Foxes at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago

Sneaking in one more for #InternationalPolarBear - and #MosaicMonday!

From the contemporary art corner: The Fragile Polar Bear by Amy Lowry, 2007. Mosaic is glass, tile, ceramic, and coral. On display at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago.

July CHS Junior Herpers Meeting: Celebrate Frogs!

Hop on over to the July Junior Herpers meeting! This month we're celebrating frogs! Kids will be able to make a fun frog craft, play some frog-themed games (and win some froggy prizes!), and learn about frogs together. As always, everyone is invited and the meeting is free to attend. It will be held from 1-2 PM CST on July 16 at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.

Families are welcome to stay for the main CHS meeting, too- even if you're not a member, this is a great meeting you don't want to miss!

The Board of Trustees of the Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum today announced that they have elected, by unanimous vote, Erin Amico as President & CEO of Chicago’s oldest museum and foremost scientific institution, beginning July 18, 2022.

A Chicago native, Amico will be the first African American CEO to lead the 165-year-old institution.

when I was a child my parents repeatedly took me to the butterfly garden at the peggy notebaert nature museum and every time I had a panic attack and cried and they kept taking me back like well maybe this time our autistic child won't be autistic about this. Hmmm those first several visits to the butterfly garden with our toddler were not so good. perhaps next time will be different

Compelling Voices in Birding and Conservation is back on May 9th! Join us Tuesday at 6pm either virtually or in person (at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum) to hear from Tiffany Kersten, the record breaking big year birder working to make the outdoors a safer place for women.

Free and open to all with rsvp.

https://www.chicagobirder.org/events/2023/5/9/birdie-big-year

Are Vacation Rentals in Chicago Kids-Friendly?

The modern day architecture marvel in the Chicago is worth appreciating and applauding. The unique and interesting architecture is the reason why Chicago enjoys great admirations and worldwide preferred tourist destination. The windy city is also world famous for its skyscrapers and beautiful skyline. Chicago is the first place in United States to have first skyscraper. Since then Chicago haven’t looked back and in present days Chicago homes to over 125 skyscrapers and more than 1300 tall buildings. The tall buildings and skyscrapers host incredible and stunning rooftop restaurants. These beautiful rooftop restaurants are best place to view the windy city along with the fine dining options. People come and enjoy their vacation time while admiring the stunning skyline of the Windy City. These amazing restaurants can be best explored via all-inclusive Apartment Rentals to Stay in Chicago with Chicago Vintage Apartments. This kids-friendly vacation apartment rental is loaded with world-class services and amenities for the comfort of guests. Well connected with touristy destination and are blocks away from famous jazz bars and public parks.

Outdoor Recreational Chicago

Chicago is a place which offers many recreational activities for kids, which makes the Windy City a playground for kids. One of the Nation’s oldest Zoos is nested in Lincoln Park. Kids love the carousel, locomotive rides here. Some other zoos in Chicago are Brookfield Zoo, the Pritzker Family Children’s Zoo, and Farm-in-the-Zoo offers different learning experience for kids. Millennium Park is one of the popular spots for kids. Navy Pier, Chicago Children’s Museum, fun stores and IMAX theatre are some of places kids will love. Museums always attract kids and it’s a learning experience for them while having fun exploring the art, history, and traditional culture. Some of the famous museums in Chicago are Peggy Notebaert Nature museum, Adler Planetarium, Museum of Art and Industry, Field Museum, Chicago Sports Museum, American Writers Museum, History Museum, and Bronzeville Children Museum. There are numerous kids-friendly outdoor activities in Chicago can be directly accessed through Kids Friendly Vacation Apartment Chicago with Chicago Vintage Apartments. These vacation rentals are fully furnished and are in close proximity with touristy landmarks and top recreational centers.

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Chicago Dream Experiences List (I've had this one for a while and keep adding on)

Chicago: Conde Nast Travel Guide / 29 Conde Nast Restaurants Honeybrain / Second Story Bar The Brewster Building Bloomingdale Trail (the 606) Landmark’s Century Center Museum of Ice Cream Marisol 3 Arts Club Cafe (restoration hardware) The Second City Auditorium Theater Green Mill - late night music Chicago Architectural Foundation river cruise Promontory Point / Burnham Nature Sanctuary & Centennial Prairie / McCormick Bird Sanctuary. Garfield Park Conservatory Urban Kayak / Jet Ski Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Symphony Center Intuit The Salt Shed / The Morton Arboretum Pizza City USA - Steve Dolinsky - 10 styles - doughcents tours Labriola (deep pan), My Pi (deep-dish), Robert’s (artisan), Paulie Gee’s Logan Sq. (Detroit-style), Bar Cargo (Roman) Eataly, Deep Dish -- Lou Malnati's WNDR Museum The Richard H. Driehaus Museum Mexican American Museum DuSable Black History Museum / Midway Plaisance Tango Sur - Argentinian Penumbra – Best steaks in Illinois Lyra, Abba, Ema, Andros Taverna The Wieners Circle

