Every year my wife and I participate in a variety of events where kids (and adults) can add to their collections of rocks, minerals, fossils, shells, and other natural history specimens. During the summer months we participate in the Lawndale Pop-up Spot‘s Sundays on the Boulevard events near Douglas Boulevard and Central Avenue on the west side of Chicago.

There will be FIVE Sundays on the Boulevard events at the Lawndale Pop-up Spot this summer, and Make Your Own Nature Museum will be conducting special activities at all of them! In addition to the special activities, we also bring five or six gallons of Giant Bubble Juice to each event, along with wands that allow anyone — even preschoolers — to make giant bubbles. Follow this link to access our Giant Bubble Juice recipe: https://douglasparknature.org/giant-bubbles/

Go to the the Pop-up Spot Events page for general information about Sunday’s on the Boulevard: https://www.lawndalepopupspot.org/events Follow Lawndale Pop-up Spot on Facebook to stay informed about their very full schedule of events: https://www.facebook.com/lawndalepopupspot

Below are the preliminary plans for our activities at each Sunday on the Boulevard (and descriptions of activities at Sundays past):

June 9: Slide into Summer. We developed activities with a beachcombing theme, including different activities for ocean vs. Great Lakes beaches. Kids and adults could collect sea shells and put them in a decorated box, plus take home a baggie with three Lake Superior agates, a Petoskey stone, and two pieces of beach glass. We also bought a portable sandbox, where kids could sift sand for shells, tumbled stones, crystals, fossils, and other goodies. Follow this link to learn more about rock collecting on Great Lakes beaches: https://natureswapshop.org/beaches/

June 23: Taste of Lawndale. We will bring our free “Make Your Own Nature Museum Shop,” where children and adults can trade free points for rocks, minerals, fossils, shells, and other natural objects to add to (or start) their home nature museum. We will also decorate cardboard collection storage boxes. The Home Nature Museum Shop will have a special sale on rocks carried by railroad cars, like coal and iron ore, we will set up a GeoTrax quarry layout, where kids can transport rocks by train and truck.

July 28: Sports! On the Boulevard. Since auto racing counts as a sport, we will be racing gravity-powered toy cars down at least three kinds of tracks, plus bring a GeoTrax raceway layout with a bunch of hand-powered cars inspired by the Disney “Cars” movies. Since gambling and sports are strongly linked these days, we also will bring our Home Nature Museum Spinner, where kids and adults can spin to win crystals, geodes, sea shells, and more

August 25: Back to School Lit Fest. We will bring a bunch of activities inspired by or linked to children’s books about science. That will include rock and shell collecting activities, sorting rocks and minerals, and playing with magnetic rocks, plastic dinosaurs, GeoTrax trains, and more.

September 29: Animalpalooza. Our “Sharkpalooza” will include collecting fossil shark and ray teeth on a simulated beach, taking a close-up look (and maybe a selfie) at real shark jaws, swimming in a plastic pool filled with plush sharks and rays, playing in a miniature seascape with plastic sharks and sea life, and reading children’s books about sharks.

On June 25, 2023, we presented a photo exhibit of some of the natural abundance we’ve seen at Douglass Park over the past few years. The exhibit was part of the Growth and Abundance-themed Sundays on the Boulevard program at the Lawndale Pop-up Spot.

As promised at that exhibit, here are links to PDF versions of the one-page field guides to some of the wildflowers, insects, and birds found in the park.

You have our permission to print as many copies of these PDFs as you need for personal or educational use.

Click here to download the PDF version of Summer Wildflowers at Douglass Park.

Click here to download the PDF version of Butterflies and Dragonflies at Douglass Park.

Click here to download the PDF version of Water Birds at Douglass Park.

Click here to download the PDF version of Birds that Nest at Douglass Park.

The Gyllenhaal family presented a Zoom Patch Chat about Douglass Park (Chicago) on July 19, 2022.

Here’s the link to the YouTube recording of that presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ukTBJ7iRO0

Here are the slides we used during the presentation (66.5 MB PDF):

The rest of this post includes some of the resources and references we used to develop our talk.

Douglass Park’s eBird hotspot page: https://ebird.org/hotspot/L108460

Nature in Douglass Park Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DouglasParkNature

Here’s the Chicago Park District’s Douglass Park page: https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/douglass-anna-frederick-park

This Wikipedia entry discusses the history of Douglass Park: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglass_Park

– – – – – – – – – – –

Becoming Douglass, Not Douglas, Park

In 2020, after several years of work, students from the Village Leadership Academy final persuaded the Chicago Park District Board to rename Douglas Park in honor of Frederick Douglass and Anna Murray Douglass. (Block Club Chicago, Sep 9, 2020)

Here’s another Block Club Chicago article, dated Sep 22, 2020: “How Did These Students Get The City To Change The Name Of Douglass Park? They Built Collective Power And Didn’t Back Down.”

Douglass Park’s Rarest Bird, a Small-billed Elaenia

From the American Birding Association blog, April 18, 2012: “#ABArare Elaenia sp. in Illinois“

CBS Chicago Radio brief interviews, April 19, 2012: “South American Bird Overshoots During Migration, Ends Up In Chicago“

David Sibley on the initial difficulties identifying the Elaenia to species: “In praise of mystery“

The Gyllenhaal’s hometown paper’s take on the whole thing, April 2024, 2012: “OPRF teens discover another rare bird“

The Illinois Ornithological Records Committee finally accepted the identification of the bird as a Small-billed Elaenia in March, 2020: https://m.facebook.com/groups/ILRBA/permalink/2515431281902047/

Greater Chicago Metropolitan Area Canada Goose Project (Neck-collared geese)

Description of the project: https://forbes-bio-station.inhs.illinois.edu/research/winter-movement-of-canada-geese/

Outdoor Illinois Wildlife, November 1, 2018: “Canada Geese: Chicago Parks to the Canadian Tundra“

ScienceDaily, October 23, 2017: Smart birds: “Canada geese give hunters the slip by hiding out in Chicago“

Dorak, B.E., M.P. Ward, T.P. Lyons, H.M. Hagy, M.W. Eichholz, and B.E. Washburn. 2017. Survival and habitat selection of Canada Geese during autumn and winter in metropolitan Chicago, USA. Condor 119(4):787–799. 

Askren, Ryan J.; Dorak, Brett E.; Hagy, Heath M.; Eichholz, Michael W.; Washburn, Brian E.; and Ward, Michael P. (2019) “Tracking Canada Geese Near Airports: Using Spatial Data to Better Inform Management,” Human–Wildlife Interactions: Vol. 13 : Iss. 2 , Article 18.

Leg-marked Geese in Douglass and Other Chicago Parks

Eric’s Neighborhood Nature blog post, October 22, 2015: “Returns of the Winter Geese“

In answer to one of the questions I raised during the talk, Canada Geese do recognize parents and siblings after they are grown up. They may join them during migration and where they winter: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/do-young-birds-recognize-their-parents-after-theyve-grown-up/

Natural Area Development and Maintenance

CBS Chicago article about the National Football League’s 100th anniversary wildflower plantings by the mini-golf course, Sep 2, 2019: “Goodell, Former NFL Players Turn Out To Clean Up Douglas Park, Reward Community Leader.”

USA Today article, Sep 4, 2019: “NFL’s latest Huddle for 100 cleans up Douglas Park“

The Decline of Insect Populations and Its Effect on Birds

“Bird declines tied to fewer insects.” Dana Kobilinsky. The Wildlife Society. March 2, 2021.

“Are declines in insects and insectivorous birds related?” Douglas W Tallamy & W Gregory Shriver. Ornithological Applications, Volume 123, Issue 1, 1 February 2021,

“Insect Freefall: What Does It Mean for Birds?” Howard Youth. BirdCalls: News and Perspectives on Bird Conservation. August 29, 2019.

Douglass 18 Mini-Golf Course

Chicago Park District page with open hours and other information: https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/douglass-golf-facility

Douglass 18 Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thedouglass18/

Block Club Chicago, May 13, 2022: “Douglass 18 Mini Golf Will Soon Reopen With Concession Stand And Patio Dining At West Side Park“

Free Spirit Media, Dec 13, 2021: “Douglass 18 Mini Golf team Discuss First Season and Future” (podcast)

Sense of Place References and Resources

“Sense of Place.” Jennifer Adams, David Greenwood, Mitchell Thomashow, & Alex Russ. The Nature of Cities. 26 May 2016.

