Photographs from Autumn in Illinois, in 2020

Many of the photographs on this page show an odd phenomenon. Strange green objects appear in photographs I took of Jupiter and Mars. What are the green things? Perhaps insects on web strands in trees? Their movement and position rules this out, and I used a short focal length for these shots, so they should be blurrier. A flaw in the lenses? But the green objects are in some shots and not in others, and they move across the field. Also, I used two different lenses and the objects appear in photographs taken with both lenses. Perhaps something in the camera? Why do they move, change shape, and why are they a bit more blurry in my blurry shots and sharper in my sharpest shots? No, these objects are outside the camera, and they move, and they are in pretty sharp resolution in some of the shots. Okay, so the objects are something in the sky, but what? They are moving slower than a satellite, and much slower than an aircraft. Could these be high altitude balloons? I am perplexed. In some of the shots they seem to be illuminated from something above them, which is wrong. If they are in space, they should be illuminated from the right and below. The sun, which had set about 90 minutes before I took the first shot showing a green object, was below the horizon and off to the west, or to the right (these shots are looking south). These photographs were taken at 37° 17' 45.70"N 88° 58' 21.07"W. Jupiter and Mars appear in most of the images, so the altitude and direction of the photographs can be worked out. The green objects are just weird, and I do not know what they are. They seem almost like solid things but I have a couple shots of one changing shape near Mars in the sky, and so think they are probably not solid. The best guess is that these are some sort of ultra high altitude clouds. Such a phenomenon would explain their irregular shape, the fact that they seem to drift at a slow pace around the sky, and some other features. And yet, noctilucent clouds are a strange thing anyway, and they typically are high cirrus clouds with a whispy form, not like these objects. And, although some of the objects seem to change shape, others seem to hold their basic shape pretty well.

These photographs show something that is just weird. The green objects floating in the sky could be some sort of strange clouds, but a typical formation of high clouds such as Cirrocumulus floccus or Altocumulus floccus would typically cover a portion of the sky in a sort of field or patch of clouds, not just produce two or three tiny clouds. Also, what about this green color? The color reminds me of the Aurora, but aside from the color, these do not resemble any type of aurora phenonmena I know of. What do we with this sort of anomolous phenomena, this unclassified residuum of observations? I have been interested in odd and weird observations since I was quite young, and I have a collection of the works of Charles Fort, and even better, I have many of the catalogs of odditites collected and classified by William Corliss. Many of these sorts of things are just unexplainable, and seem to be of no importance, so nobody wastes much time trying to figure out what they are. But, I am surprised to find myself in the company of other observers of nature who stumble upon something strange and document it. I have had other experiences with odd things: incredible coincidences, seemingly precognitive phenomena, including seemingly precognitive dreams, apparent telepathic connection, a ghost (which I explain as tactile/auditory hallucinations because I was alone when I had that experience—sane people often have the occasional hallucination, and they are typically as mundane and unremarkable as mine was), and in 2006 I saw a bird in my backyard (a painted bunting) that should not have been there (mine may have been the only sighting of a painted bunting in Sangamon County, ever). We all have the occassional strange experience. In each day we have thousands of sensory impressions and thoughts, and over a lifetime, we will occassionally have some very rare and special observations or coincidences.

Yet, I'm also philosophically opposed to materialism, following the philosophy or theology of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, informed in my case by scientists and philosophers such as Bernardo Kastrup, Don Hoffman, Dean Radin, and Stephen Friberg. So, sometimes these observations that “don’t fit” offer no challenge to my worldview, since I assume we know less than we think we know about reality.

Sebastian visited us for a few days in late September and early October. On October 2nd we posed together as a family for some family photographs. The larger image shows Arthur, as I could not fit him into the preview picture used above.
We grew many different vegetables and fruits in our backyard garden. In 2020 our main crops were green beans, squash/pumpkins, and peppers. These are some peppers Jeri grew. The garden was a family project, but although Eric helped, it was mainly Jeri’s efforts that brought us such a bounty of food.
