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Spring at North Pond: Refuge in the City Comes to Life Again
- Bob Benenson
- Apr 30
- 2 min read
Its Beauty is Already Bursting, with Baby Waterfowl Coming Soon
I had never visited Chicago before I met my wife, who grew up on a farm south of the city. My mental image of Chicago as a gritty, Rust Belt kind of place was erased on my first cruise up Lake Shore Drive. I realized the amazing natural environment in which Chicago exists, and ultimately it would make photography my hobby on steroids.
One of the most fortunate parts of our locating to Chicago's Lakeview East neighborhood when we moved here in 2011 is that it is quite close to North Pond.
Located in Lincoln Park (the park and the community), North Pond is a bird sanctuary. During my early years here, when I was trying to figure out how to convert my lifelong passion for food into a second career, its serenity in the middle of the big city's bustle made it a Bob sanctuary, too.
Over the years, I collected thousands of photographs of North Pond's fauna, flora and scenery... and was rewarded in 2023 when Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, which abuts North Pond, launched a year-long exhibit of my North Pond photography.
That's the pond in the top photo above. I doubt there are many views of a big city skyline as pretty as this one.
Here is a photo tour of North Pond in late April. Coming soon is the arrival of the baby geese and ducks, which is one of the highlights each year in my geeky life. It's charming. You'll see.
This is a red-winged blackbird. These birds are pretty and they have a distinctive call and we all coexist — until their nesting season, when they may furiously chase you from a great height. This behavior prompted a local publication to dub them as "nature's little assholes." Having been strafed, I can't really disagree.
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