“A Sense of Place: Human Geography in the Early Childhood Classroom.” Pamela Brillante & Sue Mankiw. Young Children. July 2015. Vol. 70, No. 3.

Impacts of Huge Music Festivals South of Ogden in Douglass Park

You can get frequent updates on this issue at the Concerned Citizens of Riot Fest in Douglass Park Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/ConcernedaboutDouglasPark/

Block Club Chicago, published this article on June 21, 2022: “With Much Of Douglass Park Closed To Public For 3 Music Fests, Some Residents Say ‘Almost The Entire Summer Is Ruined’“

There’s also an online petition you can sign to express your opposition to the music festivals: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/nomegafests

They are very close to 1,000 signatures, so you may be the one to send them over the top!

Here are links to learn more about the history of the community groups organizing against the music festivals that take over the south end of the park:

In English: bit.ly/nofestslides

In Spanish: bit.ly/nofestespañol

Finally, you are invited to the upcoming Trash Talk #3 meet-up on Sunday July 24th at noon at 18th and California Ave.:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We helped children and their adults get started with their own home nature museums during Douglass Park’s Earth Day celebration on April 23rd, 2022. Children could sift natural history specimens from the sandbox, select specimens from the free Home Nature Museum Shop, and spin to win even more specimens.

For those who want to add more specimens to their collections, here are some ideas:

• You can find lots of interesting rocks and fossils on Lake Michigan beaches.Check out the Field Museum’s Beachgoer’s Guide to Lake Michigan Fossils and Rocks: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/beachgoers-guide-lake-michigan-fossils-and-rocks
• You can visit Mr. Eric’s Nature Collector’s Garden at 1003 South Elmwood in Oak Park, Illinois. The garden is open all day, every day, and includes more rock, mineral, fossil, and shell specimens like the ones you sifted from the sandbox at Douglass Park: https://www.oakpark.com/2021/01/26/a-neighbor-who-rocks/
• You can attend the Chicagoland Gems & Minerals Association Show at Kane County Fairground during Memorial Day Weekend (May 28 and 29, 2022). Kids can make free collections of small minerals and fossils, and there are lots of rocks, minerals, gems, and fossils to purchase in every price range: https://cgmashow.com/
• You can join the Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois, which runs ESCONI Juniors programs every month during the school year: https://www.esconi.org/
• You can join the Chicago Rocks and Minerals Society ( https://chicagorocks.org/ ), which runs a Geo Juniors program where you can earn badges by completing a series of projects: http://geojuniors.com/
• And, if you have some money to spend, you can visit Dave’s Down to Earth Rock Shop in Evanston, Illinois: https://davesrockshop.com/

Here are some more links that might prove useful:

• To identify tumbled stones found in the sandbox, follow this link: https://natureswapshop.org/tumbled/
• This image identifies some of the most common shark teeth found in the sandbox (plus a few shark teeth that would not fit in the sifter!): https://www.fossilguy.com/sites/venice/venice-shark-teeth-identification.jpg
• There are lots of web pages that help you identify your sea shells. This is one of them: http://www.seashells.org/alltheseashells.html
• This page has links to websites that show ways to display your home nature museum collections: https://natureswapshop.org/home-nature-museum/
• You can download a PDF version of the sandbox specimen identification chart here:

And finally, here’s Mr. Eric’s recipe for homemade bubble juice, which makes pretty big bubbles on a hot summer’s day:

As temperatures climb and the snow melts away, migratory birds are returning to Douglass Park! I found four recent returnees and a few other interesting birds on my most recent visit to the park on Thursday, March 4^th.

Rob Andrade recorded the park’s first Red-winged Blackbird of the year back on February 27^th.  This male blackbird was singing in a sanctuary tree on Thursday.

I saw my first Ring-billed Gull of 2021 flying over the Douglass Park lagoons on February 28^th. There were at least 15 Ring-billed Gulls in the park on Thursday, including these two on the soccer field.