Among the squash we grew were some pumpkins. We used a couple of these for our jack-o-lanterns, and one of the jack'o'lanterns—and the rest of the pumpkins—were converted into pumpkin pies. But for some weeks after harvesting, and before using them, they all decorated our kitchen.
Before we had our first freeze (which came in late October this year), we had to bring in the plants that would be killed by frost. So, the basil came in, and after we had it indoors, it started to bloom. These are basil blossoms.
For Halloween, we put candy out in front of our house on a table, along with the two jack-o-lanterns. As children came up to the house, we told them to take a bag of candy. This worked pretty well, and we did not get close to the children or their parents who came along.
Here is Eric standing behind our Halloween candy table; we used the table so the children in our neighborhood could come and get candy from us on Halloween without coming close to us.
After the trick-or-treat visitors were done for the evening, we brought the jack-o-lanterns into our home to decorate the hall outside our bedrooms.
This is Halloween; jack-o-lanterns and candy.
We had to harvest all our tomatoes before the frost, so we had many of these green tomatoes. We made salsa with them, using also some peppers we grew.
We had a Quorn holiday roast for the main entree at our Thanksgiving dinner. Tofurky, Worthington, and Field Roast also make decent vegan roasts as a substitute for the traditional turkey. Of all these, Quorn makes our favorite version.
Here was my Thanksgiving dinner in 2020. We used recipies such as Fiesta corn from Taste of Indiana and a sweet potato recipe from Taste of Oregon. The broccoli cauliflower casserole was from a vegetarian cookbook, as were the cider glazed carrots. We had a Quorn roast as the main entry, with some stuffing and some bean casserole Jeri made up without a recipe. There were also mashed potatoes, and a pumpkin pie. The pumpkin for the pumpkin pie and the beans in the bean casserole were grown in our backyard.
Our Thanksgiving dinner was splendid, and we even had some treats for Ya-Ya, the cat, held here by Jeri, although in this preview image above you can just see Jeri’s lovely smile.
We have a couple maples trees in our backyard, and another one in our front yard, so we have some pretty colors to admire in late October.
Usually in the last two weeks of October and the first week of November we get to admire the colors of trees in ours and our neighbors’ backyards. On the days with sunlight, late in the afternoon as the sun sinks to the west, the leaves become gloriously illuminated, and the view is as pretty as the stained glass in the cathedrals.
We lost seven trees due to a storm back in the spring of 2019, and we had another maple tree removed from our front yard in 2020, but we still have two large maple trees in our backyard and one big one in our front yard. This is the top of the largest maple tree in our backyard, on a day when the leaves were mostly yellow.
Arriving home around 6:40 on Sunday evening, the one streetlight on Park Avenue illuminates the trees near our home.
In September and October we enjoy clusters of bright pink blossoms, and I think these are probably some sort of Spirea, but we did not plant them, and we are not sure what they are.
One of the many pleasant aspects of the university where I work are the tremendous grounds. We have many trees around the University of Illinois that become covered with blossoms in the spring, and some of the most dramatically beautiful foliage in the autumn. The campus horticulturalists also create attractive flower gardens, and in the autumn this sort of spider flower (Cleome hassleriana?) becomes quite showy..
On the UIS campus, quite near where I lock my bike when I ride to my office, is a rock garden, and in October this little red flower is in bloom.
The UIS rock garden outside Brookens Hall has these red coneflowers (Echinacea). The deer are plentiful at UIS, so I expect the horticulturalist mainly uses flowers and plants that deer will not eat.
During the pandemic, we would sometimes take excursions to wooded parks or open areas to walk around and get out of the house. There are some lovely trees standing by the YMCA soccer fields on the east side of campus, where the university rents some of its land to farmers who grow corn or soybeans. I used to admire this tree when I was coaching YMCA soccer and my son and his friends played soccer. It was nicely lit with a warm light one mid-October late afternoon.
There are many deer living in the woods on the edge of the UIS property, and during a walk around campus in the autumn, one is almost sure to see some deer. Here are some deer in a soybean field out beyond the YMCA soccer fields.
The old property line between those fields of corn or soybeans UIS rents to farmers and the Spencer House (where the persons who served as presidents of Sangamon State University once lived) has some relict fence-row trees that catch the last sunlight of the day in mid-October.
The maple trees planted in lines along Edgar Lee Masters Drive and University Drive on the outer ring road north and east of campus tend to reach their peak colors in the first week of November.
Here we have some horses in Johnson County, Illinois along Heron Pond Lane near Belknap.
This old schoolhouse along Heron Pond Road in Belknap, Illinois is worth a pause to consider the children who must have studied here, and the many persons who have worshiped here. In the 19th century (I guess this school was built in the 1880s or 1890s) some of the swamps were drained to make farming possible, and many families were supported by the timber cutting and sawmills in the area. The structure is now the Foreman Community Church, but it looks very much as if this structure was originally constructed as a rural school, not a church.
We had a very warm evening in during the first weekend in November, and so we took advantage of the warm weather and went out to camp in Karnak, Illinois. This little hamlet has a public campground (Main Brothers Campground), and we enjoyed our stay here.
We had very warm weather on Saturday night, the 7th of November. We took advantage of this, and went camping in Karnak, Illinois. The skies were clear, and we enjoyed watching the stars after dinner. Biden made a good victory speech we listened to after watching the stars.
At 18:25:30 I took had just set up my tripod and got a focus on Jupiter. I took a short photograph (shutter speed at 0.3 seconds) with my 300mm lens. The photograph seemed to be in good focus, and I was pleased with the shot. Later, after noticing the green shape on other images, I used Photoshop to reduce shadows by 8, and then used exposure to slightly increase the light and reduce the noise, and one of the green objects can clearly be seen. The series of three shots I took a couple minutes later show that green object moving in a straight line toward Jupiter from a different position, but one must remember that in addition to whatever movement the green objects had, the stars and Jupiter were also moving as the earth turned.
At 18:26:26 I took another shot of Jupiter, and this time my shutter speed was set at 1/4 of a second. Again, I could see no green object in the photograph until I used Photoshop to reduce shadows, and then it popped into view. This shot was taken with the 300mm lens about a minute after the first Jupiter shot, and the object has moved, and so has Jupiter. This image and the previous one have the shortest shutter speed and the clearest images of the green object. It seems there is another green object just below Jupiter. It does not seem to be moving as much.
At 18:27:12 I took a photograph of Jupiter with my camera set up on a sturdy tripod, using a 300mm lens. This was the first of three shots I took in rapid sequence. After taking these photographs, I examined the sharpness of the image (there is a slight star trail from right to left in Jupiter and its moons in this 1.6 second exposure). I noticed the green object (it is pretty obvious). And later, I noticed that there is another green object, which you can see at the bottom of this preview frame, directly under Jupiter.
At 18:27:21 I took a second photograph with my 300 mm lens. The subject was Jupiter. The green object that was in the image I took about eight seconds earlier has moved slightly.
At 18:27:23 I took the third shot of Jupiter in this series, and the green object has moved. There may be a second object just below Jupiter.
At 18:27:48, about 23 seconds after finishing the third of the rapid series of photographs I took of Jupiter, I took this shot. The green object is clearly drifting to the left of the image. Due to the rotation of the earth, the stars and Jupiter are drifting toward the upper-left corner of these imges. The smaller green object at the bottom of the preview frame is not moving to the left as quickly as the longer object.
At 18:29:06, I took this photograph of Mars. This was a 1.5 second exposure with the 300mm lens. The green objects were very faint, and I only was able to see them by adjusting the shadows and light in Photoshop. As they are dim, I had to manipulate the exposure to bring them out where one can see them, and if I further manipulated the image to reduce the noise, the images themselves would practically vanish.
At 18:37:23 I took a shot of Mars with my 300mm lens at 1.5 seconds of exposure. The green blob object in the lower left will change shape in 18 seconds when I take the image at 18:37:43. The fact that the object seems to have changed shape is consistent with the hypothesis that these objects are some sort of clouds, although if they were lighter-than air solid objects (balloons) the shape change might be from rotation if they are irregularly shaped.
