Bird Nerd Photogs - Audrey & Jason Vicks

04/21/2025

01/29/2025

Despite those razor-sharp talons, this Great Gray Owl came up empty after diving into the snow to catch her meal.

But she didn’t go hungry for long, grabbing breakfast before our brief encounter with her was over.

01/06/2025

A Red-headed Woodpecker on a cold January day really stands out against the winter landscape.

The orange of the oak leaves and the green of the pines are the only other color in a mostly monochromatic scene.

12/31/2024

A Purple Finch at the Sax-Zim Bog earlier this month.

If you’ve seen the YouTube live feeder cam feed from the Bog’s Welcome Center, you know that these birds have been all over those feeders this December.

We enjoy seeing them so much that we have the YouTube feed going in the background on one of our computer monitors while we work (not distracting at all! 😂 Don’t tell our boss!)

08/22/2023

Montrose Beach, Chicago 2023: the Bachelor Gets Some New Friends

It was an exciting summer at Montrose Beach on Lake Michigan in Chicago this summer. While one of the most eligible Piping Plover bachelors in the world, Imani, spent the season there waiting for a mate to join him, three super-cute little orphaned and captive-raised Piping Plover fledglings from New York were released on the beach.

Now, the birds have migrated south, but so many people will have joyful memories of watching the adorable antics of these federally endangered birds. But, a fisherman or woman left their fishing line as litter, and a line wrapped around one of the fledglings legs.

Trained and experienced volunteers spent hours trying to catch the bird, they couldn’t. The youngster migrated south, and, according to the Chicago Piping Plovers organization, “eventually, the line will tighten around the leg, cut circulation, and Sea Rocket may lose their foot or part of their leg. Worse, the line may get caught on a fixed object and Sea Rocket will not be able to escape, perishing a horrible death.”

We want to thank the Chicago Piping Plovers monitors for the work they do, monitoring the beach day in and day out, protecting the plovers as best they can from, for the lack of a better word, stupid humans. But no matter how hard they work, it just takes one ignorant, careless person to destroy countless days of diligence and to break a whole lot of hearts when an animal whose species is struggling to survive is put in needless peril because of an uncaring, lazy and selfish human.

Please, help spread the word about the horrific consequences of fishing line and hook litter. It kills and maims animals and causes them needless suffering. It only takes a minute to clean up after yourself if you like to fish. It only takes a minute to pick it up if you see it while you’re hiking or enjoying time at a pond or lake.

We think it should be a crime to leave fishing line around to kill wildlife. Do you?


Chicago Piping Plovers