Weekend Updates

We came across this garter snake on the trail today... it was pretty chilly so it was moving very slowly (or not at all, until I got pretty close with my phone and it made as if to strike me).  That's my first snake sighting of the season!

I saw these scilla blooming yesterday, and the cornelian cherry dogwood -- which had fat yellow buds all week -- finally flowered on Friday!

photo by Lori B. 

Lasts?

I put a sumac leaflet next to this tiny snapping turtle so you could tell how small it was -- body inch and a half, maybe? 

Here is a list of things I saw this weekend that might be "lasts" for 2015:

• a monarch butterfly
• a dragonfly
• a turtle
• a snake
• a cicada (saw it, not heard it.  It looked fine, but technically, I didn't check for signs of life and it might have been dead.)
• a toad and a frog (which I don't think will be the last...)
• weather in the 70's (upper 70's on 10/10/15)

I would also like to say a word about red-wing black birds.  I certainly don't associate them with fall... I think of their distinctive shrill calls piercing the March chill as signs of spring-to-come.  I think of the constant threat of being dive-bombed as mid-summer perils.  But they fade away in the fall.  I noticed a lot of them this weekend, though, in flocks, even.  They were vocalizing but not a lot or loudly/distinctively.  They were near the trail but didn't appear at all interested in harming me (thank goodness!).  I guess they're getting ready for their winter retreat... 

Vertebrates of Devil's Lake

The nine group camp sites at Devil's Lake form a semi-circle. In the center of the circle, next to the shower'bath house facilities, is a stand of pine trees that, for as long as I remember, is home to a great blue heron rookery. I've no idea how many birds nest there, but they are constantly coming and going. Their warbles and cackles are the white noise of the sites, and their occasional screams pierce the air in a most disconcerting way. It keeps things from being dull, that's for sure.

This little fellow decided to fledge a bit early. It wasn't injured, as far as we could tell, but it managed to wander itself right into the bathroom complex. And it was ferocious. Though not even close to its full adult size, its feet and beak, overlarge for its stature, may have been their size. And even if not, they were imposing. It made a racket when someone approached, both by calling and by clicking its beak. Chris did manage to rescue it and return it to the grove of pines where the nests are, and when we went to check on it, it was gone. I hope that it survived...

In addition to herons, we saw these Sandhills several times. They seemed to inhabit a farm field near the park, and enjoy wading in this pond which was across the road. At one point, we actually ran across -- though happily not over -- the pair in the road. Here, we saw them dancing in the water right close to us... but by the time I was picture-ready, they had moved across the pond.
Fox snake getting ready to strike (right in the middle).
This turtle is burying eggs (or,digging in preparation to lay them). We saw another crossing the road, probably to find a nest site, and we saw a HUGE snapper moving away from the water, presumably for the same reason.
Little red squirrel. They are so much cuter and feistier and chirpier than the grey ones we see here. I just love them.

Everybody's Out...

...enjoying the beautiful weather. Yes, we finally got one of those days -- one of those weekends, better yet -- when you can sit outside, unmoving, and feel warm. When the temperature feels like summer although the colors are still early spring. A day that smells like sunscreen. One of those days when the slog through winter seems worthwhile, because we got to this, and it's marvelous because we waited so long for it.

And everyone is out enjoying it. We saw about 20 turtles, sitting on a log and soaking in the day. As we approached, they one by one plopped into the water, and then re-emerged, the sunbathing too enticing and the people too distracted by the little skull they found:

(About 3 inches long, non-rodent, not a lot of teeth... present or originally, for that matter).

Dragonflies were out, too... happy day!!! I first saw him as a flash, just that, that disappeared into the trees, but I knew that nothing else shimmers the same way in the sunshine. When we stood still and watched the pond, we were able to see several darting past, soaring and diving. They were male green darners and none alighted long enough for a photo op, but that's OK. We've got months of odonata watching ahead of us.

Snakes were out, although the only one I saw disappeared quickly into the grass. Frogs were out, also, calling loudly but there was also a froggy plop, animal unseen, as we approached the water.

The bugs were out, flies and gnats swarming... yesterday I saw my first wasp, and today I saw several more. First mosquito, too, although it is no more.

This tick (left) hitched a ride on my pants but didn't make it to my skin, thankfully. I also took a picture of this velvet mite, a much friendlier little arachnid, because the red dot caught my eye.

Spring ephemerals certainly aren't out in strength yet, but...

this hepatica decided to grace us with a bloom today, and violets are in full force. Others are just leaves yet, spring beauties looking like grass and trout lilies barely distinguishable from soil. But soon, soon... we're behind this year. Hepatica flowered on April 2 last year, and I still haven't seen even the leaves of mayapple or bloodroot poking through the soil (which were also noted on April 2 last year). I hope this isn't because mine are dead! But I feel like every year, I think they've died and every year they do eventually show up. Fingers crossed...

In the garden, carrots are planted now, and almost our entire front yard is covered in cardboard meant to smother the turf grass. We're putting in another native garden. Best, I still had time to sit outside and read lazily before the clouds rolled in and the winds became annoyingly strong a few minutes ago. I think I just heard thunder. Perhaps time to go close all the windows and doors? (I guess that's the beginning of the cold front, as today's 85 degree high is supposed to be followed by the 50's tomorrow.)

OK, I've finally gotten around to sharing the discoveries from my last school campout (June 1-3). Actually, I wrote this entry before, and then blogger crashed, erasing much of the work and also kicking me out for about 24 hours. So this isn't as wordy as the original, but it's plenty, I think... Anyhow. One of the trip's coolest moments was watching two smallish pileated woodpeckers dance around a tree trunk about 20 feet from us. I didn't get a great picture, but you can clearly see the pileated silhouette:

Our other avian friends, the wild turkeys, invaded our campsite. These two birds were so close to tents that if kids had come out at the right moment, it could have been very entertaining. But alas...
We saw two snakes... this tiny garter snake...

and this ginormous norther water snake. The previous week, if you recall, we saw a baby swimming... hard to believe it will end up like this guy, who was easily 5 feet long and a few inches in diameter. (It was ID'ed by some other hikers with a lot of scientific equipment, so I'm choosing to trust them...)