At 18:37:43 I took a shot of Mars with my 300mm lens. In the frame appears to be the same green object I had photographed ten minutes earlier over by Jupiter, but it is more likely to be the faint image that was much closer to Mars in the photo I took at 18:29. Assuming this object must be one of the objects earlier photographed, we can determine that it was moving from the west to the east, which is generally consistent with high altitude wind directions. Maybe these are the same objects seen near Jupiter a few minutes earlier (which would be remarkable if they are clouds; remaining the same size and so distinct for so many minutes). Then again, this could be a different green object in a similar shape; it does not seem to be exactly the same shape as the elongated image I photographed near Jupiter about ten minutes before taking this shot.
I wondered if the green object was something to do with the lens; some sort of artifact. But, when I took other photographs of other parts of the sky, there was no object like this. Could it be something like a lens flare (but then why would it be moving)? I switched from my 300mm lens to a 100mm-400mm lens to take some more photographs, figuring that the green things would be gone. At 18:54:12 I took this photograph of Jupter. There is a green blob, but it is a little fuzzy, off to the right.
At 18:55:04 I took another photograph of Jupter. The fuzzy green blob in the photograph I took about 50 seconds earlier seems to have moved up and to the left, and is now above Jupiter, and it is less fuzzy, with very hard edges in this 4-second exposure shot with the lens at 100mm focal length.
At 19:01:10 I took this photograph of Jupter, and it’s a failed shot, as the setting was for an 8-second exposure, and at 200mm focal length with that long exposure you get the star trails (the earth turns far enough in those 8 seconds that there are streaks in the stars and planets at that magnification; I should have turned up the ISO and lowered the F-value and done a 1-second or faster shutter speed like my earlier shots). Also, I bumped the tripod or the camera just at the end of the shot. But look, there seems to be another green blob (very faint compared to the clear and bright one(s) my 300mm lens had found a little over 20 minutes earlier). The green blob is blurry, like the stars, and not well-defined, so, maybe this is something in the sky and not something inside the camera.
At 19:02:47 I took this shot of Jupiter with an aircraft flying nearby (a 5 second exposure; there are star trails). You must click on the image to see the larger field of vision where you can see Jupiter and the aircraft trail, as this preview image is cropped to focus on the green blob. On the larger image you can see that the streaks from the aircraft are much sharper than the stars. I did not know that there was a green image in this photograph until later when I examined the shot on my phone (I transfered the images from my memory card to my phone to get a better look at them as I was listening to Biden’s victory speech Saturday night.)
At 19:03:00 I took a shot of Jupiter with an aircraft passing through the frame. Again, I have cropped the preview image to focus on the green blob. Click the preview image to see the larger image with Jupiter and the aircraft trail.
At 19:03:17 I took another shot of that aircraft (5 second exposure with 160mm focal length). This image, along with many other images I took that night at other parts of the sky do not have the green objects, which again is odd if the green objects are some sort of artifact from the camera or the lenses. The preview image here shows the light trail of the aircraft flying overhead.
At 19:04:36 I took another 5-second exposure shot of Jupiter. This time I had the focal length set at 100mm, so the star trails are not so long (the stars look sharper). One reason I took the 100mm focal length was to get a bigger portion of the sky in the shot, so I could look over it and see whether the green objects were gone. Looking at the camera’s view screen, I did not notice any green objects, but later when I got this file off the memory card an on my phone, I did see a green object in the frame. This preview image shows it (click on the larger image to see Jupiter and the whole star field).
This Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) often inspects the trees in our neighborhood.
This Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) likes our maple trees.
I believe this is the same Red-bellied Woodpecker we saw almost every day in October and November.
In this photograph of the red-bellied woodpecker at one of our bird feeders, you can discern the bird’s tongue.
The male Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) seems to often be near the red-bellied woodpecker, as if they are buddies hanging out near each other, or perhaps rivals keeping aware of what the other one is doing.
The female yellow-shafted Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) disturbed a downy woodpecker, and if you look at the larger image, you can see the two birds watching each other. This was at the second lake at hte Marshal Ridge Access at the Cache River State Natural Area, just north of Belknap, Illinois.
Once and a while we see this Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) at our feeders. It is a very small bird.
Whenever we have a bird at our feeder who isn’t an English House Sparrow, I take notice. This is a female finch; we regularly see goldfinches and house finches, although in a quick glance the females can be mistaken for female house sparrows; this one is a female house finch.
The blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) are becoming more common in our neighborhood. I remember them being common years ago, but it seemed to me they died off and became scarce when the West Nile Virus came to North America back around the year 2000. Anyway, it is a pleasure to behold them, but less pleasant to hear their alarming cries.
The blue jay is looking over its shoulder at me.
The blue jay can find food at our feeders.
The white-breasted nuthatches often seem to hang out with chickadees and titmice, and these three species make up the three non-sparrow visitors I enjoy seeing almost every day. The nuthatch collects seeds from the feeders and hides them under bark in the trees. It must have a spectacular memory, as some naturalists say nuthatches can remember where they have stored thousands of seeds.
We have always had a few black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) visiting our feeders ever since we moved to Springfield. They are not as bold or numerous as the house sparrows, but the chickadees can be counted on to sing their two-note songs and issue their “chickadee-dee-dee” alarms. Sangamon County is on the southeastern boundary of the black-capped chickadee range, so there may be some mixture with the Carolina chickadees living nearby to the south and east from us.
Everyone likes chickadees. They are so cute. One of the most lovely things to see in winter is the sight of cardinals and chickadees in the snow.
Here is one of the black-capped chickadees perched on a branch of the maple tree nearest our house.
The English House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is an invasive species, but they have a nice song, and they are fairly cute, so most people do not mind them. I rarely bother to photograph them, as they flock around our neighborhood and scare away all the native birds I would rather see, but this female perched on our maple tree seemed worth a shot.
The Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) is certainly one of the cutest small birds, with its large dark eyes.
The titmice always seem surprised or amazed, I guess because their eyes seem so big.
This titmouse has found something it likes in our feeder.
The sunlight shining at this little titmouse helps us see its wonderful eyes.
We know this is a downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens), and not a hairy woodpecker, mainly because the outside tail feathers are spotted with black bars; also, its beak is rather short, and the bird itself is small, while hairy woodpeckers are about the size of a robin.
This was my favorite photograph of the female downy woodpecker who frequently visited our feeder.
The downy woodpecker likes to get seeds out of this feeder.
The male downy woodpecker also visits our feeder, but it seems I more often see him on the maple trees, excavating holes in the dead limbs as he tries to find insects.
Just as we crossed the Cache River on the Heron Pond trail, we noticed this red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) high up in a tree above us. I was delighted that one of the photographs I took was not too blurry, and now we have a nice image of this bird. I think it may have been hiding seeds, as the red-headed woodpecker acts like a nuthatch and hides seeds under bark.
The Dark-Eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) generally feed on the ground and stay pretty low, but this one perched on a branch of the maple tree behind our feeders, and so we have a good look at it as it looks out from its high perch.
Here is a dark-eyed junco in a typical situation, on the ground under the feeders.
Dark-eyed juncos are cute little birds, and I am glad to attract them to our yard with our feeders. This one is perched on a branch of the shrubs by our back porch.
The tiny white-throated sparrows sometimes come to the feeders or find seeds on the ground under the feeders. These are smaller than the dominant English house sparrows, but they seem less nervous, and sometimes get to eat well when all the other sparrows have flown away after we make some slight noise.
The white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) is looking at me, it seems. The yellow lores between the eyes and beak help make this sparrow easy to identify, even if you cannot see its distinctive white throat.
I like the pattern of black, brown, white, and orange on the wings and back of this white-throated sparrow. In fact, I made some designs from this and other photographs to use as prints in clothing you can purchase.
Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura) have a distinctive call (I use it as the default ring tone on my phone). They are common, as well, and I have heard that there may be about 350 million of them in the country.
The Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) is common in Springfield. Here is a male cardinal under our feeder.
This cardinal was hiding in a bush near our front door.
Chipmunks are welcome guests in our yard. In November we stop seeing them, and then they come back in March or April. This one has not yet stuffed its mouth with seeds.
This chipmunk took a position on the roof of our Japanese tōrō (灯籠) lantern. Just as I took the photograph teh little one came down off the top knob.
