Best Views in Illinois!- Fults Hill Prairie Nature Preserve

Fults Hill Prairie was the second of the two preserves we visited on the Lincoln Land Environmental Club trip.  Fults Hill Prairie Nature Preserve is a 300-foot tall bluff (and you feel all 300 feet of elevation gained when hiking it, too!) overlooking the Mississippi River Valley and the adjacent Kidd Lake Marsh Nature Preserve (home to Illinois' northernmost population of Cottonmouths).  Speaking of venomous snakes, we found this... interesting?... warning posted on the rail of the stairs:

Both the habitat and the location of Fults Hill Prairie are in line with the habitat and range of the Timber Rattlesnake, essentially Illinois' only rattlesnake.  (There is one other species, the Massasauga, but it's so rare, don't even bother looking for it.)  I'm actually fairly disappointed not to find it, as it's a personal goal to find a venomous snake, especially a Timber Rattlesnake.  In addition to three possible species of venomous snake (Cottonmouths at the base of the bluffs, and Timber Rattlesnakes and Copperheads on the bluffs themselves), Fults Hill Prairie also has one of Illinois' few scorpion populations. All of these are shy and uncommon- we sure didn't see any, and I was looking!  Furthermore, the scorpions  (Common Striped Scorpions, far more common out West) are nonlethal and a state-listed species.  Be careful where you step!

Actually, while I'm listing cautions, there's a few more.  This is a spectacular place for views and nature, but not for little kids or pets, which cannot be trusted near the unguarded bluff edges.  You could quite easily fall to your death here, so don't be stupid.  Additionally, if you're out of shape even just a little bit (like me), you will not like the two hundred or so stairs to the top.  The trail is listed as extreme difficulty for a reason.  On the other hand, if you're from Colorado or something, it'll probably be quite easy, and if you're from Australia, it might even seem quite safe.  All things in perspective, I'm making this sound unnecessarily dangerous.  Fults Hill Prairie Nature Preserve is no walk in the park, (even if it is a walk in a park) but it is certainly worth visiting if you can handle it:

I think the above photograph makes a pretty good argument for why people visit, despite the risks.

Among the many flowers on the edge of the cliffs, I found these wild onion seedpods especially unique, as they likely belong to Cliff Onion (Allium stellatum), a species I've not seen before, but which is more common in the Ozarks and whose name seems quite appropriate!

Three or four overlooks made great places to stop along the ever-climbing trail.  We joked that the trail never seemed to stop going up.  We could see a few ducks in Kidd Lake Marsh:

Just overhead, the Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) used the air currents off the bluffs to propel themselves along.  When we appeared, they immediately began circling right over us.  I think they were curious as to what we were doing, up so high with them.

We found a few in nearby trees, where they watched us as we photographed them from across the first prairie we came to.  This short, narrow prairie, adjacent to the trail, led inland away from the bluffs.

I have to say, I like Turkey Vultures, but I don't care for their looks.  Still, that bald head is useful when digging into roadkill.  Thanks in part to roadkill, there are actually far more Turkey Vultures than when the European settlers first arrived. (The increase in the deer population since that era also helps, as carcasses like that of deer form a large part of this bird's diet.)

After watching the vultures for a bit, we continued down the trail into the woods. I decided to flip over a log, and at first there appeared to be nothing.  Then something wiggled, just below the surface:

It was my first-ever Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum), which is on the edge of its range here, though it's far more common in the Shawnee Hills.

I had just learned about these salamanders in Vertebrate Zoology, so it was a bit of a surprise to me to see one, especially in a place where I had been expecting scorpions.  This salamander was in upland, fairly dry woods on the edge of a hill prairie.  It's not exactly the best spot to find a salamander.

Here, the salamander decides to burrow through my hand.  This particular species belongs to a group known as the mole salamanders for their digging habits.   This group of  salamanders is perhaps the most common species in central Illinois, though in the Shawnee Hills and far eastern Illinois they are outnumbered by lungless salamanders, at least in theory.  In practice, this single week has produced more salamanders for me in my life than any other week.

After a couple minutes, we released the salamander back into its burrow, where it disappeared.

We then moved on, and I found a fern, or two...

This is the Bronze Southern Grape Fern (Botrychium dissectum obliquum) so called because its leaves are bronze in winter, and because its sporangia (not flowers) looked like grapes to someone:

I then found a few more, and then several more, and then realized there were a few hundred:

I'd only just discovered this species for the first time earlier this year, so I was quite surprised!

In addition to the hundreds of normal, "Bronze" Southern Grape Ferns, we also found a couple dozen of the "Cutleaf" Southern Grape Ferns (Botrychium dissectum dissectum), considered a different subspecies, and one I had only discovered at Lincoln Memorial Gardens the previous week!:

We eventually  made our way out of the fern-filled woods, and into a larger hill prairie.  I spotted my first ever Western Ribbon Snake (identified by its small head) on the side of the path, although it made a swift escape before I could even get a photo of it.  This small strip of Illinois is some of the only habitat in the state for a few Ozark snakes, including the Coachwhip and the Prairie Ratsnake, but we didn't find any more snakes.  Still, any new snake species is great!

Speaking of great, the cliffs adjacent to this prairie had some of the finest views I've ever seen.

It may look like I'm flying to get this picture, but actually the cliffs swing outward at this point.   This is one of those areas where I warn you not to be stupid, as you are on top of high cliffs.  It's absolutely beautiful, and you can see for miles, however, so just sit near the edge and enjoy the view.

While near the rocky edge, I discovered a few things:

This is Rose Verbena (Glandularia canadensis), a new plant for me, in a way.  Garden Verbena plants are hybrids involving this species and a few others, so in a way I've actually grown it in my garden.

I found this gall on an Eastern Red-cedar (Juniperus virginiana), a coniferous tree found commonly on the edge of these bluffs, and seen in several previous photos.

Overhead, several more Turkey Vultures went by, but mixed in with them were a few Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) like this one above.  I suspect this might be a good spot for hawkwatching, especially a few weeks back in September when large numbers of Broad-winged Hawks were migrating southwards along the Mississsippi River.

The most colorful plant, meanwhile, was this goldenrod species (Solidago sp.) on the edge of the cliff.  The bright yellow of this plant popped on the gravelly cliff edge.

We lingered on the precipice for a few minutes, before retracing our steps back to the end of the prairie, where the trail led down a steep, rock-covered slope to the parking lot.  With all the large, flat stones available, we began turning them over, in a hunt for whatever we could find.

Under every other rock seemed to be a millipede of some sort or another.  The one above, with its brown and orange coloration and unusually flat body, seemed to be the most interesting of them all.

Under one rock, I found this old friend.  The cosmetid harvestman (Vonones ornata) is one of the stranger-looking arthropods I've seen.  It is a species of harvestman or daddy longlegs, but with short legs and a penchant for dry, open woodland edges along hill prairies, it would seem.

For no explicable reason, knowing that this is a harvestman and not a spider made me able to hold it without a care.  Perhaps this is the way to break my fear of spiders?  Either way, it was one last unusual sight to see for a great trip that I will be making again.  If you feel up to the challenge, I dare you to visit Fults Hill Prairie as well.