Garden of the Gods (Illinois)

Richard Rathe July 2017 (Birds, HDR)

I had the opportunity to travel through Southern Illinois on my way back from Iowa in June. I large part of this hilly country is contained within the Shawnee National Forest There are miles of trails, several wilderness areas, and many points of interest. I stopped for the night at The Garden of the Gods (not to be confused with the area in Colorado by the same name!).

It was late afternoon and I had just enough time to walk and photograph the major trail while the sun was setting. I took several nice photos including this Panorama.

I took several High Dynamic Range (HDR) photo sets.

As the day ended I heard pleasant bird song, followed it, and discovered the source was this beautiful Indigo Bunting.

I slept comfortably in my hammock and the next morning the same bird (?) was singing in a nearby tree! (I saw indigo buntings a half dozen times this trip—more than my entire life prior!) I had a chance to observe this bird long enough to notice he was very systematic with his song. He would belt out a few bars, then turn 90° and sing some more, repeat, repeat, new perch, repeat, repeat…