Federal Reserve

Lutz Cafe & Pastry Shop -- Baumkuchen -- 2458 West Montrose

Maple & Ash

The Bagel in Lakeview The Legacy Project

Alinea

The Green Zebra

National Museum of Mexican Art

Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind Judy Istock Butterfly Haven at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Topolobampo

Annoyance Theater

Field Museum

International Museum of Surgical Science

Tokio Pub in Schaumburg

April Monthly Meeting: The Tunisian Big Five - Diverse Lifestyles in Diverse Habitats

This month we have some very special guests giving a talk: Doug Eifler, Maria Eifler, and Makenna Orton of the Erell Institute. Their talk with be about the Tunisian Big Five lizard species (desert monitor, chameleon, sandfish skink, uromastyx, and lacertid Timon pater.) These species inhabit a broad range of habitats and are representative of Tunisia's herpetile diversity.

You can attend the meeting via this Zoom link or in person at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum if you're local to the Chicago area! And to learn more about the Erell Institute click here!

The meeting will be this Sunday (April 16th) at 2 pm CDT.

Partners Can discuss personal passion for Flora & Fauna at Chicago's Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

The small type: numerous partners communicate a passion for character, and a visit to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in the middle of Chicago is a great big date place for those eco-enthusiasts. Exotic birds and butterflies mesmerize visitors, and actually volunteer within the art gallery’s Citizen Science tools. If you are in the Windy City, it is additionally vital to put a trip for the…

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The annual monarch butterfly migration has reached Chicago

The annual monarch butterfly migration has reached Chicago

2022-09-09 09:40:55 Dozens of monarch butterflies descended on the prairie at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum Tuesday, feasting on the nectar of purple ironweed flowers and golden compass plant blossoms. The next day, monarchs flocked to the flame-colored Mexican sunflowers at a nearby community garden. The iconic orange and black visitors were part of an annual spectacle: the late summer…

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We named a Spotify playlist "butterfly." We did so because one of our last meetings before I fell ill, was at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago. There we watched the butterflies as they fluttered about. The children giggled as they landed on their heads and arms. We all became child-like in that place - even the adults tittered and held out their index fingers, eager for one to take respite there. It was pure glee, but I can't help but wonder if the butterflies knew what was in store, what epic migration, one of the most significant natural events, awaited them come fall.

One of the first songs I put on the playlist was Raign's rendition of "Knocking on Heavens Door," mind you, not "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" as the original version by the great Bob Dylan goes. In my mind, I cannot separate that song and the butterflies, their graceful movement, which I had seen just a few weeks before returning home for treatment, are synonymous with this track. Even now, when sitting with my coffee and gazing at our butterfly bush in our backyard garden, I watch them and mentally hear that synthy-laden, electronic drum version. Her voice, potent, albeit angelic, is layered and drenched in thick reverb. I initially heard it, as mentioned, just weeks after my return to commence my very 1st round of chemo (2016). So there is an extra layer of chemo-drug induced and emotionally consumed intensity.

The mind is extraordinary. Today (August 5th), I woke up and wished my sisters a happy "Cinco de Mayo." I was jarred awake by a landscaping crew, and in my mind, the rhythm of their compactor sounded like an MRI machine. In this hazy mental place, it wasn't August 5th, 2021; it was May 5th, 2017, the date I was supposed to enter Mass General to begin 1 of 2 my stem cell transplant. (Which was the original date, but that was pushed back by a month because of my brain surgery.) So in texting them with good wishes for Cinco de Mayo, I wanted them to feel a sense of normalcy that I didn't on this particular date. (It is my nature to try to protect and cacoon people, especially when it comes to my health saga.)

It took a strong cup of coffee to pull me into the now. First, I began thinking about my strange wake-up and where I was in mind and heart. Then, as it has been a while since I have listened to it, I put on Raign and sipped more coffee. Little did I know at the time, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum was this sacred little bubble. Not only for me, though for obvious reasons it was, but it seemed that way for everyone who was there. The laughing children, the adults who regressed to a child-like place, all of them stepped away from the world. Then, as my mind does, at least when it's fully awake and has a bit of coffee, I thought about the people in that blissful bubble and the butterflies fluttering about. Who was giving whom a respite from life; was it the humans gazing in awe at these gorgeous little beings, taken away from their worries and stresses, even if just for a minute. Or was it the butterflies developing a divine connection with a human by landing on their index finger or soaking in the gleeful laughter of children before embarking on a migration of epic proportions?

I will undoubtedly wake up again in a place and time far from here within the next few days. This isn't solely for the benefit of others, to grace them with a feeling of normalcy, but also for me. I have routine bloodwork in a week (August 11th) and an oncologist appointment two days after.

Maybe I will wake-up thinking I'm a butterfly.

"Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man." Chuang Tzu (c. 369 BC – c. 286 BC)

“butterflies” by Danielle Levsky -- Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, 1.4.20