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Kids today have such colorful colloquialisms, don’t they? Instead of describing an ill-conceived venture as wobbly, weak, lacking in coolness, or destined for the opposite of success, witty webheads say it’s made of fail. That’s a powerful concept; the recipe is so fatally flawed that fail is baked right into the bread. Sounds like my [...]

Momentarily sated by last week’s Texas birding bonanza, I undertook this week’s travels with neither binoculars nor camera. Carting all that gear through airport after airport grows tiresome. Of course, as soon as I landed in Chicago, I had reason to regret my decision, as my hotel lies directly across from the Chippewa Woods Forest [...]

The key to exceptional birding while traveling, by which I mean encountering more than the grackles and pigeons outside your hotel room window, requires extensive research. My recent visit to Chicago proves the point. My goal for the few available hours I had to spare for my own interests rather than those of my employer [...]

Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary, 16 April 2005

Illinois, apparently, is recognized as the 6th most popular state and Chicago is the 9th most visited U.S. city by overseas visitors (which I guess includes me). Chicago - with a population of about 3 million - is located on the shores of Lake Michigan in the heart of [...]