Thanks! I wondered what it might be, and that's an interesting choice. My neighbor has some conifers at the back of his property, and while he says they are Douglas Firs, two are different and I think one may be a spruce. Since this is a good tree to have for windbreak and wildlife, I'm trying to figure out where to put it in my yard.

To me, the needles look more like Douglas Fir than they do P. glauca. White spruce has a stiffer, shorter needle in my area but I suppose that can vary.

Needles look to have spruce color and shape. Buds and shoots also too pale for Douglas Fir, like instead White Spruce in this respect.

The needles may have the color but look way too fine and long to be P.glauca. We don't have Douglas fir in my country so I can't say what it is. Unless there could be some geographic differences, I'm calling not P.g. Here's a picture of white spruce I took a few weeks ago. Thicker needle, not as long. Cones are about 1-1/2"-2"L.

It's a seedling.

Embo, you're the expert. :-)

A close up of the buds, needles, and where the needles attach to the stem would help. =)

Picea glauca if not Picea abies.

Bought the little fella in last night for some better pics...

Looking at the new pics, I'll concede to P.glauca. The bark and branches are too 'white' to be P.abies. The soil west/souwthwest of Chicago is rich, deep, black dirt which I'm sure gives seedlings a more vibrant, lush growth than what I'm used to seeing up here in the sandy sands. The spruce seedlings I tend to see are like miniatures of the parent tree, with central leader and horizontal branches..