Four State-Threatened Birds in Four Days

Well, the last two days are yet another example of how the birding obsession has been growing.  Apparently, in addition to the Northern Harrier, Brown Creepers are also state-listed, as threatened, since they are very scarce breeders in this state.  So I saw two state-listed birds on the Ides of March, evidently.

Thursday was the second field trip of the Bird Identification class.  Therefore, the first notable occurrence was these small mustard family plants growing in moss.  These are among the first weeds I have seen this year.

 And then an Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) appeared nearby:

Then, an actual bird appeared, a Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa), the second or third smallest bird in Illinois. 

 Red-bellied Woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus) were quite numerous in the trees around Lincoln Land Community College.

 Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) have started to breed in the boxes near the banding center.

 A Blue-Winged Teal (Anas discors) was present on the pond nearby:

 As was this Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia):

 I separated from the main group, and spotted a White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in a nearby field:

To the north, a pair of Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) harassed a Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis):

The first Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta ssp. elegans) have also appeared, in great numbers, on the pond.

 A Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) stood on a nearby retaining wall, reminding me of a speaker on a podium for some reason.

 At Marina Point, the state-listed Pied-Billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) appeared among a flock of Ruddy Ducks.  This was the third state-listed bird I saw this week, and the last I got a picture of.

So, today, I visited Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary with a pair of friends.  Today, also, the caretakers did their prairie burning, so we went to Lick Creek Wildlife Area.  This was a better decision, but we had no idea of this at the time.  Below is one of the may oxbow-formed swamps in the area.  This is the delta of Lick Creek as it flows into Lake Springfield, and it's a wonderfully wild area for all kinds of nature.

 Frogs called among the reeds, and we eventually caught a Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans).

 The first wild patch of False Rue Anemone (Enemion biternatum) I have seen in Central Illinois I found here.

 A second frog hid among the reeds, which I did not identify.

 Nearby, six Green-Winged Teal (Anas carolinensis), a new duck species for me, took off before a picture could be taken. The entire area was a swamp laced with open marsh, small creeks, and muddy woodlands, as seen below.  You could look all around and not see one human building, not even a telephone pole.

 Here, my two buddies decided to "improve" a natural bridge we'd found.

For those of you who don't know, I've made it my goal this year to see all Illinois' woodpecker species.  I've seen Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, Downy,  Red Headed and Red Bellied Woodpeckers.  Today, I knocked off the Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus)  in the most woodpecker-infested swamp I have ever seen. There were about ten woodpeckers flitting from tree to tree, that I observed.  I'm suspecting this area could have Pileated Woodpeckers, which with the Northern Flicker are the last on my list.

 However, I saw one of the rarer birds in Illinois here as well.  The Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata) is a close relative of the American Coots I've seen many of lately (more than you know, since I rarely report them) but it's bigger, with a red patch around its bill.  This is an extremely rare bird in Central Illinois.  Below is a picture, photo credit John Mosseso Jr.



Here's the marsh  where the gallinules were seen.  I scared the pair from the pool of water around the base of the tree in the center.

Nearby, an old, dead cottonwood tree had lost most of its bark. This was easily one of the largest trees in the swamp.

The ghostly upper half of the tree, drilled over by woodpeckers, still stood some sixty feet tall.

Nearby, even more woodpeckers proliferated.  Here is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker, one of several in the area.

Low along the edges of the marshes, Swamp Sparrows (Melospiza georgiana)  foraged in the dozens.  Now and again, a small flock would see the three of us and fly deeper into the reeds.

We spotted one of the more curious shelf fungi any of us had ever seen growing on a log nearby.  This swamp's edges are favored by morel hunters, and the entire Lick Creek Wildlife Area is as biodiverse in fungi as it is in everything else.  Excluding the Sangamon River Valley, this is the wildest spot in Sangamon County.

The marsh where the Common Gallinules were seen was more easily visible on the far side.  At this point, we had been hiking for about two hours through swampy lowlands, covered in downed trees, creeks, and marshland.  It is as complete a wilderness as can be found anywhere in Illinois.  Walking was hard over the rough terrain.  It would not be an easy area, even for ATVs.

Therefore, we all laughed really, really, really hard when we saw this sign:

On the other side of the marsh, the grasses changed yet again.  This complex of wetlands deserves some form of state protection, but at present only has the protection of the CWLP power company.

Evidently, beavers appear to live out here as noted by the mounds seen below in the tall cattail marsh. The more concealed of the two mounds is left of center, just below the bend in the branch on the left.
[Edit:  A very honorsable friend of mine informed me that those mounds are actually muskrat mounds.  Beavers evidently do not live in cattail marshes, but muskrats do.  I'll keep a eye out.]

All around the swamp, Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica) bloomed in the thousands.  These little flowers in their infinite variety would likely have a number of unique and beautiful cultivars.  Everything from pure white to dark pink flowers, deeply to lightly veined, on plants with varying amounts of flowers- Spring Beauties ought to be grown more in gardens, especially different color forms.  In a shaded lawn, these would be quite lovely plants, too, with their thin foliage and short-lived early bloom time.  I speak as a gardener, of course.  I've gotten many pictures of Spring Beauties over the years, but only certain color forms make good pictures.  Below is one of those:

We found out soon why that sign was there- a trail, with mountain bike tires, lay on the far side of the marsh.  Evidently, we had taken the long, long way around, and a short half-mile trail led us back to the trailhead.  Along the way, we spotted what we thought was a paper plate sitting on a log.  It turned out to be this fungus:

An Eastern Bluebird flew off nearby, the perfect capper to an excellent day of exploring and adventuring.  Sadly, I didn't manage to get a picture of it, either.  Nor did I get a good picture of any of the fourteen-odd Great Blue Herons we spotted flying overhead.  This was a new record for me for herons, but in this area, I'm not surprised to see so many.  I need to revisit Lick Creek Wildlife Area more often.  Overall, this has probably been one of the better weeks of my life in terms of nature.  As I told my brother earlier today, the qualifier of State-Threatened is starting to lose its meaning.  I can't wait until next week,

History Fact:

Adolf Hitler was an animal lover, as were many of the top Nazis. The current German animal cruelty laws are based on Nazi laws about animal cruelty.  Of course,because of who they were, the Nazis would send those charged with animal cruelty to concentration camps.