Reprint from the Lincoln Land Lamp Newspaper- Migration + Pictures!

Migration –   

Welcome to the new nature column of the Lamp.  I, Jared Gorrell, will be giving you all updates on what’s happening in nature around us.

Most Illinoisans I know think of this state as a gigantic cornfield.  We lack mountains and oceans.  In fact, Illinois is the third flattest state in the United States after Florida and Louisiana.   Many interstates take advantage of this fact and run through Illinois as people travel to other places, merely passing through, stopping to get a bite to eat or fill up on gas here and there.   This state is a stopover for travelers.   Illinois serves the same function in the natural world, too.

While Illinois lacks spectacular landforms, this state has one particular feature that makes it incredibly important.  On the east, west, and south, Illinois is bounded by water in the form of three rivers and a lake, all natural interstates for migrating birds.  Birds flying to and from Canada, the upper Midwest, and the Great Lakes migrate through Illinois along a route known as the Mississippi Flyway.  This natural interstate for birds, particularly waterfowl, is one of the greatest natural highways in the world.  The Mississippi Flyway makes Illinois a key sight to see massive migrations every spring and fall.

 What many people do not realize is that migration is not a simple process.  Most of us think of it in terms of north-to-south travel, or, at this time of year, south-to-north travel.    Yet, this is far too simple.  The same flock of snow geese (Chen caerulescens), one of the most common winter migrants in this area, may fly back and forth between the Illinois River, the Mississippi River, and Lake Springfield  several times in the course of a week.    This has to do with ice.   In late winter, the temperature rises and falls dramatically, with temperatures slipping above and below freezing every week.  When lakes and rivers are frozen over, the waterfowl must travel south, or else starve because their underwater food supply is cut off.  Thus, as the ice thaws, birds tend to show up, and as the ice refreezes, the birds leave.  As a result, trying to find birds in migration can be a wild goose chase in the most literal sense.

Of course, waterbirds are not the only birds that migrate.  Birds of prey (hawks, eagles, vultures, and owls) migrate as well, and some, such as the Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) are migrating at this time of year.  Turkey Vultures migrate and roost in flocks, and the local ones do so in a grove of pine trees where Toronto Road bends, near the Crow’s Mill Pub.   At times, up to fifty vultures can be seen only a few hundred feet from Lincoln Land Community College.  This is but one of many areas, particularly Center Park and Marina Point, where migrating birds can be seen near Lincoln Land Community College.

We may live in a giant cornfield, but even here in Illinois, we have our own spectacular displays of nature.   After all, we live along one of the greatest natural interstates in the world.  All we have to do is look.

Shawnee National Forest- Bell Smith Springs- Largest Spider in Illinois (Mom, Don't Read This)

I'm going back down memory lane as spring gets closer, so I've decided to do a bit on Shawnee National Forest.  I visited there twice, once in fall and once in spring.   The first expedition, the fall expedition, was to Garden of the Gods, Pounds Hollow, Bell Smith Springs, and Giant City State Park.

Bell Smith Springs is one of eight wilderness areas in Shawnee National Forest, located in far southern Illinois.  It is essentially a Midwestern canyon, with several creeks flowing through a narrow gorge.  Large expanses of  a glade community are present on the cliffs above.  

As these glades are heavily shaded, reindeer moss lichens and lots of mosses grew abundantly.  The only similar plant community I have ever seen was at Line Creek in Georgia.  ( I just want to point out that I may use a lot of links in my posts, but this is the Wild Land of Link-oln after all...  I have that pun copyrighted.)

This species of moss is perhaps a half-inch in diameter.  I knew what it was once, but many years of education has since pushed that fact out again for such useful things as sin x = 1/ csc x, Le Chatelier's Principle, and Etruscan burial rituals.

Here is a picture of the overall community.  Red cedars (Juniperus virginiana) grew over the tangle of shrubs and small trees, and taller oak-hickory forests on deeper soils grew farther behind.  As we contiued into the canyon, we could see where huge boulders had cracked away from the canyon walls.

Heuchera parviflora, the cave alumroot, the rarest of Illinois' three alumroot species, grew in the cliffs, surrounded by mosses, lichens, and liverworts.

At the valley's floor, a small creek flowed among large boulders.

Floods are supposed to have carved the valley's large canyons, and clearly, this tree had a fight to stay put, with the masses of exposed roots, all covered with lichens.  

 Since I have been to the Blue Ridge Mountains, I now realize that the Shawnee Hills are but an imitation of that grand and beautiful range.  Still, it's an imitation that is absolutely stunning at times.

