Natural Notes: Migratory Birds of the Taylor Street Farms
The next time you visit the Taylor Street Farms, and urban organic community garden in Chicago's Little Italy area of the University Village neighborhood , I want you to do something. On a nice sunny spring day, I want you to sit somewhere in the middle of the garden, anywhere you'd like, and close your eyes. As you close your eyes, imagine that you are sitting in this same spot 200 years ago. You look around and for miles you see nothing but tall grass prairie gradually descending into a marsh fed by the blue waters of Lake Michigan. Try to tune out the sounds of trucks and honking cars and imagine those sounds being replaced with the trill calls of thousands of Sandhill Cranes flying overhead as a gentle breeze brushes your ear. You hear the warm, sweet song of a bright orange Baltimore Oriole singing from the tops of a 500 year-old Bur Oak tree which is surrounded by blooming yellow-lady-slipper orchids. You are in pre-colonial Chicago. Now open your eyes. You