Hello, and welcome to Illinois Nature.  A website designed to help educate and entertain young and old alike about the natural world that exists around us.  There are many different topics that are covered in “the natural world”, and every single one of them is connected.  And the best ways to experience nature, is to simply walk out your front door and get out there!  I will discuss things that are going on in my own ecological restoration project, and give reviews of the forest preserves and state parks throughout Illinois.  I will also give birding reports as I go birding.  Ultimately, the goal of this site is to inspire you to get out into our natural world and have your own adventure.

My interest in nature started when I was little.  My parents would take me and my 3 younger sisters camping every summer.  We would take little weekend trips and even take 2 weeks or longer and travel over 3,000 miles some summers.  Places like Yellowstone National Park, and even deep into Canada, are typical of some of these trips.  We would take hikes practically every day, exploring as much as we could.  The whole time my dad would be filming us kids with his video camera.  These early trips really molded me into the man I am today.

As a child, I was always curious as to what was going on in the natural world around me.  From playing with ants in the backyard when I was 3, to when I saw my first house finch and became interested in birding.  The memory that stands out the most in my mind as one that set me down my current path involves my father. 

We were taking a camping trip at Turkey Run State Park.  I was quite young, maybe 10, and we were taking this hike that led us around and then away from a lake there.  During the hike I kicked over this rather large mushroom and my father began to shout at me.  ”That mushroom is food for another animal, you may have just taken food away from an animal now!”  I felt horrible.  But, my father said that we will try and create a little balance somehow.  Along this trail there was a puddle that was drying up and had some fish struggling to stay alive in it.  All around this puddle you could see raccoon footprints.  We were going to save the fish in this puddle, but not all of them.  You see, my father had told me that we could not save all of them because the raccoons still needed some of these fish for food themselves.  At that moment I realized that all of nature is connected together.  So, we took out a couple of the fish and released them back into the main lake.

Today, I am a father myself.  I have 3 beautiful and smart children.  My oldest, Kestrel, is already learning about birds and native plants.  She is also teaching my oldest son, Jimmy about what she has learned.  He has started to help me in collecting and scattering seed out in my prairie restoration.  My youngest, William, is only now learning to walk, so he has some catching up to do.  He already loves being outside and watching the other 2 run around.  I bet he can’t wait to join them.

You can contact me here: