Beware The Ides of March: Wetlands and TORNADOES! (Mom. Don't Read This) (Part Two)

Continued from last post, here's the snake!

 After it tried to bite me, I, in turn, attempted to film it.  Neither of us was successful.  Still, is this not the most beautiful Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) you have ever seen?  This is probably the most common snake species in North America, but it's rare to see one around here with that red banding.  I'm counting it towards my year list goat of seeing two new snake species by this October.

 Here, you can clearly see the snake's head as it calmed down and decided to go away.  I've always loved seeing snakes since I was three years old.  As a matter of fact, at that age I had an on and off Australian accent from watching the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, wrangle snakes and "salties" using his bare hands.  Ever since, I have loved nature, and snakes have never intimidated me... until today.  When that snake lashed out at me, because I was in its space, I jumped back and let out a considerable yell.  I may not be afraid of snakes, but I am afraid of jump scares.

Nearby, one of my favorite flowers bloomed.  This is Sharp-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica americana var america)  It's more common in old-growth forests, but in Lincoln Memorial Garden, it's been planted.  Several different color forms exist of this highly variable plant.

Technically, those aren't white petals, but sepals.  The green structure in the center is the true flower.  This is similar to the dogwood tree. which has a similar flower arrangement.  Hepaticas are closely related to buttercups and anemones, two more plants which share the arrangement of true flower surrounded by a number of sepals.

The same is true of this beautiful Hepatica relative, Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis).  Most of the time, it's very hard to photograph the faint veining on the "petals" (actually sepals).  The difference between a petal and a sepal is that on most plants, the sepal is the small green leaf, often in a ring, found below the flower.

The first few Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica) are just beginning to open.  This is probably the most common spring wildflower in Illinois.

Here, a Hepatica demonstrates one of the many variations.  On this specimen, the leaves are lready emerging.  Furthermore, it has twice as many sepals as a typical specimen, all of which are narrower than is common.  As  a matter of fact, I would almost want to call it a different species if I didn't know how variable this species is.

Here, a blue color form shows even how variable the number of sepals can be, even on the same Hepatica plant.

Two male Red-Bellied Woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus) fought with each other in the trees above my head.  After watching for a bit, I turned around and began to walk back towards the entrance on a different trail.

A Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) browsed in the trees near the fighting Red-Bellied Woodpeckers.  Walking along, I spotted one of the larger patches of Hepatica in the park.

A flurry of motion on a nearby tree alerted me to a nearby Brown Creeper  (Certhia americana), a winter migrant that is always a joy to see as it flits about, probing for insects under the bark of trees.

At this point, I left Lincoln Memorial Gardens for Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary.  While on the way, I spotted a grey hawk hovering over a ditch.  It was a male Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus), but it flew away before I could get any pictures.  These birds are residents at Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary, and the surrounding farmfields are full of mice for them to eat.  Once at Nipper, I met up with the Bird Identification class I recently joined.  This class' field trips will probably make up the bulk of articles this spring, but don't worry.  There will be many, many flowers, insects, and amphibians starring as well.  In the prairie ponds at Nipper, we found many frogs.  Can you see the Striped Chorus Frog (Pseudacris triserata) hiding below?

Frogs weren't the only animals we found, as this understandably upset crayfish can attest. I wish there was a guide to the crayfish species of Illinois.  I'd be curious to figure out what species this is, as there were many crayfish, most dully colored, albeit with reddish claws.

This crayfish below rose out of the water, and raised its claws at us as if in defiance.  As soon as I pointed my camera at him, he lowered his claws, and a minute later sank below the reeds.

Large, second-year Bullfrog tadpoles (Rana catesbeiana) could be found in some of the deeper ponds.  A chain of  five ponds is present at this sanctuary.  They derive their water from a drainage ditch in a nearby, heavily fertilized farm-field.  By the time water reaches the fifth pond, the water lacks most of the fertilizer chemicals.  In the top pond, fertilizer-based algal blooms are a regular occurrence, but the bottom pond contains clear water.  It's a fascinating study of how wetlands decontaminate water.

