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Matthiessen State Park - Oglesby, Illinois
July 20, 2013

Two views of a red-spotted purple butterfly with a hunk of wing missing
[Two images spliced together. The left image is the outside of the wing which is dark brown with gold and white spots along the outer edges and a few orange and blue spots closer to the body. The right-side image is the light blue lower half of the inside wing as well as the obvious chunk missing out of the other lower half wing. This butterfly is in a tree (as it is their habitat).]

Yellow coneflowers
[Three flowers with somewhat thin yellow petals each with a dark brown lump in the center which rises in a mound shape well above the petals. Each flower has about a dozen petals.]

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Starved Rock State Park - Oglesby, Illinois
July 20, 2013

Love the spotted eye on this cabbage white butterfly.
[Close up view of a yellow butterfly on a flower. The white eyeball has several black dots on it. The tongue is fully extended slurping the flower.]

When visitors on the trail stop and stare, so does my camera.
[White-tailed deer bent eating something on the ground.]

This is a very popular park, so, to conserve the ground, stairs were built to the platforms atop Starved Rock.
[About 30 wooden steps with a railing leading to the viewing platforms. A family with two young kids are spread up the stairs.]

View from atop Starved Rock of the lock and dam on the Illinois River
[Several photos stitched together of the river expanse with the lock on the left and the dam on the right.]

American white pelicans and neotropic cormorants on the Illinois River
[On a branch in shallow water are about 10 black cormorants. Beside them standing in the water are 7 white pelicans.]

Passengers loading on the tour boat.
[A floating dock leads to the boat in the deeper, middle part of the river. Trees line either side of the river.]

Barges approaching the lock.
[Four lengths of covered barges with a tug behind them come toward the camera.]

Islands in the Illinois River as well as markers keeping river traffic away from them
[Two islands, one covered with shrubbery and the other with a marker in it sit in the middle of the river. To the left of these islands is a row of markers in the water directing traffic to the lock.]

I shot an image of a boat on the river and when I zoomed in I found a bow fishermen.
[Several people on an open top motorboat with rails at the front. One person has a bow outstretched pointing down toward the water in front of the boat.]

In another area of the river, this fish bit the bait at the end of a fishing rod and was then scooped from the water.
[Large, fat fish still attached to the line in a hand-scoop net.]

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All photos © S. M. Garver