Listing Through Life

mephitis mephitis

August 28, 1982 — 11:45 pm

Mt. Prospect, Illinois — Kensington and Wheeling Roads

My wife and I saw the skunk run across Kensington Road in front of our car. It disappeared into the dark.

didelphis marsupialis

July 31, 1982 — 9:30 pm

Mt. Prospect, Illinois — side road off Euclid Road across from Randhurst Mall

I spotted the Opossum walking across a lawn toward the road. I stopped the car with the headlights shining on the animal. It turned around, then turned back and ran across the road in front of the car. It disappeared into the dark, running on its short, thin legs.

tamiasciurus hudsonicus

July 30, 1982 — 8:30 am

McNaughton, Wisconsin — Spider Lake Road

Three Red Squirrels were running, climbing and chasing each other on and around a brush pile in the bog next to a house. They were chattering loudly.

buteo (hawk) swainsoni (given in 1838 by Charles Lucien Bonaparte for William Swainson, English ornithologist of the early 19th century)

Friday, July 30, 1982 — 3:00 pm

Elgin, Illinois — Interstate 90 north of town

I was driving north of Elgin though an area of open farmland. I had a brief glimpse of the Swainson’s Hawk as it flew low over the expressway and made a gliding bank right in front of our car. Its wings were held in a shallow “V.”

oporornis (from opora, autumnal, and ornis, bird) philadelphia (Alexander Wilson discovered this warbler on the borders of a marsh near Philadelphia in 1810)

Thursday, July 22, 1982 — 3:50 pm

Munising, Michigan — Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

I spotted a Mourning Warbler foraging in thick bushes right along the road not far from the shore of Lake Superior. I heard it chipping and saw it briefly before it hopped down into the bush out of sight. It reappeared when I pished, and I got a good long look as it fluttered around.