A couple fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) visit our feeders from time to time, and when they do, the gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) who have built their dreys (nests) in our trees must wait or risk getting chased away from the feeders by the bigger fox squirrels.
A fox squirrel displaying its lovely tail.
This squirrel is taking the cute standing pose.
Here the gray squirrel is under the feeder, and the fox squirrel is approaching. In these situations, the fox squirrel will usually chase away the gray squirrel, but for a moment at least, the two were minding their own business.
One of the gray squirrels that lives around our home stands on a branch of one of our maple trees.
A squirrel is on a limb of the shrub near our back porch.
A falling leaf against the field of the sky.
Every gentle breeze would send leaves falling like rain, and here is one of those leaves coming down to the swampy ground in the Section 8 Wood nature area down near Karnak, Illinois.
Looking out the windows along the hall outside my office I can admire sunsets beyond the colonnade.
The early part of sunset on November 8, 2020 as we drove home on I-64.
The later part of the sunset on November 8, 2020 as we drove west on I-64 around the 25-mile-marker.
The Veterans Medical Center in Marion, Illinois (1939-1941) made in the Egyptian Revival style. Southern Illinois has several towns with Egyptian names (Karnak, where we camped; Cairo, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, for example), and the region is sometimes called “little Egypt” so the architectural style makes sense.
Before the Beatles became super famous in America, George Harrison came to Benton, Illinois to visit his sister for the last two weeks of September, 1963. He bought a guitar in Mt. Vernon, and played guitar with some local people, and he went camping at the Garden of the Gods. When the Beatles came to the USA as famous rock stars, George was returning to America in very different circumstances from his first visit.
Bract fungus like this one are signs of decay in older trees. But, they are interesting features in a forest.
These bract fungus were growing on a tree near the Cache River on the Heron Pond trail.
The darker bracts had grown when the tree was standing upright, but it has fallen, and the new bracts have grown oriented toward the ground in the new position.
This boardwalk on Limekiln Springs Trail is in need of repair
Jeri is walking along the first boardwalk on the Limekiln Springs Trail.
Eric stands at one of the boardwalk sections of the Limekiln Springs Trail in the Cypress Creek National Wildlife Refuge.
Eric on the Heron Pond Trail.
Eric sitting at the base of the state champion Cherrybark Oak on the Heron Pond Trail.
The leaves of the state champion Cherrybark Oak (Quercus pagoda) on the Heron Pond trail
The Sweetgum leaves had lovely color by the largest of the three lakes at the Michael W. Wolff Memorial Wetlands.
A beech tree leaf on the ground.
A Sycamore leaf on the trail at the Michael W. Wolff Memorial Wetlands.
A Sycamore leaf by the trail Heron Pond trail near the Cache River.
A bright red maple leaf.
These bright red oak leaves (Swamp White Oak or else Bur Oak) caught my attention at the start of the Heron Pond Trail.
On Heron Pond Trail, this shallow stream flows out of the swamp and into the Cache River. At this point it was covered by fallen leaves.
Cypress knees seen along Heron Pond Trail.
The bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) has these strange growths from the roots, called “knees”, and there is still no consensus about their purpose, although Robert H. Lamborn’s 1890 suggestion (in Garden and Forest) that they offer mechanical support useful in waterlogged soils seems to be the preferred theory these days.
On Heron Pond Trail you can make close observations of many cypress knees.
This is a view of Heron Pond in the Heron Pond Wildcat Bluff Nature Preserve along the Cache River.
This is another view of Heron Pond. A boardwalk trail makes it possible to go deep into the swamp.
Here is another view of Heron Pond.
This swamp is in the Section 8 Woods Nature Preserve, just south of the Cache River Wetlands Center.
A turtle seemed to be on its way between the small lakes at the Henry Barkhausen Wetlands.
This is the largest lake, and closest to the parking area at the Henry Barkhausen Wetlands and Marshal Ridge Trail parking area.
This is a second, smaller pond at the Henry Barkhausen Wetlands.
Here is the Cache River along the Heron Pond Trail

I have made some designs from leaves and birds we saw in autum of 2020, and used these to decorate articles of clothing you may purchase.

October and November in Illinois.