This purified water makes these ponds ideal breeding grounds for many frogs, including the Striped Chorus Frog below.

Here's a good size comparison.  These full-grown chorus frogs are tiny little amphibians, aren't they?  The student in the picture caught the frog shown below.

Various frog eggs were observed in some parts of the pond, including the eggs in the center of the picture below.

Here's a bullfrog tadpole in its natural habitat.

An unknown frog species (legs under the thumb) was found in the next pond. We only disturbed three of the middle ponds for about an hour.  If anyone has any guesses as to this species' name, comment below.  Our guess is Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans), but we do not know for certain.

Here's something you don't see everyday.  We have no idea what this inveterate is, except that it is not the tadpole we mistook it for.  One of the top guesses is Fairy Shrimp, a group of species closely related to the Triops commonly sold as a novelty.  This species, like the Triops, lays its eggs in the mud at the bottom of the pool, so that they survive even when the shallow pool dries up.

This frog below is a Northern Cricket Frog, though it lacks the green splash on the back that is characteristic of the species. These are one of the more common small frogs.

Below you can see one of the many pools we surveyed.  This is actually a small oxbow of Lick Creek, not one of the five prairie pools.  Just before reaching this creek, I flushed a Woodcock or Timberdoodle, which you may remember is the species I reported from my house a couple weeks ago.

Below is Lick Creek itself, as well as my shadow.  We walked back up from the creek.

As we went back up from the creek, we encountered this small nest.  If anyone recognizes it, please let me know.

The first clouds in a blue sky appeared, blocking out the sun.  As we walked towards the road, I flushed a second Woodcock, which flew only when it was about ten feet away from me.

As we crossed the road,  I spotted a small mustard species, and found it quite a nice accent to the pebbles and gravel.

After a hike through the grassland on the south side, we spotted a man out further in the prairie.  This same man flushed a pair of pheasants, which moved by too fast to photograph.  The clouds came in closer as well, making a stunning western sky.

In the middle of this fairly upland prairie, we nonetheless found a Striped Chorus Frog, probably migrating to breed in one of the ponds.  All animals shown as held by people were released quickly after a picture, by the way.

The storm clouds grew on the horizon, and we decided to hurry back home.  It's a good thing we did!

A half-hour later, it was pitch black.  A good friend of mine spotted a funnel cloud on the western edge of Springfield, Illinois, while driving.  The sky was so black that he took a picture (seen below) once safely home.  Later, we learned that a house and a barn had been severely damaged by what appears to be the same tornado.

Anyway, as this is a two-parter, there will be two historical trivia facts, related to each other:

The western part of Illinois, between the Quad Cities, Peoria, and Alton, has considered seceding from Illinois on many occasions, under the name Forgottonia.  A lack of interstates, a largely rural economy when compared to Chicago,  and a distaste for the corrupt politics of this state are among the major reasons for secession.  This movement was far stronger before I-72 was extended to Quincy, but even now, Forgottonia is still a bit discontent.  There have also been proposals to turn Chicago into its own state, as the city and its suburbs, strongly Democratic, generally outvote the Republican-dominant rest of Illinois.  None of these proposals have been successful, but they show where the cracks are in our state.

Interestingly, Illinois began its life as a state in 1818 using corruption.  At the time, the required population for statehood was 60,000.  Illinois had about 30,000 citizens when they submitted the bill for statehood.  Enough people moved to Illinois between the time that the bill was sent in and when Congress had a census of the population that Illinois managed to become a state.  However, most of the people who moved to Illinois in 1818 only did so because it had asked for statehood, and there are significant economic benefits to living in a recently-formed state.  In other words, the people moved to Illinois because they wanted to buy land in the state before it became more expensive when Illinois became a state.  However, if not enough people had moved to Illinois before Congress had counted the population, these people would have been out a good bit of money.  Thus, the Illinois government managed to trick both Congress and the people into making Illinois a state.