Lake Springfield: The Great Winter Expedition On A 53 Degree Day In January (W/ Video)

I had cabin fever this afternoon, which is unusual for me since I don't live in a cabin.  I had to get outside in the warm weather.  This winter has been bipolar in its temperatures.  We get a week of the frozen tundra, then a week of the Gulf Coast.  It has made for some fun times.  I decided to visit Lake Springfield and see any migratory birds.  I spent the whole afternoon circling the lake.  I saw so many geese, I had to get it on video, and give you all motion sickness...

If you're not suffering any ill effects, we'll move right along.  (Next time, I'm bringing a tripod.)  Those birds were snow geese ([Anser] Chen caerulenscens).  We talk about snowbirds around here as people who go down to Florida in the winter.  These birds come down to Illinois for winter.  They have wings, so I'm a little surprised at the poor decision-making of stopping this far north.   There must have been thousands of these geese.

 Evidently, just south of Lincoln Land Community College's Springfield Campus is one of the most ideal birding sites on the lake, Marina Point.

This is a promontory that juts out well into the lake.  Two islands, one to the east and one to the south, lie a couple hundred feet offshore.

Gulls, like the one hiding in the picture above, were common in the area.  I do not know my gull species, so I was unable to identify it.   For once, these gulls were dressed in camouflage...

 Despite the warmth of the day, a huge sheet of ice covered the lake. The waves seemed almost to have frozen immediately, as rippled lines in the ice.  I watched several mallards, Canada geese, and gulls prance about on the lakeshore.  Then I noticed a structure in a tree on the island to the south...

Based on the fact that I am about a hundred and fifty feet from this island, I would guess that that is a bald eagle nest.  I had heard rumors that there was a nesting pair in the area.  I failed to see any eagles, but the nest was quite enough.  Eagle-eyed readers (sorry, I really, really couldn't help it) also may notice the bald cypress tree (Taxodium distichum) on the left of the picture by the water's edge, somewhat separate fro the rest of the trees.  Thousands of bald cypress were planted around Lake Springfield to prevent erosion.  There are hundreds along Sugar Creek, one of the two main feeder creeks that supply Lake Springfield with water.  The area, once you canoe or kayak back into this swamp, resembles Louisiana swamps, so prolific are the bald cypress.  Make no mistake, however, these trees are not native to central Illinois.  They range as far north as southern Illinois, but none grow naturally in Central Illinois except for those that have naturalized from plantings such as this.

Moving onwards, I visited the marina at Lake Park.  There is an accessible breakwater which looks northwards, although here I am looking south back at the marina.  Here's what's north of me:

A second, slightly smaller group of snow geese, still numbering in the hundreds, lay north under the shadow of CWLP's smokestack.

To the east, a nearby plane (upper right) had disturbed the geese (lower left) and they flew over the lake to join the main group of snow geese.  I assumed at the time that these were Canada geese (Branta canadensis) an all too common bird.  The birds in the lower right are probably Canada geese.  The birds on the lower left, however...

These were in fact Greater White-Fronted Geese (Anser albifrons), another migrant, and not one I had ever recognized before. These birds had different calls from Canada geese, but  I could not tell they were different until I got back home and looked at the pictures.  There were a few hundred of these, and as they tend to migrate with snow geese, these joined up with the flock of snow geese shown previously.

On the breakwater, ice and snow, blown by the wind, had solidified into a strange solid layer of ice among the riprap.

This unusual formation of ice only existed along a  north or west-facing shore, thus it obviously came about from being blown up by the prevailing winds.  I watched the geese for awhile, and then drove around the lake again.  While I had seen most of the waterfowl, a six-point buck across from Lincoln Memorial Garden was worthy of a photo...

 Overall it was a grand expedition.  When the lake thaws, cormorants live on those islands.  I will have to go back then, so expect a few cormorants in the next few months.  Hope you all enjoy the warm weather while it lasts!

Discovering Plants and Animals Through Blogging

This blog has been a great enjoyment during these bleak winters.  This winter, admittedly, hasn't been terribly bleak.  However, it's still too cold to go outside, making it perfect blogging weather.  That's why there's been so many new posts.  I try to post about three times a month, and anything else is for lagniappe.  (I've been rereading Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi.)

Anyway,  I was researching Liatris species for my last article, and I discovered that the plant I most likely saw. Liatris ligulistylis, is restricted to nine counties in Illinois, out of the sixty-odd counties here.  The discovery of an uncommon species of plant is always a joy, and that got me thinking.  Owing to research I've done online for blog articles,(what, do you think I know all those scientific names by heart?)  I've discovered several plants that are fairly rare or uncommon.  I also once figured out that I found a baby box turtle as opposed to a snapping turtle whilst doing research for that article.   Then I did the same thing researching yuccas for my Line Creek post. This happens a lot, and as such there are a few stories.

