Tree Swallow on guard while his mate looks out from the nest box.

 

 

 

Baltimore Oriole sings for a while before flying away.

 

 

 

Meadowlark singing beside Path #1 on the Emiquon Ridge.

 

 

Sunset over the Emiquon ridge.

 

 

 

 

The Transformation Begins!

Lizanne Gray was at Emiquon during the recent tree planting. She took these photographs that show the very beginning of the transformation that will take place over the next few years. Currently you have to look hard to find the wildlife at Emiquon. Horned Larks blend in with the brown corn stubbles that still exist in most of the vast expanse of the Emiquon Valley. But if you look hard, you will find it. And as the landscape changes, the animals will return!

 

The landscape at Emiquon is going to dramatically change over the next few decades as these trees turn into a bottom land forest.

 

 

 

 

Trees, not corn, make up this planting.

 

 

 

 

The Nature Conservancy is planting trees in the former corn fields of Emiquon.

 

 

 

South Peoria Loop: Spring Lake, Chautauqua, and Emiquon

My friend Ed and I drove down to Emiquon on Saturday. We went down on the east side of the river, stopping by Spring Lake Bottoms to check out the waterfowl and Eurasian Tree Sparrows, then drove down to Chautauqua in hopes of seeing the Cattle Egret, which was not present. We had lunch at the Chuck Wagon Restaurant in Havana, crossed the Illinois River and then stopped at Path 2 at Emiquon, the path that leads to the pumphouse. We photographed the dead Carp (The Nature Conservancy recently drained the newly forming lakes to kill off Eurasion Carp), but the Pelicans I found last week were gone.

 

 

 

The Nature Conservancy drained the lakes that were forming to kill off the Asian Carp, which they don't want in the Emiquon waters. Dead Carp were all over the place when we visited Saturday, April 21.