Grant Park Owl Prowl December 11

I'm so excited that the Friends of Grant Park are teaming up with the Schlitz Audobon Center to showcase some raptors at the Grant Park Clubhouse. Tomorrow evening, there will be several raptors for meet and greet - a real chance to see the birds up close and personal: "Cutright" the Peregrine Falcon, "Dory" the Saw-whet Owl, "Malary" the Kestrel (one of my favorites), "Tskili" the Great Horned owl, and "Tucker" the Screech Owl. 

Then the plan is to head out into the park after dark and "hoot up" some wild owls, see if they sass back. We live very close to the park, and we hear Great Horned Owls frequently, every now and then a Screech Owl. There's just something very untamed about hearing owls at night; for a moment, even though I'm snug in my bed, it feels as though I were camping in the thickest woods.


Please join the Friends of Grant Park for an unusual evening with some winged ambassadors from the Schlitz Audubon Center:
Thursday, Dec. 11th at 6:15 p.m.
Program starts promptly at 6:30
Cookies & cider at 7:30
Owl Prowl, weather permitting, at 8:00
Details at the FoGP website 

Crazy Trillium

There's a saying about poison ivy that goes "Leaves of three, beware of me." It's only partially useful though because a lot of plants in the wildwoods have leaf trios, like trillium and shamrocks. Who doesn't love shamrocks?!  Poison ivy is more like "Leaves of two opposite with one extra hanging on the end, uh, stay away". Not as catchy.

We are blessed to live close to a major wooded park system along the Lake Michigan lakefront, and the trails are plentiful. A ten minute walk can take us to the beach, or up along narrow cliff trails where we can see the lake through tree-tops 80 feet up. I think "wow - this is just like being up-north and walking along the big lakes" and then I remember I am walking along a big lake. Instant transport away from urbanity.

We spotted crazy dense patches of trillium out hiking the other day - shades of white to deep pink - beautiful!!

Trillium 

These are growing mixed with a rue of some sort; see the tiny ferny leaves? The rue will bloom soon, after the trillium are done. We are in the process of naturalizing the woodland garden in our backyard, and hope it looks like this some day.