When I heard a Killdeer over the park back in January, it was rapidly flying south, probably trying to escape the winter’s first big snowfall. On Thursday, these four Killdeer and three others were foraging on the lawn just north of the COVID-19 testing station before continuing their northward migration.

Mallard ducks abandoned Douglass Park when the lagoons froze over in mid January. This Mallard pair was back on Thursday, dabbling in open water at the east edge of the otherwise frozen Lily Pond.

As the lagoon waters slowly melt, it’s open season on dead fish! This American Crow picked a fairly fresh dead catfish from open water at the edge of north lagoon.

Once the fish was securely in its grasp, it was time to begin the meal.

Two Herring Gulls found a decaying catfish in the southeast lagoon’s ice.

Gulls have strong stomachs and will eat all kinds of awful things!

A couple of American Crows were interested in what the gulls were eating.

But Herring Gulls are large and mean, so the crows flew to north lagoon and searched for their own dead fish in the melting ice.

Looks like the crow on the right found something…

…and it walked away, hoping the other crows would let it eat its piece of fish in peace.

You can see my complete eBird list from Thursday morning, March 4^th, here: https://ebird.org/bcn/checklist/S82748904

+ + + + + + +

Inspired by Neal’s snowy visit to the south side of Douglass Park on Friday morning, I decided to post some photos from my visit to the park on Saturday morning, February 20th. I found some nature! There were 11 species of birds that had survived the recent bitter cold and continuing snow, but some of them were doing unnatural things.

In addition to the usual pigeons and House Sparrows around Mt. Sinai Hospital, I also found a small flock of American Tree Sparrows foraging on plowed pavement by the tennis courts. Other south-of-Ogden birds were a Downy Woodpecker, cardinal, and flyover Herring Gull.

I did not try to walk in the deep snow inside the sanctuary fence, but I did hear cardinals calling and singing at the edges of the golf course. This male cardinal posed for a bit in a small tree at the west edge of the golf course.

I found this Red-bellied Woodpecker plucking bugs from the bark and wood on trees just east of the iron bridge.

There were also a bunch of other birds just east of the iron bridge, but they weren’t eating their usual natural foods, like bugs and seeds. Park visitors had dumped their leftover fast food at the edges of the road, and the Downy Woodpeckers and Dark-eyed Juncos were taking advantage of the unnatural food source.

This Black-capped Chickadee flew down and started picking bits from the same bread the Downy Woodpecker had been eating.

And a male cardinal also picked at the same piece of bread.

The Dark-eyed Juncos found their own patch of litter, with lots of biscuit crumbles. Elsewhere in the park American Crows were also picking through trash in search of leftovers.

This Gray Squirrel was trying to figure out how to open a container of, what, salad dressing or dipping sauce? (photographed on February 20, 2021)

Just to be clear, I don’t encourage littering Douglass Park with leftovers from your fast-food meals. If the birds run out of natural food in the park, they will just fly elsewhere, like the Canada Geese did when the snow got too deep. But it was kind of interesting to see that urban birds found urban ways to survive an urban winter.

My full eBird list from Saturday morning is here: https://ebird.org/bcn/checklist/S82013106

+ + + + + + + + + +

+ + + + + + +

+ + +

Every time I visited Douglass Park during January 2021, I found at least a dozen different kinds of birds. They ranged in size from tiny chickadees and goldfinches to tall Great Blue Herons and lumbering Canada Geese. They were eating wildflower seeds, crab apple fruits, lawn grasses, insects hibernating on and inside trees, and sometimes other birds and mammals.

This album includes photos of some of the birds I saw in Douglass Park during my January visits. Go here to see my Saturday January 30th eBird list, with 16 bird species and more photos: https://ebird.org/bcn/checklist/S80142751

And this link takes you to a list of all 22 species of birds reported in Douglass Park during January 2021: https://ebird.org/hotspot/L108460?m=1&yr=cur&changeDate=

+ + + + +

Although the return of large flocks of American Robins to Douglass Park will be a sign of spring, this lone robin never left the park! Instead, he has been camped out in some crab apple trees along Ogden Avenue. The trees provide both fruit to eat and tangled branches for protection from hawks.

