Openlands Lakefront Preserve

Burnapalooza in the Forest Preserves

Highland Park/Highwood, IL–This week’s birdapalooza continues, with red-headed woodpeckers hammering at trees, and hawks swooping and cartwheeling through the air. Makes me want to sing “Free Bird“. The only glitch is that it’s also time for controlled burns in Openlands Lakeshore Preserve and in the Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve. Is it really my allergies kicking [...]

Openlands Lakefront open for spring

Lake Michigan ice ledge melts. Photo by Laurie Borman

Highwood, IL–Birds sing, snowmelt rushes in the drainage canals. Ah, the signs of spring. At Lake Michigan’s edge, the huge ledge of ice slowly melts. It’s a wonderful time to check out Openlands Lakeshore Preserve in Ft. Sheridan. Colorful rocks litter the beach, exposed from the [...]

Lake Michigan Winter Waves

Lake Michigan shore in winter. Photo by Laurie Borman

Highwood, IL–

Snowshoeing along Openlands Lakefront Preserve sounds challenging, but the plowed road makes it almost too easy. It’s like walking in an Ansel Adams photo–everything all black and white, and there is the challenge. I’m no Ansel Adams. The beach is no longer a gradual sandy [...]

After the Fall

Highwood, IL–The rain washed away most of the colorful leaves this week. However, there’s new things to see in the Fort now that the trees are bare. Check out wasp’s and squirrel’s nests in the trees, see unusual rocks nestled into beach driftwood, check out the moody sky over Lake Michigan.