Also in the herpetology realm,several of these (some sort of true frog, don't ask me) sat near a wetland, happy enough to let us look and photograph, but disappearing as fast as a shot as soon as a 5th grade hand reached out to grab.

We saw, also, many interesting, colorful spiders. If I had been alone, I may have focused on them more, but I wasn't. So all I have is these guys:

Transitioning to arthropods people prefer, these damselflies -- either female blue-fronted dancers (brown form) or eastern forktails (immature females) -- kept landing on kids.

As did these butterflies (azures?), which I believe were going for the salt form our sweat. You could sit and watch their proboscises probing. Here, it is eating something else entirely...

These galls shall provide our transition from animal to plant... on serviceberry leaves, I just thought their colors were fantastic.

This poke milkweed (which I think I mid-identified last June 25)-- clearly asclepias -- is just a little bit different than other milkweeds, with its loosely clustered flowers in subtle shades of lavender and green. It's really quite pretty.

A catchfly?

And now for some fungus observations... there are lots of cool fungi at Starved Rock, though not as many fruiting bodies as I saw last June, but I am showing only these three...

this eyelash cup because of its bright orange color and the eponymous "eyelashes"...
this polypore because of its lovely colors of purple and orange and brown...
and this little fellow because of the neat ridges on its cap.

Alive Awake Alert Enthusiastic

This garter snake was awake and active this afternoon. (Although... after being surrounded by 20 first and second graders, it will probably head immediately into its den just to avoid all those feet!) Garter snakes hibernate, but they are among the most cold-tolerant of all snakes, emerging early in the spring and staying active into the colder days of autumn (as evidenced here). When they do finally hibernate, they do so in large groups, all "cuddled up" to keep warm. Males emerge from hibernation first, and await the waking of the females, who basically get jumped as soon as they see the light of day. :) (Actually, females often get their choice of males...) In the summer, babies are born live -- and as many as 30 at a time. Fun stuff.

Southland in the Springtime

We have returned from our Journey South; I have tasted spring and returned to the starving almost-north. While we were gone, on Mar 28-29, 6 inches of snow fell on Chicago's northern suburbs; some of it remains in the corner of the yard. But we missed all that...

We left on Friday night and drove pretty much straight south. Past Chicagoland, it was night time, and so I could not see changes as they occurred. (Interesting sighting in Chicago, though... tents in the forest preserves, not in any sort of sanctioned campsites. Is nature now the place to look for signs about the economy, as well? Are these the newly homeless victims of forclosure? Crazy.) Anyhow.

We drove until quite late, stopped in Louisville, KY, and awoke to resume our drive while it was still dark. The sun rose while we were somewhere between Louisville and Lexington; although perhaps I should say the day broke (we did not see the sun at all on Saturday). The hills of Kentucky were wonderfully green, even through the mist. The roadside grass was verdant; yellow daffodils swayed in the wind. The understory of the forest -- the layer that here we might call the buckthorn-and-honeysuckle later, and there seems to be absent of buckthorn but still has honeysuckle -- was leafy. The taller trees had no leaves yet, but almost all were flowering or seeding, having already flowered (as in the case of maples). From a distance, this had a hazy coloring effect. It was like a subtle fall. Rather than the bold crimson and gold of autumn, the trees were coated in the muted burgandy and chartreuse of tree flowers. Understated. Beautiful more in the hopeful sense of things to come than anything else.

As we continued into West Virginia, Virginia, and finally North Carolina, we saw more showy flowering trees polka dotting the woods, like redbud, dogwood and some sort of fruit trees. Some tall trees were actually leafing out, though the leaves were tiny.

It seemed leaves actually grew larger and more plentiful each day of our trip. There were many factors in play, here... time, elevation, latitude, and possibly my imagination. But actually, once leaves emerge, they grow measurably each day, so it is quite likely that there were more and larger leaves every day. Even in Ohio, there was a lot of green. Until, of course, we returned here, where the only leaves I've seen are on honeysuckles. (Boo.)

The best part of the trip, nature-viewing-wise, was the wildflowers. Spring ephemerals... their name says it all. Who wouldn't be thrilled to happen upon something ephemeral? Here are some photos...

1. Bloodroot (Ohio, also blooming in NC)

2. Dutchman's breeches (Ohio)

3. Spring Beauties (N. Carolina)

4-5. Hepatica (Ohio). Note color variations, which range from purple to pink to white.

6. Mayapple (NC; some were fully umbrella-ed, but I like this photo)

7. Trillium (Ohio, at similar stage in NC)

8. Naomi sketching ephemerals. I quite wish I had a scanner so I could put sketches in; I am a better plant sketcher than photographer, but... oh, well.

Also seen, but now shown, because, really, who wants to look at too many photos... rue anenome, cutleaf toothwort, violets, trout lilies (leaves only), some yellow flower that wasn't fully open and therefore I couldn't ID, and probably more that I am not thinking of now.

Meanwhile, back in Illinois:

A friend saw the first garter snakes, 4/1. Turtle, 4/1. Trout lilies emerging, 4/1. Wild garlic emerging, 4/1?.

And, I planted many seeds indoors for that day, 6-8 weeks in the future, when frost danger is over and veggies can go outside. Planned to plant cold season crops outside today, but it is supposed to possibly snow again so I will wait a few days.