walking around Hoffman Hills the last few weeks I have been able to find a wide variety of insects. This is getting to be a good time of year to look for insects.
Monarch Butterfly
Twelve-spotted Skimmer
Honey Bee
Flower Fly
Done Leaf Beetle
Checkerspot
There are a variety of flowers blooming at Hoffman Hills Recreation Area. The predominant flower is the Queen Anne’s Lace.
Queen Anne’s Lace
Purple Cone Flower
Prairie Blazing Star
Joe-pye Weed
Butterfly Weed
Currently the Wild Lupine and Prairie Smoke are blooming at Hoffman Hills Recreation Area.
We were leaving for a three week vacation but before we left we stopped out at Hoffman Hills to check to see if the Canada Geese had hatched. The nest was empty but it looked like one of the goslings had not survived. The remaining goslings were paddling around the pond.
The Eastern Bluebirds and the Tree Swallows were battling it out for housing.
The trees wee starting to leaf out.
It has been a while since I’ve been out to Hoffman Hills. There is not a lot going on right now. The Prairie Smoke and the Wild Lupine are blooming but that is about it. The Geese are gone. There are a few Painted Turtles around. The second pond is covered with a heavy green slime. They can no longer afford to run the aeration unit in the pond so it scums up early in the season.
Dew Covered Prairie Smoke
Prairie Smoke
Wild Lupine
Wild Lupine
My wife and I made our first visit to Hoffman Hills since returning from vacation. We were curious to see if the Canada Geese had nested at the ponds again this year. We were happy to see one pair had nested on the first pond. Normally they nest on a small island in the middle of the pond but the last few years the water has been so high that they have been nesting on shore. One was on the nest and the other staged nearby watching as we approached.
On the second pond we didn’t find any birds but there were quite a few Painted Turtles sunning themselves. Normally when we approach they slip into the water but this time they just continued to hang out and ignored us.
After walking around the ponds we headed out into the Prairie area to check on the birds. We wanted to see if the Tree Swallows and Easter Bluebirds were nesting yet. The bluebirds were sitting on one of the bird houses and several pair of Tree Swallows were dive bombing them. The male stayed off to the side but the female maintained here position on the house to protect it from the swallows.
There were a few flowers out. The Marsh Marigolds were out around the first pond and the Prairie Smoke was just starting to come out in the Prairie area.
We decided to drive out to Hoffman Hills Recreation Area and see if anything was happening. I thought we might see some Canada Geese staking out their territory. On the way out something caught my eye running across a field and heading toward the car. I thought it was a deer but it turned to out to be a very large coyote. Too bad I didn’t have a chance to get a photograph. When we reached Hoffman Hills there wasn’t much going on but we were very surprised to see that the Pussy Willows were blooming. Normally they bloom the middle of April not the end of February.
Managed a shot of a lone Cattail from last season.