 I believe these rocks are known as the Devil's Backbone, and in this region there is a considerable lot of his property, to paraphrase Mark Twain.  I prefer the name Shark's Fin for these rocks, however, and seeing them in person only adds to the belief that the namer of these rocks had never seen a shark.  I half expected a giant shark made of rock to raise these fins and appear.  (I had a very active imagination when I was younger.  I still do.)

 The moss-covered glades continued on both sides of the canyon as we turned around.

 Several large flat rocks hung over the cliffs, like great diving boards. As it seems there is a lover's leap in the vicinity of every chain of hills, I presume this is the local one.

 The most notable feature was the enormous blocks of sandstone.  This is an area widely known for flowers, but I think I must have visited at the wrong time.  Still, there were a few plants.

This is a DYC (danged yellow composite) I found in a shaded area.   I have no idea what it is.

 Some of the sandstone blocks split perfectly in half, as though a giant's blade had cut it in two.  Indeed, the rock formations along this area are deserving of fantastical names, so varied are they.

 Before we turned around to go back up to the bluffs,  I spotted this small LBM (little brown mushroom [Every branch of nature has its hard-to-identify species.  As another example, you have LBB for little brown bird in birding]), growing amidst the moss.  This area has no shortage of mosses, and a bryologist (This is a person who studies mosses and liverworts for a living.  No, I'm not quite that crazy yet) could have a field day here.

 We went back on the bluffs over the creek, admiring the fall colors.  Then,  I yelled loudly.  Arachnophobes, look away.

There are no tarantula species known to live naturally in Illinois, but when a species of spider as big as my hand is just strolling along through the woods six feet away, what do you think my first reaction is?  I'm not one of those enlightened people who captures spiders and releases them outside.  I have someone else kill it, or I will if I'm the only one available.  

I once upset a number of volunteers at Lincoln Memorial Gardens when one of them pointed out a fairly large spider near my foot and I stomped on it unthinkingly.  That was the only time I have ever been shamed for killing a spider, though I am more reluctant to do so nowadays than before if said spider is outdoors.  

Of course, there is no way on earth I'm getting anywhere near this spider, nor is anyone else, so we turned around after a few pictures for identification.  It appears to be closest in size and locality to be a female Carolina Wolf Spider, but I don't know.  The Carolina Wolf Spider is the largest known spider species in Illinois, and this is definitely in the same genus (Hogna spp.)  The only similarly colored individual is this one from Kentucky, linked here.  

Anyway, we went on to Garden of the Gods after this, so I do intend to return to Bell Smith Springs at some point, preferably the spring or summer when more plants are visible and the spiders are better hidden.  There is also a trip to Starved Rock in the works, so stay tuned for that.  The Hemlocks will be solved, once and for all!

The Loch Ness Scoter! + Illinois Fence Wallaby! -Lake Springfield Birding (Part Two of Two)

(This article is a continuation of the post found here.) The Loch Ness Scoter, also known as a White-Winged Scoter (Melanitta deglandi), is the bird in the center facing right.  As you can tell, it is larger than the Ruddy Ducks (Oxyura jamaicensis) all lined up in a row in front of it.  I am fairly certain that the black dot in the top right of the picture is another scoter, but it's too far away to tell.  Based on the fact that White-Winged Scoters are large sea ducks and one of the few almost entirely black ducks in Illinois, I'm fairly certain that's what it is.   This is probably the rarest waterfowl species I saw that day.  But, to recap:  I saw six pochard species (Aythya spp.) on the south side of the lake, as well as goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula), Ruddy Ducks and Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos).  I then went to the north side of the lake and saw American Coots (Fulica americana).  Shortly afterwards,  I took this picture.

As you can see, the scoter has emerged fully and has decieded to imitate the Ruddy Ducks.  By that I mean it is currently doing what Ruddy Ducks do best- fleeing from a camera so that they are not in focus.  Being a bigger bird, it has decided to go further away.  So, walking on further, I spotted yet another duck species!

Oho!  First, we have a dark shape on the left, which is a submerged scoter, in fact the one of the last two pictures.  Second, in the center and the lower right, we have  Ruddy Ducks mingling with my favorite duck species, the Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola).  Then, having startled a few more ducks, I spotted another favorite of mine:

First off, there appears to be a Scaup of some species in the background, top right, the big duck facing down and right.  In the front, however, is a Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus).  This brings the species count up to twelve, and at this point, I've just about lost it.  I am that excited.  Hooded Mergansers are fairly common ducks, often found in the same areas as Wood Ducks, and they occasionally nest in trees, in the same nest.  They are always an exciting duck species to see, so I'm glad to see it.  This is a male, by the way.  The female Hooded Merganser is a bit more drab.  Most female ducks are, as they want to hide on the nest.  Male ducks use their colors to attract mates.

