Adventures at the North Park Village Nature Center

Introduction

 

I did not start out to be an urban naturalist.  As a naturalist, I have a great deal to learn.  On the plus side, I am a good observer and a halfway decent photographer with a very deep-running curiosity.

Several years ago I had a series of serious surgeries, lower back repair, hip replacement and knee replacement.  I managed to go back to work pretty quickly but the pain and the loss to mobility were, in a word, depressing.  Encouraged by my wife, I began to walk around our neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago.  Eventually I found my way into the North Park Village Nature Center. 

At first, I was mostly concerned with being able to walk without falling down.  Over time, I became stronger and my walks became longer.  I slowed down and spent more time looking, listening and photographing. Before long it dawned on me what an amazing window into nature this nature center is, how very amazing it is to find a place like this within the city limits. 

More recently, it dawned on just how much work goes into keeping the place looking natural.  The staff and the many volunteers work hard to give the rest of us a taste of something that transcends urban life, something that connects very deeply to what we understand about nature. 

And I do not exclude us from nature.  I believe that we are a part of the whole.  I believe that human nature is located within the continuum of evolution.  We are part of the fabric of life on this planet.

Here is the young goose who inspired this blog.  She was about six weeks old when I captured this image on June 11, 2012. 

What's in the picture?  I had just fed my breakfast to her, her three siblings and their parents --six geese in all.  As a rule I do not "feed the animals", but they were such persuasive beggars that I broke my own rule and gave them the two slices of whole-wheat toast I had carried with me for an out-of-doors breakfast. 

I took this photo just after I had passed out the last of my toast.

She walked up to me, cocked her head and seemed to be looking at me quizzically.  Was she wondering why more food was not forthcoming?  Was she wondering, as I was, what kind of intelligence was standing there in front of us?