Salamanders Make It Okay To Be Late For Class, Right?

 If it feels like I've just started living at Lick Creek Wildlife Area,  that would be because every time I go there, I see something new.  It is hands down one of my favorite wildlife areas in Springfield.  On my second to last field trip, I started out the day with several Hermit Thrushes (Catharus guttatus), as well as some photobombing unknown birds.  After this, a long and complicated series of events led to a hike over the marshes to meet with the field trip.  During this hike,  I saw the Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus), shown below  (Photo Credit Wikipedia)



This is the largest extant species of woodpecker in North America (extant means not extinct).  It is also the last of the seven woodpeckers in Illinois I have to see this year.  I set a goal a while back to see all Illinois species of woodpeckers, and I have done so, though the Pileated remains unphotographed by me, considering they are the most skittish of the Illinois woodpeckers.  The only reason  I saw the two Pileateds in the marsh was because they took off flying away from me.

When I finally found everyone else, one of the guys had this  juvenile Dekay's Brown Snake  (Storeria dekayi) in a coat pocket.  After showing it to me, we released it back under a log.

This large millipede was also found under a nearby log.  This was about two inches long when uncurled, which makes it not the largest millipede I've seen in Illinois, but the largest I've seen in Sangamon County by far.

There were some huge old trees in this upland section of the preserve.  By no means is this an old-growth forest, but I do suspect that sections of this preserve have survived intact from before European settlement.  (I have to specify European settlement, not because I have to be politically correct, but because in this case it makes more sense, as that's when most of the old trees were cut down.  There are a few old-growth trees locally, but for the most part Illinois lacks original landscapes of any kind.  In Central Illinois only Mason County preserves large natural landscapes.)

These are oaks  (Quercus spp.), hundreds of years old.  While there are only a few, and the rest is secondary forest, this does speak to the age of parts of this forest.

Underneath, Prairie Trilliums  (Trillium recurvatum) bloomed.  Large populations of Prairie Trilliums are a good sign of a healthy forest, although in Illinois these plants are everywhere.

Woodland Phlox  (Phlox divarica) has also started to open up locally, the pale blue flowers extremely common in certain sections around the edge of Lake Springfield.

A Northern Flicker,(Colaptes auratus),one of the hundreds of woodpeckers in this area, foraged on a nearby tree.  I do mean hundreds.  If you want to see woodpeckers in this area, hiking to the edge of the marsh, where the dead trees above the waters provide an ideal habitat for woodpeckers to chisel away and hunt for grubs.  I saw about fifteen Northern Flickers that day, and these aren't the world's most common woodpeckers, as they are just passing through to Canada.

Goldfinches (Spinus tristis) aren't woodland birds usually, but they live near the edge of the swamp.

Here's one of my best pictures, of a Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana), which should be leaving for Canada soon.  These and woodpeckers are  the most common birds in this preserve as of late.

Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa) nest in the trees in the middle of the marsh, in woodpecker-dug holes. Here, a female Wood Duck watches me from a good hundred feet away.  I noticed at this point I was going to be late for my next class. I trompsed through the marsh in my rubber boots, realized the water was a bit high before I got halfway across, turned around, and went back to the edge, scaring a couple of unknown animals into the water.  By the way they moved, I suspect I saw a couple of the lighter tan form of Dekay's Brown Snake shown in this post.  I was stuck in a dilemma.  I could walk around the marsh, and be really late to class.  I could try to walk through a different section of the marsh, and be less late to class, or I could skip class and enjoy my time out here.  As I was thinking over this, I flipped over a sheet of bark near the edge of the marsh. Then I let out a happy yell.

This is a Smallmouth Salamander (Amblystoma texanum) the most common salamander in Central Illinois.  It is a member of the Mole Salamanders, notable because... they dig holes.  I looked at it for a minute, and then put it back under its bark and looked out at the marsh again.  Below is my view:

  Time ticking,  I crossed the marsh at a slightly narrower section, hopping from grass clump to grass clump.  I like to call this clod-hopping for no real reason whatsoever.   About three- quarters of the way across,  I scared off the Pileated Woodpeckers again.  Nevertheless, I was soon across, with few minutes to spare...  I walked quickly across the floodplain forest on the other side, checking under only a few boards, logs, and sheets of bark.  Nevertheless,  I turned up this fellow:

Hurrah, another salamander!  This is another Smallmouth Salamander. but as I have never found two salamaders in one day, I was quite happy about this.  Central Illinois is not a hotspot for salamanders, as these are forest species much happier in areas where the majority of the Precolumbian enviroment was wet woodland.  As a result, about half of all Illinois salamander species range into the eastern and southern edge counties, going no further.  I put this fellow back and left, rushing back to the car.

In a muddy spot near the bridge,  I paused when I found these raccoon tracks, freshly made.  I wonder how long ago this animal passed by- probably the previous night?

As I was about to leave, I spotted two White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) grazing by the side of the road.  It never ceases to amaze me how an animal can appear just as I am about to leave.  On the last four hikes, a flock of pelicans, a beaver, an osprey (not covered by a previous post), and now these deer appear just as I go to leave.  Always keep your eyes open.  I can't think of a snappy, witty conclusion, so that's all for now.