American Crows hang out in Douglass Park year-round and even nest here in the summer. These crows were foraging by the Cultural Center parking lot.

When not looking for food, crows look for hawks to harass. This time they found the young Red-tailed Hawk that has been spending the winter in and around Douglass Park.

Looking at tracks in the golf course snow, it’s clear that there are lots of rabbits this year, which may be why the young Red-tailed Hawk is sticking with the park.

After the crows harassed the young Red-tailed Hawk, they found this young Red-shouldered Hawk in a different part of the park. The crow calls led me to the hawk, which I otherwise might have missed seeing.

The abundant summer and fall wildflowers in Douglass Park’s meadows produced enough seeds to feed several types of native sparrows this winter. This Swamp Sparrow usually hangs out in the dried wildflowers and reeds at the edges of the lagoon, but on Saturday it was searching for wind-blown seeds on a plowed sidewalk.

Song Sparrows have also been spending the winter in Douglass Park, including this one photographed in the dried reeds at the edge of sanctuary lagoon.

A couple of waves of migrating American Tree Sparrows swept through the park during late fall and winter, eating seeds still on the wildflowers, on the soil, or on paved paths.

Dark-eyed Juncos are usually the most common winter sparrow in the park. If you look long enough, you can almost always find a flock or two.

Juncos usually eat wildflower seeds, but they will also scavenge bits of bread or cereal that people leave behind. These two juncos were picking at the hunk of bread until a Black-capped Chickadee appropriated it.

More often the park’s chickadees hunt insects on tree bark, sometimes accompanied by this White-breasted Nuthatch.

Canada Goose flocks have been swarming the park’s lawns when they are clear of snow, then resting on the lagoons, whether they are open water or frozen. But the geese head elsewhere when the snow gets deeper than a few inches. By the way, these signs are why I call the fenced part of the park the sanctuary – it’s much more than just a golf course.

The Canada Goose with plastic leg band A873 is one of those geese that returns to Douglass Park in winter as long as there is grass accessible. She has been returning since at least the winter of 2014-2015. Banding records say she is at least 11 years old, but I first saw her six years ago.

I guess the ice finally got too thick on Douglass Park’s lagoons, because the Great Blue Heron that had been fishing under the old stone bridge has not been reported on eBird since January 19th. The heron could have flown south, or maybe it headed east or west to a local river with open water.

And this remainder from last summer is also a reminder of things to come once the weather warms. It’s a Baltimore Oriole nest, built in a small tree by one of the lagoons. Baltimore Orioles have nested in Douglass Park at least as long as I have been visiting to count birds, and we expect them back again this summer.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + +

+ + + + + + + +

+ + + +

I have a little story to tell with these photos….

Back on Monday, January 4th, even though the lagoons were almost completely frozen over, a Great Blue Heron was still perched on the east end of the island in Douglass Park’s north lagoon. It was an adult heron, so I had reason to hope it knew what it was doing, but I still worried about it.

I guess I should not have worried, because on Friday morning, January 8th, I saw the Great Blue Heron on the ice with a catfish in its beak.

The heron had to work its catfish into position….

…so it could swallow the it head first.

By swallowing it head first…

…the catfish’s sharp spines could do no damage to the heron’s throat.

Investigating further, I discovered that the Great Blue Heron was fishing at a patch of open water under the old stone bridge.

I also discovered that this winter’s juvenile Red-tailed Hawk was perched in a tree right above the stone bridge…

…keeping an eye on the Great Blue Heron.

Now I have something else to worry about.

Go here to find out about the other birds seen in Douglass Park on H=January 8, 2021: https://ebird.org/bcn/checklist/S78895009

+ + + + +

(This story was originally published on the Nature in Douglass Park Facebook group on January 9, 2021.)

This new poster shows some of the many butterflies and dragonflies that cna be found in Douglas  Park (on the west side of Chicago):

You can download a PDF file of the poster by clicking here or on the image above.

Feel free to make as many copies as needed for educational purposes or personal use!

 

 

 

 

This new poster shows some of the many birds that make nests and raise their young in Douglas  Park (on the west side of Chicago):

You can download a PDF file of the poster by clicking here or on the image above.

Feel free to make as many copies as needed for educational purposes or personal use!