I forgot something from last year!- Irwin Bridge Road

I went out to Nipper again.  While it was still awesome to see all the animals, and I saw about twenty pheasants more this time, there's really nothing I can say that I haven't said before.  The only real difference is that my mother went with me instead of my father, and again we had a great time, with the sole exception that we were the first ones in the area after the snowstorm we had recently. The snow made it easier to spot the harriers with the naked eye, but it was still a challenge, and well-nigh impossible to photograph them.  So instead, I have this article linked here.  This has a number of excellent photographs of short-eared owls and northern harriers.  Here's a good overhead view of Nipper, by the way.

Anyway, last fall I drove around in the Sangamon River Valley, fully intending to make an article about my trip.  That didn't happen because I forgot.   So, here it is!

The Sangamon River Valley is one of the best parts of Central Illinois.  Why? Because it's different.  Instead of endless cornfields, it's a somewhat hilly area with trees everywhere. It is the second wildest part of Central Illinois, or at least what I define as Central Illinois.  (Roughly,  Fulton, Peoria, Tazewell, Woodford, Maclean, Champaign, Mason, Logan, De Witt, Piatt, Cass, Menard, Morgan, Sangamon, Christian, Macon, Moultre, Shelby, Montgomery, and Macoupin counties)  The wildest, of course, is the Illinois River area, but that's another post.  In northwestern Sangamon county lies Irwin Bridge, a bridge made across the Sangamon.  I enjoy driving here for fun.  Here's why:

Along Irwin Bridge Road south of the bridge are several areas to pull over and admire the river.  It was a beautiful September day, and I did just that.  Only, that means admire the local flora as well.  Stop and smell the Solidago.

This is a Solidago species, or goldenrod.  This one stumped me, so if you know what species it is, let me know.  My guess is that it is too hard to identify based off one picture alone, so good luck!

This is yellow jewelweed,  Impatiens pallida.  While a common plant in rocky, wet conditions, in central Illinois, this isn't always a given.  Also, note the scientific name.  Yes, this is a species of Impatiens, as in those little tropical plants everyone always grows in the shade.  We have two native species, and this is the larger-flowered, more attractive species.  While toxic to consume, I have personally used the juices of both jewelweed species to relieve itches such as mosquito bites or poison ivy, and I find it works about as well as aloe. Here is an overlook of the area:

It was an image demanding to be photographed.  Here is the road:

It appears to be a plain, Illinois road through a second-growth woodland.  But this is an Illinois road going steeply downhill.  That is a rare occurrence in the third flattest state of the union, after Florida and Louisiana, respectively.  As I reached the floodplain, I pulled over and got out, walking along the river.

Fish were clearly visible in the water,  and these were the Asian carp that every naturalist loves to hate.  There are no fish more pervasively awful in the U.S than Asian carp, it seems.  As the river was at low water, the fish were clearly visible in this stretch of stream, but not in the pictures, as it turned out.

The sky was blue, and it was beautiful.  This area is hard to appreciate in the springtime, as much of it is underwater.  This river does drain most of Central Illinois, after all.

Here's evidence of how harsh some of those floods can be.  This tree was jammed into the bank next to me.  

Toads appeared as I walked along a sandbar next to the bridge.  I examined a few.  In the space of thirty or so feet, I saw about six different toads.  I'm not sure of the species, but I suspect American toads, Bufo americanus.  It is difficult to tell these from Fowler's toads, Bufo fowleri, as both live in the same areas.

As I went under the bridge,  I realized that I was next to a set of rapids, certainly artificial but still quite beautiful.  Rapids are a rarity in Illinois, so here's another picture of them.  The rock I was standing on is probably underwater at present.  At the time, central Illinois was suffering a drought, but had just been relieved by a rainstorm a few days before.

Going back up the road, I spotted a couple of jaywalkers, only they were not jays.  

Nor are they turkeys, as I first thought.  Nope, we have the buzzard, or to be more precise, the Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura).  They had found a dead opossum and decided to eat it.  They flew out of my way as I slowly approached in my car, going back as soon as I was on the other side of their opossum.   Contiuing on, I spotted a flash of purple along the side of the road.  Pulling over, I jumped out to see what it was.

It was a Liatris species, or blazing star, either Liatris scariosa or Liatris ligulistylis.  The first is state-threatened and the second is uncommon. Either way, it is the sort of plant worthy of stopping to see.  About four feet tall and flopping over immensely, (and due to that I suspect it is the taller Liatris ligulistylis)  the plant was growing on the top of a short mound above the road with other prairie wildflowers.  As both species prefer dry sites, this was an ideal location.

Here is the flower stem.  Blazing stars are unusual in that they grow the flowering stem fully and then start flowering from the top down, unlike basically any other plant.  I looked around the area briefly, noting an abundance of native plants.  I half suspect the area I stopped is a Friends of Sangamon Valley private nature preserve.  The Friends of Sangamon Valley are a nonprofit conservation group who own several preserves throughout the area, including Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary which I've been giving so much press to.  Most of their preserves are private, with no visitors allowed.  I know they own land in the area, but I'm unclear if the area I saw was just someone's hunting grounds or a nature preserve.  Either way, the fern diversity was quite high for the edge of a Midwestern road, as you can see below.

After this, I drove back home.  All in all, it was a good day, full of plants and animals.  As I look out at the gray clouds and melting snow,  I am very much looking forwards to spring.