I mentioned Canada mayflower, Maianthemum canadense, in a previous article.  It ranges as far south as Starved Rock State Park in Utica, Illinois.  There are a pair of similar species native throughout Illinois with similar looks, only much larger.   Here's one of them, taken at Starved Rock:

And here's what I suspect to be the Canada mayflower, taken in a different area on the same trail.  It was a much shorter plant, but blooming at the same time and had only two leaves, like Canada Mayflower generally does.  Apparently, I saw it, took a blurry picture, and then ran off to photograph a nearby beetle.  Still, you get the general idea.  This was just identified yesterday, actually.  It's quite exciting for a plant nerd like me to find out he's found a rare plant like this, sort of by accident. In the excitement of the day, sometimes the rarest plants go unnoticed.  I have to wonder how many plants I don't photograph.

Similarly, I was hiking in Giant City State Park in southern Illinois when I spotted the following plants.

This is apparently the leaves of American Columbo (Frasera caroliniensis), an unusual Illinois species of dry upland forests.  It is the only Frasera species to live on this side of the Mississippi River.  Most of its cousins live in the Rockies, and I actually had the luck to see one of those on top of a mountain in the Tetons.   Here are pictures of that plant, likely Frasera speciosa.

I was reading on Blue Jay Barrens' old articles when I ran across the leaves of this plant. (Blue Jay Barrens is an awesome blog run by Steve Willson, who owns said barrens in Southern Ohio.  I have it in my blogs tab to the right, not that I need to since about three-quarters of my visitors seem to come from that blog to mine.)  Then I double checked my pictures, and found out that I had seen this plant.  While not a particularly rare plant,  Frasera caroliniensis is not a plant I had ever seen before. Thanks,  Steve Willson!

Perhaps the best story is of this plant:

I took a picture of it while hiking next to a waterfall in Dupont State Forest in North Carolina.  The area is full of waterfalls, and so I was focused more on them than on plants.  This was also the place where I found my first Indian-Pipe plants, (Monotropa uniflora), so I had a lot of other interests than just some random white flowers growing in a crack in the rock.   However, a previous vacation shed some light on what they were.  I went to Yosemite National Park many, many years ago.  While in the vicinity of Bridalveil Falls, I spotted a small, white flower growing in the leaves.  I have no idea what it is.  Here it is, however.  If you have a clue as to its identity, please let me know.

Operating under the theory that this might be a member of the Western U.S. genus Boykinia, I searched Boykinia on BONAP and came up with this:



I had believed that Boykinias were only native to the West Coast, so what was this map doing showing one ranging out east?  I looked up the easterner, Boykinia aconitifolia, commonly known as Allegheny Brookfoam.  Well, I still didn't have an answer as to what my Yosemite plant was, and I still don't.  However, my Dupont State Forest plant was Boykinia aconitifolia, the only eastern species of a West Coast-centered genus of plants. Furthermore, it's a highly uncommon plant, even in North Carolina.  It is a threatened species, in fact.

Now I know that most people are like, "Yay, he found a plant.  I don't care."  I know at least one reader of this blog holds that view.  I understand that.  But to me, this was really a unique discovery.  By going west, I went east, and found a plant I had never seen before and may never see again.  I would never have done it if I hadn't been considering asking people for help about the Yosemite plant (which I just did, by the way.)  Thanks to researching articles for this blog, I have learned much more than if I had just let those pictures sit and never looked them up.  Thanks to this blog, I have gotten to learn more about nature.  Isn't that the point?

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. 

Line Creek Natural Area (Non-Illinois) + Announcement

First the announcement, and then I talk about one of  the best hikes I have ever taken.  In the upper right-hand corner, I am creating a list of nature preserves in the central Illinois area which I have visited and which I describe and provide information for.  Some of these preserves are well known to the locals, while others are not.  However, visitors to the area interested in more than Lincoln, state government, and/or visiting family might want to check these preserves out.

On to Line Creek.  This is an area I have hiked multiple times, in Peachtree City, Georgia.  It is hands down one of the best areas I have ever hiked.  I've noticed that happens a lot when I go hiking with my dad, as I did on this occasion.  (Craggy Pinnacle,  Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary, and more)  Not to say that doesn't happen also with my mom, but that is for another time.  At one point, I had seen the leaves of Tipularia discolor, the Crane-fly Orchid, in the past at this site.  I had visited twice previously, and you will see some of those pictures herein.  Here is the picture of the Crane-Fly orchid that I saw.  No, those leaves in the dead center of the photo are not dead.  They are the overwintering leaves of the orchid.

