I love to be up in the morning, sitting outside... This morning in Makanda is crisp and gray, water is dripping quietly everywhere but it's not really raining. This is the perfect morning for listening.
Listening and watching. Woodpeckers, sapsuckers, finches, white breasted nuthatch, of course crows and blue jays... There are so many other bird calls - but I have no idea who's who until I spy them. The chorus has actually been increasing as I sit here: breakfast must be over. Should've remembered my binoculars to spy the causes of such varied calls. It will have to wait... Silent vultures, so well known here they characterize Makanda locally, also sweep through my vantage point sudden. they have impressive black breadth.
It's been a weekend of woodlands.
Yesterday, adter much driving and several u-turns, we located the Cache River Natural Area and hiked into the cypress swamps. Yes, we're still in Illinois.... These do exist here!
It looks like Florida and smells like Christmas!
It's not dank and dim at all, but fresh smelling and shimmering with light. The vividly green duckweed carpeting the water can be thanked for that.
Worth the trek! And a great way to spend the afternoon with friends, before visiting a few wineries... and appreciating small town Southern Illinois.
