On my way south to Carbondale I stopped at the Mid-America Airport, where I found this Killdeer sitting on a nest.  She did her best to lure me away!

Killdeer feigning injury

Prothonotary Warbler (flying), American Goldfinch, & Indigo Bunting

Prothonotary Warbler

At Larue Swamp we saw a fine assortment of breeding birds, including warblers, Indigo Buntings, and American Goldfinches.

Heron Pond is a beautiful cypress & hardwoods swamp.  We had the good fortune to find a Cottonmouth, a Banded Water Snake, and a Gray Rat Snake, along with many Prothonotary Warblers, Great-crested Flycatchers, and other birds.

Cottonmouth at Heron Pond

Gray Rat Snake

Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge was a great spot for Turkey, Prairie & Blue-winged Warblers, and a good variety of butterflies.  A rarity there was the Fulvous Whistling-Duck
  

Swallowtail

Yellow-billed Cuckoo at Crab Orchard NWR

Yellow-billed Cuckoos were present in a number of locations, such as Crab Orchard and Oakwood Bottoms.  Another very common bird at the refuge, and throughout Illinois, was the Eastern Kingbird, which posed for the shot above.     

The Shawnee National Forest covers a good portion of Southern Illinois.  With so many trees about, it didn't take long to spot all the breeding woodpeckers: Pileated, Red-headed, Red-bellied, Downy, Hairy, and Northern Flicker. Turkey Bayou is a wetlands in the Mississippi bottomlands.

Red-headed Woodpecker at Turkey Bayou

  Eastern Pondhawk
    

Dragonflies were everywhere during this past visit. Widow Skimmers, Eastern Pondhawks, Common Whitetails, and Eastern Amberwings, were just a few I was able to identify.

 
Bobwhite at Riverlands

Dickcissel along the Big Muddy Levee

My last stop before flying home was the Riverlands Environmental Demonstration Area across the Mississippi from Alton, IL.  Eurasian Tree Sparrows were close by, and a Bobwhite actually perched out in the open for a photo.