Monday Evening

Upon completion of errands, I took Ava out for a ride into the country. With no particular destination in mind, we ended up at the Margaret Guzy Pothole Wetlands nature preserve located S of Dalton City on 128. Unsure if she would be bored with this location which doesn't have anything for children, to my relief, the overlook magically transformed into a house for her imaginary friends. As for the first image, backside of the ongoing SE IL storm complex as we headed to the park.



Difficult composition added for illustration.


Getting ready to leave and thinking this would be the parting shot, I spotted a pair of Mourning doves atop the old barn found at this site.


Moments later and to my surprise, a Turkey Buzzard swooped in and got all the nearby birds fired up.


The Redwing Blackbirds were the least tolerant of this otherwise unwelcome visitor so I spent time with their attempts at trying to get it to leave.




Eventually the sun emerged from behind cloud thus making for better light.




The buzzard spent a very long time in this spot which gave me the opportunity to try a different angle. All the while, Ava played nearby and was glad that we had not left yet.




Just as we pulled out of the drive, the buzzard took off thus making the opportunity seem almost destined. Sunset would be the perfect ending to our unplanned yet highly productive outing.