This morning Jason and I checked out the newest forest preserve in DuPage County called St. James Farm in (I think?) Winfield. I think it actually just opened this year to the public, and it's only open on weekends. They had about 10 nice volunteers there when you walk in that are just desperate to talk to you, and they are very interesting and knowledgeable about the history of the place. They offered to give us a 1 1/2 hour tour, but we asked for the abbreviated version. We saw the green caboose there that McCormick used as his little private get-away. Here's us with the life-size dolphin fountain.
The property used to be the family farm retreat of the McCormick family (same folks that owned Cantigny, and also the powerful Chicago family that the McCormick Center is named after). There are many barns and stables there because it used to be a working dairy farm and show-horse place. There are no animals there now, except that people do bring their horses there to walk the trails. Walking in there feels like you are transformed somewhere else. It's a huge place with pleasant country-like walks between tree alleys and white-fenced clover fields and English-looking barns. And we saw a horse and hound cemetary, which was kinda interesting.
Also there are some really great quality forests and meadows, because we saw quite a few great birds, including a red-headed woodpecker, a veery, and a scarlet tanager. And we heard the most angelic-sounding bird of all, the wood thrush. There were two of them dueting in the woods. It's very quiet and as-yet pretty undiscovered. So we'll tell you about it ... but don't tell your friends! 
Jason also made friends with a mourning cloak butterfly. I got this pic by video-taping him and then doing a video capture photo of the brief second when he opened his wings. We also saw a ton of dragonflies, including ebony jewel-wings.
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