Line Creek Natural Area is a 70-acre preserve maintained by the Southern Conservation Trust, containing upland hardwood and softwood forests, glades, north-facing slopes, an artificial lake, and a rocky creek.  The small size and mix of environments makes this site an excellent place to hike.  I have hiked it in late winter, late spring, and the fall.  In the summer, it is popular for local residents to swim in the cool waters of the creek.

My most recent trip to this area, in late May, 2015, was undertaken to find the aforesaid crane-fly orchid, if possible. I have since learned that late May is the ideal time NOT to find crane-fly orchids. As my dad and I turned north towards the area where I had first seen the orchid, I took a lot of pictures.   Prolific Christmas ferns (Polystichum acrostichoides) grew everywhere alongside seedlings of both oak and pine trees.  This fern can be found occasionally in Central Illinois as well.

Striped Wintergreen or Pipsessewa, Chimaphila maculata, grew in the acidic ground.  As most of Illinois lacks acidic soil or the pine forests that Pipsessewa prefers, it is a rare plant of Cook County and the far southeastern counties in Illinois, though abundant in Line Creek.

As I stood looking around at a plant I didn't recognize, I realized it was an orchid.  No matter the size or beauty, orchids are my favorite group of plants.   This plant had the advantage of being one I had never seen in my life before, Malaxis unifolia.  I would give you a common name, but who's ever heard of Malaxis anyway?

If this is all sounding strangely familiar, it's because my very first posts were on orchids.  See here for details.  These  Malaxis plants are tiny, aka about six inches tall at the most.  Indeed, the smallest orchid in all of North America north of Mexico is a Malaxis species.   I saw dozens of these plants, all in flower.  Probably no one else at the preserve cared about such a tiny green flower, but I was grinning ear-to-ear.  Malaxis unifolia is rumored to be found in Menard County, as well as a few other limited sites in Illinois.  Continuing on, I still hadn't seen the crane-fly orchid (and indeed I never did on that trip) but I was in plant heaven. 

Here is the area where I was hiking, below a retaining wall for the road.  Walking through the ferns, head bent over,  I about stepped on the second and final orchid of the day.  I had never seen Goodyera pubescens anywhere outside of a book before that day, but the snakeskin pattern which gives this orchid the name of rattlesnake plantain identified it immediately. 

About a dozen or so of these attractive orchids grew in the pine needles around me.  They were a few weeks from blooming, I would guess.  According to BONAP, these grow in Central Illinois, and the closest populations are in Mason county.  I will have to investigate this at some point.  After taking plenty of pictures,  we moved on down into the floodplain of the creek.   Ferns of all kinds grew in the area.

I have no idea as to what species the last fern is, and if anyone could identify it, please leave a comment below.  The creek was in flood stage as we approached it.  Invasive mimosa trees grew over it, flowering with their lovely pink flowers.  In Illinois, this exotic species, Albrizia julbrissin, is a fairly common, well-behaved ornamental tree.  In the South, however, it has gone rogue and taken over.

We reached the edge of a glade, full of plants that looked more in place back home. Scorpions have been sighted by others in this area, hiding under logs, so it isen't exactly like home.  However, flowering spurge (Euphorbia spp.) and woodland sunflowers  (Helianthus spp.) are both common Illinois plants, the latter very much so. 

At this point, I spotted a Carolina phlox (Phlox carolina) or at least, that's my best guess for this Phlox species.  I do not know my Phlox all that well.

And then, I spotted a plant that I discussed here,  Mimosa pudica, the sensitive plant, a plant whose foliage moves when you touch it.  Apparently, it's a weed in Georgia.  Who knew?

Vascular plants weren't the only plants represented.  The mosses and lichens were very impressive as well:

For those who are bored of all the plants, here's a picture of  some more plants across a river.

As you can see, the  rapids are hiding the rocky ground underneath.  This area along the creek is a mixture of lowland woods, upland woods, and dry granitic barrens.  Unsuprisingly, a reptile appeared, a large black snake that shot across our path before any picture could be taken and dove into the creek.  Having a strong affinity for snakes, I was dissapointed that I did not recognize it.  My best guess is a sort of watersnake.  I have seen other snakes in this preserve on a previous trip, a Dekay's snake (Storea dekayi).  This is a common U.S. woodland snake that is remarkably small.

