Beware the Ides of March: LOOOOOOOOOOOON! SNAKE! TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES! ETC! (Mom. Don't Read This) (Part One) ( Pere Marquette State Park, Lake Springfield, etc.)

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Sorry, I'm rather excitable. (So were these ducks and gulls, above, being fed at Marina Point. It looked rather like a war. ) The Ides of March 2016 was a week in a day as far as the birdwatching goes.  Not to mention the frogs, the crayfish, and the tornado.  And nearly being bitten by a snake. And nearly losing all my pictures thanks to technical problems.

Here, you can see one of the screwed-up pictures, or rather, several in a composition.  It's a rather cool-looking composition of weeds.  I have been so blessed today that most of my pictures were recovered.  The blue-flowered plant is a weed by the name of speedwell (Veronica spp.) that is the first plant to bloom in Central Illinois in lawns.

I actually had pictures from my southern Illinois trip to Pere Marquette State Park and the surrounding environs. Thankfully,  a few got saved.  The painting on this bluff near this cave is known as the Piasa Bird, a replica of a similar painting Pere Marquette sketched in his journal while exploring this area.

The ubiquitous Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) flew overhead.  This is hands down the best picture of any turkey vulture I have ever gotten.

 The highway between Alton and Pere Marquette State Park in southwestern Illinois is probably the best scenic route in the state.  Also, no, I wasn't driving.

Up on top of the bluffs are hill prairies like this one, in Pere Marquette State Park.

 Here, a flock of American White Pelicans  (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos), which are the same species as in Starved  Rock State Park.  They are very, very common along these big rivers.


 While on the theme of waterbirds, we will whip over to Lake Springfield a few days later.  (There really is no transition.  I'm sorry.)  These Hooded Mergansers are enjoying the lake with a number of new birds.

 Around two hundred Double-Crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus)  roosted in the trees and swam in the waters of the islands off Marina Point.  Last year, this species turned these islands white with droppings.  Let's see if they continue the cycle.

 This is the only cormorant species commonly found in Illinois.  Here, one is basking to dry off its feathers.

 Here, you can see the cormorants are enjoying pestering the local gulls. Speaking of pests:

 There's only one reason I got this close to a Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), and that's because it was following me around begging for food.  When I wouldn't give them any, they decided to steal my car.

 Thankfully, these two lack arms, and thus cannot open doors.  All of the events previous to this point happened prior to the Ides of March.  You are now seeing the first part of the great day.  I just decided to throw the rest in as a dramatic and unneeded prologue.

Around noon,  I took a walk outside and spotted this bird, species unknown.  It kind of resembles the Ash-throated Flycatcher (Myiarchus cinerascens), a vagrant from the Southwest captured here a few years ago.  That would be a something. Actually, hang on.  According to the Peterson, the Ash-throated Flycatcher has a white throat, light grey breast, pale yellow belly, eye-stripe, and less of a crest than the Great Crested, the species that should be most similar.  I'm probably getting too excited over nothing, but it's worth noting that this bird was calling, and the call sounds more similar to...

You know what?  This is just going to be another blogpost in a couple days.  There's no way one man can be this lucky.

[Edit: This is actually an Eastern Phoebe.  The Peterson Guide needs to show a bit more yellow, but the tail and the time of year is a far closer match for the Phoebe.]

 Here is a butterfly.  I really don't know what species it is, but it's one of the first I've seen.  It's so nice to see things that aren't birds.

 This Eastern Bluebird was calling from the top of a small tree near the prairie area, similar to the Flycatcher.  These birds are far more beautiful when I get the lighting correct.

 This sparrow has a band on its leg, courtesy of the Lincoln Land Banding Station, which has its grand opening next Tuesday.  I really need to figure out the species, because this is one of my best bird pictures.  Then I spotted one of my favorite native plants, growing in a landscape bed.  This is Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) so named because a red dye is obtained from, well, you guessed it.  It has early, short-lived flowers.  This, in fact, is the largest patch I have ever seen.  Seeing it in flower made me want to check the wildflowers at Lincoln Memorial Gardens.

At this point,  I had lab, so I went off to lab with extreme reluctance.  I had to be talked out of skipping class, the day was so lovely.  Thankfully, it was a short lab, because the birds could not wait.

 Along the way, I stopped by Lake Springfield, in a pulloff south of the Henson Robinson Zoo, home of the famous Illinois Fence Wallaby.  This bird above appears to be a merganser, but I don't know what species.

 Almost at my feet, thirteen American Coots (Fulica americana) dived for food along the shoreline.  These little ducklike birds are a favorite of mine.  I drove on down to Lincoln Memorial Gardens, a botanical garden along the lake's edge which contains only plants native to areas where Lincoln lived (Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana).  The Lake Trail is a favorite for birding, and is where I saw my first Ruddy Ducks, in fact. (Ruddy Ducks are those brown ducks in the background of many pictures.  I saw about five hundred total today, so at this point I'm a bit blase towards them.) I also spotted this bird, but at the time, I had no idea what it was, and could not see it properly.

 This is a Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus), a Western migrant that dwells in the same Dakota prairie potholes as the far more common Ruddy Duck.  The Blackfoot tribe has a fascinating story, linked here, about how this bird got its distinctive red eyes, seen better below:

I not only failed to recognize this bird, I failed to recognize the next three birds.  As I was literally wondering if Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata) and Common Loons (Gavia immer) had migrated on, I took this picture, unable to see any of these birds.

First off, in the upper right hand corner, there is a Northern Shoveler, a male.  Second, I had no idea that there were Common Mergansers (Mergus merganser) out on the lake.  Those are the ducks in back.  Third, I had even less of a clue that there were LOONS on the lake.  I mean, besides myself.  The bird in the lower left is a Common Loon in nonbreeding plumage.  I didn't know there was a different color form.  This is a top ten life lister for me, so I am absolutely thrilled I saw it.  I literally thought it was a weird gull at the time. I'm uncertain at this point if I shall sleep tonight. Walking on down the trail, I heard a rustling at my feet, and suddenly something struck at my boot and missed, before recurling...