Here is a female Bufflehead, along with an American Coot.  The female Bufflehead is eating a fish that it just dove and caught.  While not so colorful as the male, female Buffleheads are still very attractive ducks.  Coots, by contrast, have the same plumage whether male or female.

Near the far side of the bay, a small group of Common Goldeneyes lined up on the water.  Then, in front of me, a group of hitherto-unnoticed Buffleheads fled from me.  Apparently, as I had approached, they had seen me coming from their position under the bushes near the edge of the water.  The buffleheads slowly sailed away in formation, the big heads showing why the frontier nickname for this duck, buffalo-head, is, in a shortened form, still the common name.

Evidently, several other ducks watched from further away.  The duck on the far left has a red bill, and the duck on the far right is a female Scaup, likely a Lesser Scaup.   A duck with a red bill?  Hmm...

Before I could figure out what species it was,  the Buffleheads decided to leave, as shown below.

The Hooded Merganser decided to leave, too.  I wish there was a blind or something in this area for birdwatchers.  I really didn't mean to disturb the ducks.

The Buffleheads in flight, at least as a consolation, was still an impressive  image.

I'm not entirely sure of the species in flight below.  It appears to have a reddish bill, but the colors don't match the Common Merganser, nor does the bill.  Four of the same ducks are present among the Ruddy Ducks.  They skitter across water like diving ducks when taking off.  Two of them are present on the water below the ones in flight on the left.  When I wrote the first article,  I identified these as Common Mergansers (Mergus merganser), but they are clearly not, for reasons that are evident below.

The Ruddy Ducks got all excited and joined in.   They didn't go far.

Are the birds on bottom White Winged Scoters?  I love it when I just don't have enough zoom for a complete image.  Still, I've got a Peterson Field Guide on my lap and enough curiosity to kill an army of cats.  Additionally, it's better than when I couldn't see them because I had a camera without enough zoom to even focus on those specks in the water.  I cannot stress this enough.  It's darned near impossible to see these birds in any detail with the naked eye.  That's part of the reason I love Buffleheads so much.  They are clearly identifiable, even from a great distance away.

 Bird #15 of the day, the REAL Common Merganser (Mergus merganser) is visible in the upper left.  The sold black head, white body, and LONG, THIN red bill is a dead giveaway.  It was hiding among several Common Goldeneyes and gulls.  I've no doubt that there were more mergansers out on the lake that I didn't see.  I also don't know what the birds in the lower right are.  I just got into birding seriously this year, in January, as you all know from my Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary posts.

Nearby was the rare Illinois Fence Wallaby.  This is an extremely uncommon local endemic species that I was very lucky to see. 

In all seriousness, the Henson Robinson Zoo is attached to this park.  I could hear the peacocks inside calling while I was walking around.  At this point,  I crossed the road and went back on the other side of the lake.   I was trying to photograph the pochards, but accidently fell through some bushes and nearly into the lake.  Thankfully, I regained my composure fast enough to land a few shots of the ducks.  The ducks probably prefer these shots to the ones they are used to.

Out further, a flock of  Lesser Scaups faced westward into the setting sun as a Mallard flew by.

A single male Bufflehead flew out among the Ruddy Ducks, the reflection and patterns in the water making the scene idyllic.

No day is complete without one good bird of prey, and an immature bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is the perfect capper to the perfect day of birding.  The wings are level, indicating that the bird is an eagle and not a Turkey Vulture, the only other possibility in this area for a black bird of prey with exposed wingtip feathers.

The sun was setting, and I knew I had to get home.  I had left at 3:00 in the afternoon, and it was nearly 5:15 at this point.  It had been a wonderful two hours of birding.  A few Mallards rested on the water, dabbing quietly in the soft light.

I passed back by the Red-Headed Woodpecker's (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) hole, and a little head stuck out, eyeing me carefully as I walked by.

My favorite picture of the day, and the one I want to end on, even after seeing so many different species, is simple.  A young, immature Ring-Billed Gull (Larus delawarensis), looking carefully as it winds its way across the blue waters.  While it's not even the best picture of the day, (you will see those pictures in about ten days),  I somehow still like it.   The whole day of course, was me winding my way across the park, looking carefully in as many directions as I could.  This was probably one of the better days of my birding career, and I'm just getting started.