Hearing a rustling in the leaf litter, I used a small net I had carried with me to attempt to catch the animal.  I managed to capture it finally, and look at it.  While I probably shouldn't disturb animals in their natural enviroment, I did.  Initially, I assumed the animal was a snake or a legless lizard. Here it is. 

This is in fact a lizard with legs, the rarely-seen but fairly common ground skink (Scicella lateralis), a resident of southern Illinois as well as most of the Southeast.  These lizards move like snakes through thick leaf piles and generally remain concealed.  My guess is that this specimen was sunning itself and, noticing me and my dad, dived into the leaves to escape. Here's another photo.  After a few photos, the lizard was released back into the wild to dive into more leaves.

Nearby, we saw a few yuccas (Yucca flaccida?) growing in the dry stony soil of that particular area.  Then we heard yet more rustling. 

Armadillos!  Nine banded Armadillos, or Dasypus novemcinctus, which no one in their right mind is ever going to call them.  These may or may not be in Central Illinois.  At any rate, they are moving northwards, and are firmly entrenched in parts of Southern Illinois.  They are in the middle of the picture below, though hiding quite well.  We were within twenty feet of the armadillos, and they seemed unbothered by our presence as they rooted around in the leaf litter.

After watching the armadillos for awhile, we moved on.  I spotted a Resurrection Fern, (Pleopeltis polypodioides) so named because they shrivel up in dry spells and unfurl in wet ones, growing on the side of a tree.  Yes, it's an epiphyte, or tree-grower, and you may have seen a few in my Costa Rica posts as well, as it's extremely common on trees down there.  This also ranges, like the armadillo, into far southern Illinois.

Yuccas grew nearby on a glade. This is most likely Yucca filamentosa, the species most commonly grown in Illinois.  Not true desert plants, most Yucca filamentosa grow in partial shade in the wild.  There is another species of yucca that can grow in the area, Yucca flaccida, which I saw earlier on the trail and showed you earlier.  The difference is that Yucca filamentosa holds its leaves straight out, whereas Yucca flaccida leaves bend down as they age.  Both are grown in Illinois gardens, and it has been questioned whether they are not two separate subspecies of the same species.  All I know is that I saw both... and only just realized that I saw two separate types on that hike today, thanks to research I just did for this article.  Cool.

Here is a similar glade in the area from an earlier trip.  Glades are excellent homes for many species of rare plants, and many others who just prefer it a little drier.

This section is an acidic granite glade interrupted by a creek, and that makes this area a unique mix as far as the plant life goes.

Of course, the next plant I see is a species of Scutellaria.  As far as I understand, almost all Scutellaria species, commonly known as skullcaps, either grow in wetlands or drylands, but not in-between.  At least, the species I am familiar with grow in extremes.  This particular species is unknown to me.  If anyone knows for certain, please let me know.  My hat makes a cameo in the background, as I was using it to block the sun in the photo.

Next, I saw a fern that I do not recognize.  I think it's a spleenwort (Asplenium) of some kind, and knowing the genus Asplenium, I will be glad to leave it at that.  If you would like a headache, study Asplenium, the spleenwort genus.  Distributions, hybrids, identifications, gardening, anything to do with spleenworts requires expert skills.  The sole spleenwort species I grow in my garden,  Asplenium trichomanes, was sold under the name of a different fern, and I had to identify it as something else.  Boy, that was an evening of pure research.  I still am uncertain whether I am correct or not in my identification.  If you spend a lot of time in rocky moist areas, you'll see quite a few of these little ferns.

Anyway, at this point, we decided to make our way back to the parking lot, after looking back at the creek.  Here's a picture of the area in winter.  As people were swimming in the area at the time of my last visit,  I did not take pictures.

On our way back, we passed up through a fairly extensive glade.  Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia humifusa) grew out of the moss.  That was a plant combination I never thought I'd see.

Nearby, a male eastern fence lizard, Sceloporus undulatus, was busy in a territory display. The third reptile of the day, he was very handsome, and ran off immediately after this photograph.

One last look at the glades as we walked out of the area.  This is a general shot of the area in the spring.

Around the parking lot was a power strip cutting, an excellent area for butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) to grow.  This is a fairly common southeastern species, although found throughout Central Illinois.

Earlier, on a previous trip, I had seen some species of bluets (Houstonia spp.) growing in the same general area, albeit a more closely mowed section.

This was one of my absolute favorite areas to hike, and I cannot show all the beauty of the area in a photograph.  If you are in the Atlanta area in any season, I highly recommend visiting Line Creek.  As for me, I will be revisiting Nipper not today (wind chills in the negatives Fahrenheit) but sometime this month.  Hope you're all having a great January.