Upcoming Regional Eco-Events

Long Chicago winters provide lots of time for musing about the growing season and summer recreation.  Winter also plays host to many events that remind us that spring will soon be upon us.  The following events are some of FNA's recommended favorites:

• Fermilab's Education Office Family Open House, February 27, 1-5 p.m., at Fermilab
• Wild Things Conference, March 5, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., University of Illinois at Chicago.  FNA's Tom Peterson describes this conference as high-energy with lots of grass-roots folk, with topical tracks ranging from climate change to birds to natural history.
• Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network (IBMN) annual workshop, March 12, 9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m., Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
• Bartlett Nature Center's Earth Day celebration, April 30, noon - 4 p.m., James "Pate" Philip State Park

If you are interested in representing FNA at either the Fermilab Family Open House or the Earth Day celebration in Bartlett, please send us an email.  Thanks!

photo credit:  Joe Pygott

January/February Newsletter

The FNA January/February newsletter is now available online. Check out the report on the Christmas Bird Count, read about our dedicated volunteers and find out how butterflies and moths spend during their winters.  And, remember the FNA General Membership meeting is scheduled for February 17, 2011, at 7 p.m. in Fermilab's Wilson Hall.  Please join us!

January Desktop Calendar

Enjoy scenes of Fermilab's natural areas on your computer desktop!  Here are instructions for downloading & installing the January 2011 calendar pictured below onto your computer:

1.  Click the image above to open in a new browser window (or tab).

2.  Right-click (or ctrl-click for some Mac users) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set Picture as", (or similar words; the exact wording will depend on your internet browser) and save to your desktop. On your desktop, right click “Properties” and select the “Desktop” tab. Click “Browse” and navigate to the saved image on your desktop. Select it & click “Open.” On the “Display Properties” dialogue box, click “OK.”

3.  If the image does not fit your desktop background neatly, you may have to go to your preference screen (on a Mac: System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop; or on Windows: Control Panel > Display > Desktop) and choose "Fit to screen" as the display mode of your background image.

FNA will make a new desktop calendar available each month.  If you'd like to share photographs for future calendars or the FNA newsletter, send us a note at fermilabnaturalareas@gmail.com.