The Wild Land of Lincoln: Car-bon-da-le! (An Eagle, A Tower, and A Strange Mushroom, Too!)

I recently went down to Carbondale (which should be pronounced Car-bon-da-ley). After setting the business for which I had gone there, my family and I went off to a nearby lakeside park to eat lunch. This Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) decided to watch us for a bit:

I misidentified a cormorant, too, (I think?), which you can read about in my last post, here. Then I found a Midland Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon pleuralis) (I think?), which is a new subspecies for me (I think?). I'm not too sure about any of this, except that this is a snake.

It's a beautiful specimen, I know that for certain!

After lunch, we went to Giant City State Park. This is a place you will likely see a LOT more in future, hopefully on less gray of a day in the future:

The sandstone cliffs are supposed to be laid out like a "Giant's City" by early settlers, hence the name.

Small water pools were everywhere after the recent rains.

At the time, some of the flowering trees were coming into bloom. I looked about vainly for salamanders, but none were forthcoming.

The water flowed down into rocky creeks, so unlike the muddy brown waterholes I'm used to:

Here and there, a Buttercup (Ranunculus sp.) lay golden in the grasses:

Along some other places, one of the most beautiful spring flowers in Illinois, the Blue-eyed Marys (Collinsia verna), flourished by the thousands. These are one of Illinois' few colorful annual plants, only living one year and blooming their heart out when they do it.

This marked the start of the divers Fern Rocks Nature Preserve. Obligatory fern-covered rocks:

Below, dozens of Illinois' best spring wildflowers bloomed, including this Squirrel Corn (Dicentra canadensis). (Wildflowers in Illinois generally have strange names, too!)

Little rivulets emerged from the cracks in the rock, streaming down the cliffs:

What's so fascinating about Fern Rocks is the frequency with which I find woodland species I don't see in my area, like these Pale Corydalis (Corydalis flavula), another annual plant:

Then I found this, a mushroom that escaped out of the Seventies. It was even brighter in real life!

My parents weren't dressed to go further on Trillium Trail, and I wasn't finding the rare French's Shooting Star plants that I was after, so we moved on to another trail, though not after another picture of Blue-eyed Marys, which I've never seen in my home county:

The French's Shooting Stars will have to wait for next year, I suppose.

The last stop of the day was at the "Giant City" itself, the Giant City trail.

Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) ( I told you, strange names!) was blooming all over the cliffsides, as was its wont. It's supposed to look like inflated pantaloons, and it was named by English settlers, I'm assuming to insult the Dutch.

Insult of a name or not, it's still one of my favorite spring flowers.

We soon stumbled into the namesake alleys of Giant City. The sandstone separates at right angles, and gives the place a real man-made feel that is only lost after being told what really happened.

While wandering about the alleys, I stumbled across this Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius), to complete a mostly unphotographed Woodpecker Shutout (all seven species of woodpeckers in Illinois seen and/or heard in one day):

Then my family found this strange nut, which I have not identified. I don't think it's a walnut, but I'm really not sure what it is. Any ideas?

The path looped up, and we went with it. I heard my first Louisiana Waterthrush, though it was too far off for a photo. I'm proud of that bird- I finally ID'd a warbler by song!

The path curved around again, leading us back to the parking lot. We wandered out, where I saw another Louisiana Waterthrush, again too far off for photos.